CUTTING TOOLS

TECHNOLOGY
Chapter 3

Assignment No. 2
Describe Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL),
its configuration/mechanism, and benefits over
flood coolant.
Assignments should be hand-written only. Mutually
copied assignments will be cancelled.
Submission deadline: 10-OCT-2014

Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.

Tool Life
Tool Materials
Tool Geometry
Cutting Fluids

Cutting Tool Technology

Two principal aspects:
1. Tool material
2. Tool geometry

Three Modes of Tool

Failure
1. Fracture failure

Cutting force becomes excessive and/or

dynamic, leading to brittle fracture

2. Temperature failure

Cutting temperature is too high for the

tool material

3. Gradual wear

Gradual wearing of the cutting tool

Preferred Mode: Gradual

Wear
Fracture and temperature failures are premature
failures
Gradual wear is preferred because it leads to the
longest possible use of the tool
Gradual wear occurs at two locations on a tool:

Crater wear occurs on top rake face

Flank wear occurs on flank (side of tool)

Tool Wear

Diagram of worn cutting tool, showing the principal locations and

types of wear that occur.

Crater wear, (above), and flank

wear (right) on a cemented
carbide tool, as seen through a
toolmaker's microscope

Tool Wear vs. Time

Tool wear as a function of cutting time. Flank wear

(FW) is used here as the measure of tool wear.
Crater wear follows a similar growth curve.

Effect of Cutting Speed

Effect of cutting speed on tool flank wear (FW) for three

cutting speeds, using a tool life criterion of 0.50 mm flank
wear.

Tool Life vs. Cutting Speed

Natural loglog plot of cutting speed vs tool life.

Taylor Tool Life Equation

Relationship is credited to F. W. Taylor

vT C
n

where v = cutting speed; T =

tool life; and n and C are
parameters that depend on
feed, depth of cut, work
material, tooling material, and
the tool life criterion used
n is the slope of the plot
C is the intercept on the
speed axis at one minute tool
life

Tool Life Criteria in

Production
1. Complete failure of cutting edge
2. Visual inspection of flank wear (or crater
wear) by the machine operator
3. Fingernail test across cutting edge
4. Changes in sound emitted from operation
5. Chips become ribbon-like, stringy, and
difficult to dispose off
6. Degradation of surface finish
7. Increased power
8. Workpiece count
9. Cumulative cutting time

Tool Materials
Tool failure modes identify the important
properties that a tool material should possess:

Toughness to avoid fracture failure

Hot hardness ability to retain hardness
at high temperatures
Wear resistance hardness is the most
important property to resist abrasion

Hot Hardness

Typical hot hardness relationships for selected tool materials.

Plain carbon steel shows a rapid loss of hardness as
temperature increases. High speed steel is substantially
better, while cemented carbides and ceramics are
significantly harder at elevated temperatures.

Typical Values of n and C

Tool material

n C (m/min)

High speed steel:

Non-steel work 0.125
120
Steel work
0.125
70
Cemented carbide
Non-steel work
0.25
900
Steel work
0.25
500
Ceramic
Steel work
0.6
3000

C (ft/min)

350
200
2700
1500
10,000

High Speed Steel (HSS)

Highly alloyed tool steel capable of maintaining
hardness at elevated temperatures better
than high carbon and low alloy steels
One of the most important cutting tool
materials
Especially suited to applications involving
complicated tool geometries, such as drills,
taps, milling cutters, and broaches
Two basic types (AISI)

1. Tungstentype, designated T grades

2. Molybdenumtype, designated
Mgrades

High Speed Steel

Composition
Typical alloying ingredients:

Tungsten and/or Molybdenum

Chromium and Vanadium
Carbon, of course
Cobalt in some grades
Typical composition (Grade T1):
18% W, 4% Cr, 1% V, and 0.9% C

Cemented Carbides
Class of hard tool material based on tungsten
carbide (WC) using powder metallurgy
techniques with cobalt (Co) as the binder
Two basic types:

1. Nonsteel cutting grades - only WCCo

2. Steel cutting grades - TiC and TaC added
to WCCo

Cemented Carbides
General Properties
High compressive strength but lowtomoderate
tensile strength
High hardness (90 to 95 HRc)
Good hot hardness
Good wear resistance
High thermal conductivity
High elastic modulus 600 x 103 MPa
Toughness lower than high speed steel

Nonsteel Cutting Carbide

Grades
Used for nonferrous metals and gray cast iron
Properties determined by grain size and cobalt
content

As grain size increases, hardness and hot

hardness decrease, but toughness
increases
As cobalt content increases, toughness
improves at the expense of hardness and
wear resistance

Steel Cutting Carbide

Grades
Used for low carbon, stainless, and other
alloy steels
TiC and/or TaC are substituted for some
of the WC
Composition increases crater wear
resistance for steel cutting

But adversely affects flank wear

resistance for nonsteel cutting
applications

Cermets
Combinations of TiC, TiN, and titanium carbonitride
(TiCN), with nickel and/or molybdenum as binders.
Some chemistries are more complex
Applications: high speed finishing and
semifinishing of steels, stainless steels, and cast
irons

Higher speeds and lower feeds than

steelcutting carbide grades
Better finish achieved, often eliminating
need for grinding

Coated Carbides
Cemented carbide insert coated with one or
more thin layers of wear resistant
materials, such as TiC, TiN, and/or Al2O3
Coating applied by chemical vapor
deposition or physical vapor deposition
Coating thickness = 2.5 13 m (0.0001 to
0.0005 in)
Applications: cast irons and steels in
turning and milling operations
Best applied at high speeds where
dynamic force and thermal shock are
minimal

Coated Carbide Tool

Photomicrograph
of cross section of
multiple coatings
on cemented
carbide tool

Ceramics
Primarily finegrained Al2O3, pressed and sintered at
high pressures and temperatures into insert form
with no binder
Applications: high speed turning of cast iron and
steel
Not recommended for heavy interrupted cuts (e.g.
rough milling) due to low toughness
Al2O3 also widely used as an abrasive in grinding

Synthetic Diamonds
Sintered polycrystalline diamond (SPD) fabricated by sintering very finegrained
diamond crystals under high
temperatures and pressures into desired
shape with little or no binder
Usually applied as coating (0.5 mm thick)
on WC-Co insert
Applications: high speed machining of
nonferrous metals and abrasive
nonmetals such as fiberglass, graphite,
and wood

Not for steel cutting

Cubic Boron Nitride

Next to diamond, cubic boron nitride (cBN) is
hardest material known
Fabrication into cutting tool inserts same as SPD:
coatings on WCCo inserts
Applications: machining steel and nickelbased
alloys
SPD and cBN tools are expensive

(a) Seven elements of

singlepoint tool geometry;
and (b) the tool signature
convention that defines
the seven elements.

2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

M P Groover, Fundamentals
of Modern Manufacturing
3/e

Single-Point Tool
Geometry

Three ways of holding and presenting the cutting edge for

a singlepoint tool: (a) solid tool, typical of HSS; (b)
brazed insert, one way of holding a cemented carbide
insert; and (c) mechanically clamped insert, used for
cemented carbides, ceramics, and other very hard tool
materials.

2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

M P Groover, Fundamentals
of Modern Manufacturing
3/e

Holding the Tool

Common insert shapes: (a) round, (b) square, (c) rhombus

with two 80 point angles, (d) hexagon with three 80 point
angles, (e) triangle (equilateral), (f) rhombus with two 55
point angles, (g) rhombus with two 35 point angles. Also
shown are typical features of the geometry.

2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

M P Groover, Fundamentals
of Modern Manufacturing
3/e

Common Insert Shapes

A collection of metal
cutting inserts made
of various materials
2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
M P Groover, Fundamentals
of Modern Manufacturing
3/e

Twist Drill

The "business end" of a twist drill has two

cutting edges
The included angle of the point on a
conventional twist drill is 118
Margins are the outside tip of the flutes
and are always ground to the drill
diameter

Twist Drills
An essential feature of drilling is the variation in
cutting speed along the cutting edge. The speed is
maximum at the periphery, which generates the
cylindrical surface, and approaches zero near the
center-line of the drill where the cutting edge is
blended to a chisel shape.
Drills are slender, highly stressed tools, the flutes
of which have to be carefully designed to permit
chip flow while maintaining adequate strength.

Twist Drill Operation Problems

Chip removal

Flutes must provide sufficient clearance to

allow chips to be extracted from bottom of
hole during the cutting operation
Friction makes matters worse

Rubbing between outside diameter of drill

bit and newly formed hole
Delivery of cutting fluid to drill point to
reduce friction and heat is difficult because
chips are flowing in opposite direction

Cutting Fluids
Any liquid or gas applied directly to machining operation to
improve cutting performance
Two main problems addressed by cutting fluids:
1. Heat generation at shear and friction zones
2. Friction at toolchip and toolwork interfaces
Other functions and benefits:
. Wash away chips (e.g., grinding and milling)
. Reduce temperature of workpart for easier handling
. Improve dimensional stability of workpart

Cutting Fluid Functions

Cutting fluids can be classified according to
function:
Coolants - designed to reduce effects of heat in
machining
Lubricants - designed to reduce toolchip and
toolwork friction

Coolants
Water used as base in coolanttype cutting fluids
Most effective at high cutting speeds where heat
generation and high temperatures are problems
Most effective on tool materials that are most
susceptible to temperature failures (e.g., HSS)

Lubricants
Usually oilbased fluids
Most effective at lower cutting speeds
Also reduce temperature in the operation

Dry Machining
No cutting fluid is used
Avoids problems of cutting fluid contamination,
disposal, and filtration
Problems with dry machining:

Overheating of tool
Operating at lower cutting speeds and
production rates to prolong tool life
Absence of chip removal benefits of cutting
fluids in grinding and milling

Gear Cutting
Gear cutting is the process of creating a gear. The
most common processes include hobbing and
broaching; other processes include shaping,
forging, extruding, casting, and powder metallurgy.
Hobbing is a machining process for making gears,
on a hobbing machine,
The teeth or splines are progressively cut into the
workpiece by a series of cuts made by a cutting
tool called a hob.
Compared to other gear forming processes it is
relatively inexpensive but still quite accurate, thus
it is used for a broad range of parts and quantities

Hobbing

Hobbing Process
The two shafts are rotated at a
proportional ratio, which determines the
number of teeth on the blank; for
example, if the gear ratio is 40:1 the hob
rotates 40 times to each turn of the blank
The hob is then fed up into workpiece
until the correct tooth depth is obtained.
Finally the hob is fed into the workpiece
parallel to the blank's axis of rotation

Hobbing Process
Video Gear Hobbing

Hobbing uses a hobbing machine

with two non-parallel spindles,
one mounted with a blank
workpiece and the other with the
hob.
The angle between the hob's
spindle and the workpiece's
spindle varies, depending on the
type of product being produced.
If a spur gear is being produced,
then the hob is angled equal to
the helix angle of the hob; if a
helical gear is being produced
then the angle must be increased
by the same amount as the helix
angle of the helical gear

Hob
The hob is the cutter used to cut the
teeth into the workpiece.
It is cylindrical in shape with helical
cutting teeth. These teeth have
grooves that run the length of the
hob, which aid in cutting and chip
removal.
The cross-sectional shape of the hob
teeth are almost the same shape as
teeth of a rack gear that would be
used with the finished product

Problem No. 1
A machinability rating is to be determined for a new
work material using the cutting speed for a 60 min tool
life as the basis of comparison. For the base material
(B1112 steel), test data resulted in Taylor equation
parameter values of n = 0.29 and C = 500, where
speed is in m/min and tool life is 60min. For the new
material, the parameter values were n = 0.21 and C =
400. These results were obtained using cemented
carbide tooling. (a) Compute a machinability rating for
the new material. (b) Suppose the machinability
criterion were the cutting speed for a 10 min tool life
rather than the present criterion. Compute the
machinability rating for this case.
Solution: VTn =C
(a) Base material: V60 = 500/60.29 = 152.5 m/min
New material: V60 = 400/60.21 = 169.3 m/min

Problem No. 1
MR = 169.3/152.5 = 1.11
(b) Base material: V10 = 500/10.29 = 256.4 m/min
New material: V10 = 400/10.21 = 246.6 m/min
MR = 246.6/256.4 = 0.96