TOOL LIFE
By
Dr. Awais A. Khan
Associate Professor, MED, UET Lahore
TOOL FAILURES
Fracture failure. This mode of failure occurs when the cutting force at the
tool point becomes excessive, causing it to fail suddenly by brittle fracture.
2. Temperature failure. This failure occurs when the cutting temperature is
too high for the tool material, causing the material at the tool point to
soften, which leads to plastic deformation and loss of the sharp edge.
3. Gradual wear. Gradual wearing of the cutting edge causes loss of tool
shape, reduction in cutting efficiency, an acceleration of wearing as the tool
becomes heavily worn, and finally tool failure in a manner similar to a
temperature failure.
Manufacturing Technology
Tool Wear
Tools get worn out due to long term usage
Types of Tool Wear
Flank wear (VB)
It occurs on the relief face of the tool
and the side relief angle.
Crater wear (KT)
It occurs on the rake face of the tool.
Notch wear or Chipping (VN)
Breaking away of a small piece from the cutting edge of the tool
Manufacturing Technology
Tool Wear
Fig (a) Flank and crater wear in a cutting tool. tool moves to the left. (b) View of the rake of a turning tool,
showing nose radius R and crater wear pattern on the rake face of the tool c) View of the flank face of a
turning tool, sowing the average flank wear land VB and the depth-of-cut line (wear notch)
Tool Wear
(a) Crater Wear
(b) Flank wear on a carbide tool
MECHANISMS THAT CAUSE WEAR
Abrasion. This is a mechanical wearing action caused by hard particles in the work
material gouging and removing small portions of the tool. This abrasive action
occurs in both flank wear and crater wear; it is a significant cause of flank wear.
Adhesion. When two metals are forced into contact under high pressure and
temperature, adhesion or welding occur between them. These conditions are
present between the chip and the rake face of the tool. As the chip flows across the
tool, small particles of the tool are broken away from the surface, resulting in
attrition of the surface.
Diffusion. This is a process in which an exchange of atoms takes place across a close
contact boundary between two materials.
MECHANISMS THAT CAUSE WEAR
In the case of tool wear, diffusion occurs at the tool–chip boundary, causing the tool
surface to become depleted of the atoms responsible for its hardness. As this
process continues, the tool surface becomes more susceptible to abrasion and
adhesion. Diffusion is believed to be a principal mechanism of crater wear.
Chemical reactions. The high temperatures and clean surfaces at the tool–chip
interface in machining at high speeds can result in chemical reactions, in particular,
oxidation, on the rake face of the tool.
Plastic deformation. Another mechanism that contributes to tool wear is plastic
deformation of the cutting edge. The cutting forces acting on the cutting edge at
high temperature cause the edge to deform plastically. Plastic deformation
contributes mainly to flank wear.
TOOL LIFE
Tool life generally indicates, the amount of satisfactory performance or service
rendered by a fresh tool or a cutting point till it is declared failed.
Tool life is defined in two ways : •
(a) In R & D : Actual machining time (period) by which a fresh cutting tool
satisfactorily works after which it needs replacement or reconditioning
The modern tools hardly fail prematurely or abruptly by
mechanical breakage or rapid plastic deformation. Those fail mostly by
wearing process which systematically grow slowly with machining time. In
that case, tool life means the span of actual machining time by which a
fresh tool can work before attaining the specified limit of tool wear.
TOOL LIFE
Mostly
tool life is decided by the machining time till flank wear, VB reaches 0.3 m
m or crater wear, KT reaches 0.15 mm.
(b) In industries or shop floor : The length of time of satisfactory service or
amount of acceptable output provided by a fresh tool prior to it is required
to replace or recondition.
TOOL LIFE
For R & D purposes, tool life is always assessed
or expressed by span of machining time in minutes,
whereas, in industries besides machining time in minutes some other
means are also used to assess tool life, depending upon the situation,
such as
• no. of pieces of work machined
• total volume of material removed
• total length of cut.
TOOL LIFE
The various methods are : •
i) by loss of tool material in volume or weight, in one life time –This
method is crude and is generally applicable for critical tools like grinding
wheels.
ii) by grooving and indentation method – in this approximate method
wear depth is measured indirectly by the difference in length of the
groove or the indentation outside and inside the worn area
iii) using optical microscope fitted with micrometervery common and effective
method
• iv) using scanning electron microscope (SEM) -used generally, for detailed
study; both qualitative and quantitative •
Manufacturing Technology
Tool Life
Tool life represents the useful life of the tool, expressed generally in time units from
the start of cut to some end point defined by a failure criterion.
Tool Life Prediction
Taylor’s tool life equation predicts tool failure based on flank wear of the tool
Vt n C
where
V is the cutting speed, t is the tool life,
n is Taylor exponent.
n=0.125 for HSS
n=0.25 for Carbide
n=0.5 for Coated Carbide/Ceramic
C is a constant given for work piece material
TAYLOR’S TOOL LIFE EQUATION
Tool Life: Wear and
Failure:
Taylor tool life equation :
VT n C
V = cutting speed [m/minute]
T = time [minutes] taken to develop a certain wear
n = an exponent that generally depends on tool material (see above)
C = constant; depends on cutting conditions
note, magnitude of C = cutting speed at T = 1 min (can you show how?)
Also note: n, c : determined experimentally
Problem
Calculate the values of C and n in the plot of following figure using Taylor’s Tool Life
Equation.
Problem
If in turning of a steel rod by a given cutting tool (material and geometry)
at a given machining condition (so and t) under a
given environment (cutting fluid application), the tool life
decreases from 80 min to 20 min. due to increase in cutting
velocity, VC from 60 m/min to 120 m/min., then at what
cutting velocity the life of that tool under the same condition
and environment will be 40 min.?
