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Lecture 4
Machinability
2 Definition

 Machinability is defined as the case with which the metal is cut satisfactorily
for the purpose intended. In general, good machinability is associated with the
removal of material with moderate forces, the formation of rather small chips,
not excessive tool abrasion and good surface finish. It is commonly observed
that high hardness gives poor machinability because of high temperature
power consumption and high tool wear. Machinability depends upon:
i. Chemical composition of workpiece material
ii. Micro-structure of workpiece material
iii. Physical properties such as strength, ductility and hardness of workpiece
material
iv. Rigidity of tool and workpiece holding devices
v. Cutting conditions such as cutting speed, feed etc.
3 Various criteria for machinability

a) Based on tool life: The material which gives more life to the cutting tool,
is said to have higher machinability, as compared to the material which
gives less tool life.
b) Criterion based on cutting forces: The higher the cutting force induced
under a set of cutting conditions during the machining of a material, the
lower is its machinability.
c) Criterion based on surface finish: The superior the surface finish
obtained on a material, under a given set of conditions, the better is its
machinability.
d) Criterion based on heat generation during cutting: If the heat generated
during machining of a material is more, it is said to possess less
machinability.
4 Machinabiity index

 It is used to compare the machinability of different metals. The rated

machinability of two or more metals may vary for different processes of
cutting such as heavy turning, light turning, forming, milling etc.
I = Machinability index
Vi = Cutting speed of metal investigated for 20 minutes tool life.
Vs = Cutting speed of a standard steel for 20 minutes tool life.
I (%) =
Free cutting steel having carbon 0.13, manganese 0.06 to 1.1 and sulphur
0.08 to 0.03 percent is taken as standard steel. Its machining index is
relatively fixed at 100 percent.
5 Machinability rating of some steels
6 Tool failure

During cutting the tool should perform satisfactorily. Unsatisfactory performance

of the cutting tool indicates tool failure. Tool failure may occur because of failure
of the geometry of cutting tool or it results from tool wear.
The following drawbacks are observed when the tool failure takes place:
i. The tool ceases to produce the workpiece according to the required
dimensions.
ii. The tool gets over heated.
iii. Excessive surface roughness is observed.
iv. Tool failure leads to increased cutting forces and therefore power requirement
will be more
v. Sometimes, a burnishing band will appear on the workpiece if the tool is
failing.
7 Tool failure classification

The failure of tool may be classified in three general ways as follows:

i. Temperature failure
ii. Rupture of tool point
iii. Gradual wear at the tool point

Temperature failure:
Heat produced during metal cutting is mainly responsible for tool failure. When
the temperature during cutting becomes very high, the tool becomes too soft to
function properly and failure ensues. This type of failure occurs quite rapidly, is
the frequently accompanied by sparkling and is easily recognized. The various
tool materials can withstand various heating temperature before they loose the
required hardness.
 8 Rupture of tool point

Because of high hardness required the tip of a cutting tool

is mechanically weak and brittle. These type of tool failure
For a given tool material the
is commonly observed in carbide and diamond tipped
tendency towards a rupture
tools. This failure takes place when the cutting forces
failure can be diminished
exceed the critical value for a given tool when small
either by reducing the casual
portions of the cutting edge begin to chip off or the entire
forces, redirecting them or
tip may break away in one piece.
redesigning the tool to
withstand them.

The figure shows how a

redision of tool from a to b
redirects the resultant force P
so that the tendency for
rupture is removed. The forces
can also be reduced by
increasing the rigidity of tool
and workholder.
9 Gradual wear at the tool point

When a tool has been in use for some time, wear becomes evident. In metal
cutting main causes of wear are as follows:
A. Adhesion wear: In metal cutting junctions between the chip and tool materials
are formed as part of friction mechanism. When these junctions are fractured,
small fragments of tool material can be torn out and carried away on the
underside of the chip or on the new workpiece surface.
B. Abrasion wear: This type of wear takes place when hard particles on the
under side of the chip pass over the tool face and remove total material by
mechanical action.
C. Diffusion wear: This type of wear takes place due to diffusion process where
atoms in a metallic crystal lattice move from a region of high atomic
concentration to one of low concentration. During cutting when temperature
is quite high at interface tool and workpiece the atoms move from tool
material to workpiece material and thus weaken the surface structure of the
tool.
10 Types of wear

Tool wear may be attributed to two basic causes:

i. The plowing action of carbides and other hard constutients in the matrix
of metal cut.
ii. Wear which results from instantaneous welds which are formed when
the finished surface slides across a tool face.

The most prevalent type of wear are as follows:

a. Crater wear
b. Flank wear
11 Types of wear

 Crater wear: The major tendency for wear is

due to the abrasion between the chip and the
face of the tool, a short distance from the
cutting edge. This results in a crater being
formed in the tool face.
 Flank wear: The second area in which wear
takes place is on the flank be;ow the cutting
edge resulting from the abrasive contact with
the machined surface. The worn region at the
flank is called wear land.
In machining ductile metals, tool wear will proceed
in a more complex manner. Flank wear
predominates at low cutting speeds when there is
no built up edge because of sliding speed being
higher on the flank than that of the chip on the
tool face.
12 Wear and time curve
Both flank and crater wear take place when feed is more
than 0.15 mm/rev, at low and moderate speeds. The
dependence of wear on the time of tool operation is
expressed by the wear and time curve.

Section A is wear in period (initial wear) during which

heavy abrasion of the most salient parts of the surface
occurs. Smoother friction surfaces will produce lower rate
of wear. Section B is the period of normal wear. Section C is
the period of rapid (destructive wear).

Period of rapid wear is not observed with carbide tipped

tool because of the high hardness of cemented carbides
and very slight reduction in hardness at high
temperatures.

The use of cutting fluids, reduces tool wear because it

ceases chip formation, reduces friction force on sliding
surface and lowers the temperature to which the tool is
13 Tool failure dependence

Tool failure depends on the following factors.

1) The normal force between the sliding surfaces and the apparent area of contact.
2) Temperature at the tool point because hardness is influenced by temperature
3) Relative hardness of the chip and the tool.
4) The composition and structure of metal to be cut.
5) Cutting conditions such as (i) cutting fluid used (ii) feed (iii) depth of cut
(iv) cutting speed.
14 Cutting tool wear

Tool wear at very low cutting speeds is due to the plowing action of the built
up edge debris and other hard particles in the matrix such as carbides while
at high cutting speeds the wear takes place due to transfer resulting from
temperature welds as well as the plowing action of hard particles.
15 Tool failure process

 A cutting tool may fail by the following processes.

• Plastic • Mechanical • Gradual wear

deformation breakage
16 Tool failure process

I. Plastic deformation: Due to plastic deformation the form of the tool is

lost. Plastic deformation takes place because of the following reasons:
a) High temperature
b) High stresses
The maximum amount of bulging and the depression of the cutting edge
are taken as index for degree of plastic deformation as shown in the figure
below.
17 Tool failure process

(ii) Mechanical Breakage:

A cutting tool gets broken due to following factors:
a. Large cutting force
b. By developing fatigue cracks under chatter conditions
c. Weak tool material

(iii) Gradual wear:

It is the result of interaction between the workpiece and the tool material.
18 Tool life

 The tool life is defined as the time elapsed between two successive grindings of
the tool. During this period, the tool cuts efficiently and effectively.
There are a number of ways of expressive tool life such as:
I. Volume of metal removed
II. Number of workpieces machined
III. Time unit
It is most commonly expressed in minutes.
Expected tool life is as follows:
a) Cast iron steel = 124 minutes
b) High speed steel tool = 60 to 120 minutes
c) Cemented carbides tool = 420 to 480 minutes
19 Tool life

 In order that a cutting tool should have long life it is essential that the
face of the tool should be as smooth as possible. A blunt tool should not
be used as it causes the following defects.

1) It produces poor surface finish

2) It produces vibrations during machining
3) It increases the cutting forces and therefore power consumption is
increased.
4) Tool gets over heated.
20 Tool life

Tool life is said to be over when any one or more of the following appear:

a. Spoiled cutting edge

b. Presence of chatter marks on the workpiece
c. Sudden increase in power
d. Overheating due to friction
e. Poor surface finish
f. Dimensional unstability
21 Surface treatment of tools

 Steel tools are given surface treatment to reduce sliding friction and to
increase abrasion resistance by physically and chemically altering the surface
of the tool. The various surface treatment processes are as follows:
I. Nitriding: In this surface treatment, a surface layer of about 0.025 mm thick
that is high in complex iron nitrides can be produced by treating a finished
tool in a NaCN-kCN bath at about 1000⁰F for about ½ an hour. The surface
treatment is generally used for tools taking light cuts such as broaching bits
and taps.
II. Lapping and super finishing: These surface treatment processes produce a
fine finish of the order of 1 to 2 microns. Tools with such surface finishes are
found to perform better.
III. Chromium plating: By this surface treatment process a layer of about 0.003
mm can be produced on tool surface,
22 Surface treatment of tools

(iv) Carburizing: By this surface treatment process, a high carbon layer of nearly
1 mm thick can be produced by heating the tool surrounded by charcoal at
1950⁰F for about 30 minutes. The layer so produced is very hard. However the
layer is brittle and the tool performance is not much improved.
(v) Oxidation: In this surface treatment process, the tool is treated in an aqueous
bath of NaOH and NaNO2 at 285⁰F from 5 to 10 minutes. The layer of black
Fe3O4 so produced is nearly 0.005 mm thick and provides a lower coefficient of
friction because the oxide layer can hold oil better than polished surface.
During the last 3 decades surface enhancement technologies like (a) Chemical
vapor deposition (b) Physical vapor deposition (c) Carbide sputtering etc. Have
been commonly used.
These processes increase tool life and enhance performance of cutting tools
However these surface treatment methods are quite expensive.
23 Surface treatment of tools

A low cost high performance surface enhancement technology for improving

performance and extending the life of cutting tool is molybdenum. Di sulphide (MOS 2)
spray coating has a very low coefficient of friction and high wear resistance. While
applying the MOS2 spray coating following method should be adopted.
i. Surface to which coating is to be applied should be absolutely clean and dry. Oil
and grease films should be removed by solvent cleaning.
ii. Burrs on the cutting edges should be removed.
iii. Apply a single coat of spray from spray bottle uniformly so that the entire cutting
portion of the tool is coated. The film thickness is nearly 2 to 4 microns. Allow the
tool to cure MOS2 film at ambient temperature for about 30 minutes.
iv. Whenever the tool is reground, this produce should be repeated for recoating of
tool.
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