# Tool wear

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Tool wear is the gradual failure of cutting tools due to regular operation. Tools affected include tipped tools, tool bits, and drill bits that are used with machine tools.

## Contents

Types of wear include:

• flank wear in which the portion of the tool in contact with the finished part erodes. Can be described using the Tool Life Expectancy equation.
• crater wear in which contact with chips erodes the rake face. This is somewhat normal for tool wear, and does not seriously degrade the use of a tool until it becomes serious enough to cause a cutting edge failure. Can be caused by spindle speed that is too low or a feed rate that is too high. In orthogonal cutting this typically occurs where the tool temperature is highest. Crater wear occurs approximately at a height equalling the cutting depth of the material. Crater wear depth (t0) = cutting depth
• Notch wear which happens on both the insert rake and flank face along the depth of cut line causing localised damage to it primarily due to pressure welding of the chips. The chips literally get welded to the insert.
• built-up edge in which material being machined builds up on the cutting edge. Some materials (notably aluminium and copper) have a tendency to anneal themselves to the cutting edge of a tool. It occurs most frequently on softer metals, with a lower melting point. It can be prevented by increasing cutting speeds and using lubricant. When drilling it can be noticed as alternating dark and shiny rings.
• glazing occurs on grinding wheels, and occurs when the exposed abrasive becomes dulled. It is noticeable as a shine while the wheel is in motion.
• edge wear, in drills, refers to wear to the outer edge of a drill bit around the cutting face caused by excessive cutting speed. It extends down the drill flutes, and requires a large volume of material to be removed from the drill bit before it can be corrected.
• Edge Rounding, Edge rounding refers to the radius increase of cutting edge of the tool due to material removal. Edge rounding combines wear contribution from both flank face and rake face. Edge rounding is mostly found in machining of composite, i.e. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP), hybrid composite, metal-CFRP stack like CFRP-Ti stack. Edge rounding is reported for both hard ceramic-coated, and uncoated cutting tool. [1] [2]

## Effects of tool wear

Some general effects of tool wear include:

• increased cutting forces
• increased cutting temperatures
• poor surface finish
• decreased accuracy of finished part
• May lead to tool breakage
• Causes change in tool geometry

Reduction in tool wear can be accomplished by using lubricants and coolants while machining. These reduce friction and temperature, thus reducing the tool wear.

A more general form of the equation is

${\displaystyle V_{c}T^{n}\times D^{x}S^{y}=C}$

where

• ${\displaystyle V_{c}}$=cutting speed
• T=tool life
• D=depth of cut
• S=feed rate
• x and y are determined experimentally
• n and C are constants found by experimentation or published data; they are properties of tool material, workpiece and feed rate.

## Temperature considerations

At high temperature zones crater wear occurs. The highest temperature of the tool can exceed 700 °C and occurs at the rake face whereas the lowest temperature can be 500 °C or lower depending on the tool...

## Energy considerations

Energy comes in the form of heat from tool friction. It is a reasonable assumption that 80% of energy from cutting is carried away in the chip. If not for this the workpiece and the tool would be much hotter than what is experienced. The tool and the workpiece each carry approximately 10% of the energy. The percent of energy carried away in the chip increases as the speed of the cutting operation increases. This somewhat offsets the tool wear from increased cutting speeds. In fact, if not for the energy taken away in the chip increasing as cutting speed is increased; the tool would wear more quickly than is found.

## Multi-criteria of machining operation

Malakooti and Deviprasad (1989) introduced the multi-criteria metal cutting problem where the criteria could be cost per part, production time per part, and quality of surface. Also, Malakooti et al. (1990) proposed a method to rank the materials in terms of machinability. Malakooti (2013) presents a comprehensive discussion about tool life and its multi-criteria problem. As an example objectives can be minimizing of Total cost (which can be measured by the total cost of replacing all tools during a production period), maximizing of Productivity (which can be measured by the total number of parts produced per period), and maximizing of quality of cutting.

## Related Research Articles

Electrical discharge machining (EDM), also known as spark machining, spark eroding, die sinking, wire burning or wire erosion, is a metal fabrication process whereby a desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges (sparks). Material is removed from the work piece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the tool or electrode, while the other is called the workpiece-electrode, or work piece. The process depends upon the tool and work piece not making physical contact.

Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges down to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry.

Machining is a process in which a metal is cut into a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme, controlled material removal, are today collectively known as subtractive manufacturing, in distinction from processes of controlled material addition, which are known as additive manufacturing. Exactly what the "controlled" part of the definition implies can vary, but it almost always implies the use of machine tools.

Drill bits are cutting tools used to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.

Drilling is a cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled.

A reamer is a type of rotary cutting tool used in metalworking. Precision reamers are designed to enlarge the size of a previously formed hole by a small amount but with a high degree of accuracy to leave smooth sides. There are also non-precision reamers which are used for more basic enlargement of holes or for removing burrs. The process of enlarging the hole is called reaming. There are many different types of reamer and they may be designed for use as a hand tool or in a machine tool, such as a milling machine or drill press.

A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is one of power tools or machine tools used for grinding, it is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece via shear deformation.

The phrase speeds and feeds or feeds and speeds refers to two separate velocities in machine tool practice, cutting speed and feed rate. They are often considered as a pair because of their combined effect on the cutting process. Each, however, can also be considered and analyzed in its own right.

A tool bit is a non-rotary cutting tool used in metal lathes, shapers, and planers. Such cutters are also often referred to by the set-phrase name of single-point cutting tool, as distinguished from other cutting tools such as a saw or water jet cutter. The cutting edge is ground to suit a particular machining operation and may be resharpened or reshaped as needed. The ground tool bit is held rigidly by a tool holder while it is cutting.

Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates.

Milling cutters are cutting tools typically used in milling machines or machining centres to perform milling operations. They remove material by their movement within the machine or directly from the cutter's shape.

In machining, boring is the process of enlarging a hole that has already been drilled by means of a single-point cutting tool, such as in boring a gun barrel or an engine cylinder. Boring is used to achieve greater accuracy of the diameter of a hole, and can be used to cut a tapered hole. Boring can be viewed as the internal-diameter counterpart to turning, which cuts external diameters.

In the context of machining, a cutting tool or cutter is any tool that is used to remove some material from the work piece by means of shear deformation. Cutting may be accomplished by single-point or multipoint tools. Single-point tools are used in turning, shaping, planing and similar operations, and remove material by means of one cutting edge. Milling and drilling tools are often multipoint tools. It is a body having teeth or cutting edges on it. Grinding tools are also multipoint tools. Each grain of abrasive functions as a microscopic single-point cutting edge, and shears a tiny chip.

A diamond tool is a cutting tool with diamond grains fixed on the functional parts of the tool via a bonding material or another method. As diamond is a superhard material, diamond tools have many advantages as compared with tools made with common abrasives such as corundum and silicon carbide.

In single point cutting of metals, a built up edge (BUE) is an accumulation of material against the rake face, that seizes to the tool tip, separating it from the chip.

Machinability is the ease with which a metal can be cut (machined) permitting the removal of the material with a satisfactory finish at low cost. Materials with good machinability require little power to cut, can be cut quickly, easily obtain a good finish, and do not wear the tooling much. The factors that typically improve a material's performance often degrade its machinability. Therefore, to manufacture components economically, engineers are challenged to find ways to improve machinability without harming performance.

Burnishing is the plastic deformation of a surface due to sliding contact with another object. It smooths the surface and makes it shinier. Burnishing may occur on any sliding surface if the contact stress locally exceeds the yield strength of the material. The phenomenon can occur both unintentionally as a failure mode, and intentionally as part of a manufacturing process. It is a squeezing operation under cold working.

Machining vibrations, also called chatter, correspond to the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool. The vibrations result in waves on the machined surface. This affects typical machining processes, such as turning, milling and drilling, and atypical machining processes, such as grinding.

Arbor milling is a cutting process which removes material via a multi-toothed cutter. An arbor mill is a type of milling machine characterized by its ability to rapidly remove material from a variety of materials. This milling process is not only rapid but also versatile.

Rake angle is a parameter used in various cutting and machining processes, describing the angle of the cutting face relative to the work. There are three types of rake angles: positive, zero or neutral, and negative.

## References

1. . Swan et al (September 7, 2018). "Tool Wear of Advanced Coated Tools in Drilling of CFRP." ASME. J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. November 2018; 140(11): 111018. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4040916
2. Nguyen, Dinh et al. "Tool Wear of Superhard Ceramic Coated Tools in Drilling of CFRP/Ti Stacks." Proceedings of the ASME 2019 14th International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference. Volume 2: Processes; Materials. Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. June 10–14, 2019. V002T03A089. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/MSEC2019-2843
• Malakooti, B; Deviprasad, J (1989). "An Interactive Multiple Criteria Approach for Parameter Selection in Metal Cutting". Operations Research 37 (5): 805-818.
• S. Kalpakjian and S.R. Schmidt. Manufacturing Engineering and Technology. 2000, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
• S. Kalpakjian and S.R. Schmidt. Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials. 2002, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
• K. Kadirgama et al. 2011, "Tool Life and Wear Mechanism" "http://umpir.ump.edu.my/2230/"
• Malakooti, B. (2013). Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives. John Wiley & Sons
• Malakooti, B., Wang, J., & Tandler, E. C. (1990). "A sensor-based accelerated approach for multi-attribute machinability and tool life evaluation".The International Journal of Production Research, 28(12), 2373-2392.