TOOL WEAR AND TOOL LIFE
Tool Wear
Introduction to Tool Wear: Tool Wear is a term that describes the
gradual failure of a cutting tool due to its operation.
• A cutting tool is ground with various angles to perform cutting
operation efficiently & effectively on different materials & in
different situations of varying speed, depth & feed of cut
• Under regular operation, the tool wears out gradually leading to
changes in the angles ground on the cutting tool, which in turn
ceases to tool to function satisfactorily
• A very short tool life is not economical, as tool grinding & tool
replacement increases the cot of machining and in-turn increases the
cost of the product
• Tool wear cannot be avoided, but under suitable operating
conditions it can be minimized 1
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Conditions of Cutting Tool
a) high localized stresses at the tip of the tool
b) high temperatures, especially along the rake face
c) sliding of the chip along the rake face
d) sliding of the tool along the newly cut workpiece surface
These condition leads to Tool Wear:
These conditions induce tool wear, which is a major consideration in
all machining operations. Tool wear adversely affects tool life, the
quality of the machined surface and its dimensional accuracy, and,
consequently, the economics of cutting operations. Wear is a gradual
process. The rate of tool wear depends on tool and workpiece
materials, tool geometry, process parameters such as speed, feed and
depth of cut, cutting fluids, and the characteristics of the machine tool.
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Modes of Tool Wear
There are 3 possible ways a cutting tool can fail in
machining:
• 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 (Mechanical Chipping)
• 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
• 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
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Modes of Tool Wear
Fracture Wear
Temperature Wear
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Tool Wear/Gradual Wear
Gradual Wear/Tool Wear can be classified into:
• Crater Wear: It consists of a cavity in the rake face of the tool
that forms and grows from the action of the chip sliding against the
surface. High stresses and temperatures characterize the tool–chip
contact interface, contributing to the wearing action. The crater can
be measured either by its depth or its area
• Flank Wear: Flank wear occurs on the relief (flank) face of the tool.
It generally is attributed to rubbing of the tool along the machined
surface, thereby causing adhesive or abrasive wear and high
temperatures, which adversely affect tool-material properties
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Tool Wear/Gradual Wear
Crater Wear
Flank Wear
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Tool Wear Mechanism
• 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. 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.
• Oxidation/Corrosion: Oxidation is the result of a chemical reaction b/w the tool
surface & surrounding oxygen at high temperatures. During metal cutting, the high
temperatures generated at the tool-work interface causes oxidation of carbide in the
cutting tool, forming a layer on tool surface. This layer is removed during
,machining process by abrasion, another layer is formed and it repeats 7
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Tool Life
Tool life is the time duration a tool can be reliably used for cutting
before it must be discarded or re-ground. The life of the cutting tool is
one of the most important economic considerations in metal cutting.
Hence the tool must be utilized efficiently to the maximum possible
extent before it can be ground or discarded, because tool grinding or
replacement costs are very high. The life of the tool is affected by
various parameters.
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Parameters affecting Tool Wear
• Cutting speed: Cutting speed has the greatest influence on tool life.
As the cutting speed increases the temperature also rises. The heat is
more concentrated on the tool than on the work and the hardness of
the cutting tool changes so the relative increase in the hardness of
the work accelerates the abrasive action. The criterion of the wear is
dependent on the cutting speed because the predominant wear may
be wear for flank or crater if cutting speed is increased.
• Feed and depth of cut: The tool life is influenced by the feed rate
also. With a fine feed the area of chip passing over the tool face is
greater than that of coarse feed for a given volume of metal removal.
• Tool Geometry: The tool life is also affected by tool geometry. A
tool with large rake angle becomes weak as a large rake reduces the
tool cross-section and the amount of metal to absorb the heat.
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• Tool material: Physical and chemical properties of work material
influence tool life by affecting form stability and rate of wear of
tool.
• Cutting fluid: It reduces the coefficient of friction at the chip tool
interface and increases tool life.
• Type of workpiece material: work pieces with greater hardness
require greater cutting forces leading to greater power consumption,
tool wear increases with greater forces thereby reducing the life of
cutting tool. Ductile materials deform easily, and low cutting forces
are needed, thus tool wear reduces
• Nature of cutting: Tool life is more in case of continuous cutting
when compared to intermitted type of cutting where the cutting edge
of the tool will not be in continuous contact with the work surface,
intermittent cutting causes regular impacts on the tool resulting in
failure of tool in short span. It must be ensured through all means to
have continuous type of cutting in order to enhance tool life
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Tool Wear v/s Cutting Time
As cutting proceeds, the various wear mechanisms result in increasing
levels of wear on the cutting tool. The general relationship of tool
wear versus cutting time is shown in Figure Although the relationship
shown is for flank wear, a similar relationship occurs for crater wear.
Three regions can usually be identified in the typical wear growth
curve. The first is the breaking period, in which the sharp cutting edge
wears rapidly at the beginning of its use. This first region occurs within
the first few minutes of cutting. The break-in period is followed by
wear that occurs at a fairly uniform rate. This is called the steady-state
wear region. In our figure, this region is pictured as a linear function of
time, although there are deviations from the straight line in actual
machining. Finally, wear reaches a level at which the wear rate begins
to accelerate. This marks the beginning of the failure region, in which
cutting temperatures are higher, and the general efficiency of the
machining process is reduced. If allowed to continue, the tool finally
fails by temperature failure 11
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Tool Wear v/s Cutting Time
Tool Wear v/s Cutting Time
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Tayler’s Tool Life Equation
• Cutting speed forms the most important parameter of all the variables (feed, depth
of cut, type of work material, coolant, etc.,), that affects the tool life
• F. W. Taylor, an American engineer developed a standard test to determine the
relationship b/w cutting speed & time the tool remains useful
• Test has been carried out for different combination of tool workpiece material; and
the flank wear of the tool under test has been measured
• It has been found that a practical amount of wear to measure before breakage was
0.75 mm (VB) for solid & brazed tips, and 1.25 mm (VB) for ceramic tools
• Tests have been carried out to determine the time taken to reach this amount of
wear at different cutting speeds
• The results have been plotted on a graph showing that a logarithmic relationship
existed b/w the cutting speed & the tool life (cutting time) an empirical relation
for tool life with cutting speed has been given by Taylor & is known as Taylor’s
tool life equation
VT n=C
where V = cutting speed, m/min (ft/min); T = tool life in min; and n and C are
parameters whose values depend on feed, depth of cut, work material, tooling
(material in particular), and the tool life criterion used. 13
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Tayler’s Tool Life Equation
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Tayler’s Tool Life Equation
• The value of index ‘n’ for most combinations of tool & workpiece
material can be found in a tabular form in good machining hand
books
• Table shows the range of values of ‘n’ for different combinations of
tool-workpieces materials
• The value of ‘n’ increases with increase in the refractoriness of the
tool material
Sl Tool Material Value of
No. ‘n’
1 HSS Tool 0.1-0.18
2 Uncoated Tungsten carbide (WC) 0.2-0.25
3 Ti-C or Ti-N Coated WC tools 0.3
4 Al2O3 Coated WC tools 0.4
5 Ceramic Tools 0.4-0.7
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Effect of Cutting Parameters on
Tool Life
Cutting Speed: Cutting speed refers to the relative surface
speed b/w the tool & the workpiece. The life of the tool
varies inversely as the cutting speed. As the cutting speed is
increases, wear rate increases, so same wear criterion is
reached in less time, i.e., tool life decreases with increasing
cutting speeds as shown in figure. The relation b/w the
cutting speed (V) and tool life (T) is given by Taylor’s
equation in the form VT n=C, where ‘n; is the exponential
term and ‘C’ the machining constant.
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Effect of Cutting Parameters on
Tool Life
VT n=C VT n=C
Effect of Speed on Tool Life 17
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Effect of Cutting Parameters on
Tool Life
Feed: Feed is the amount of material removed for each revolution, or
per-pass of the tool over the workpiece. Increasing feed rate increases
cutting temperature and flank wear thereby shortening the life of
cutting tool. However, effect on the tool life is minimal when compared
to cutting speed. The rate of feed given depends on the depth of cut.
Depth of cut: Depth of cut relates to the depth of cutting edge of the
tool engages the work. Small depths of cuts result in friction when
cutting hardened layer of work metal. Increasing the depth of cut will
increase the tool life over an increase in feed rate. But, as long as it is
practical & chip formation is satisfactory, it is better to choose a heavy
feed rate. Deeper cut is more advantageous than a heavy feed,
especially where longer tool life is needed.
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Effect of Cutting Parameters on
Tool Life
• The relationship b/w various parameters is given by the equation:
257
𝑉 = 𝑇0.19𝑓0.36𝑡0.8 m/min
Where V = cutting speed in m/min, T = Tool life in minutes, f = feed in
mm/min, t = depth of cut in mm.
For a given tool life, the relationship among the other variables as:
𝐶
𝑉= 𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑏
,
where C = machining constant and ‘a’ & ‘b’ are indices depending on
mechanical properties of workpiece material.
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Machinability
Machinability is a term that describes the ease with which a
material can be cut with a satisfactory surface finish, long
tool life, low force & power requirements and with low cost.
For example, low alloyed carbon steel is easier to cut
compared to austenitic stainless steels. Hence, the low alloy
carbon steel is said to have a comparatively better
machinability.
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Factors on which Machinability
•
Depends
Physical properties of work material, like tensile strength, hardness, etc., the more
the strength & hardness of the work material, the more difficult it is to cut
• Chemical composition of work material. For example, the higher the carbon
content in steel, the more difficult it is to cut. In alloy steels, the presence of
elements like chromium, nickel, molybdenum & vanadium, etc., can cause
decreased machinability. On the other hand, addition of lead & sulphur improves
machinability
• Microstructure of work material. For example, variation in the arrangement of
atoms of work material, heat treatment of metals may change crystal structure
which affects machinability
• Cutting conditions like tool geometry, use of cutting fluid, selecting proper speed,
feed & depth of cut affects machinability
• Rigidity of tool & work holding devices indirectly affects machinability. If not
secured rigidly, vibrations may develop causing the tool to have intermittent
cutting instead of continuous cutting resulting in decrease in the life of the cutting
tool. 23
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Machinability Index
Machinability index or Machinability Rating is a factor that attempts to
quantify the machinability of various materials. In other words, the
machinability of different materials is compared in terms of their
indexes as a percentage & given by the equation:
Machinability Index (%) = 𝑉 𝑖 = 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 20 min 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒
𝑉𝑠 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 20 min 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) determined machinability
ratings for a wide variety of materials by running turning tests at 180
surface feed per minute (sfpm). It then arbitrarily assigned 160 Brinell
B1112 steel a machinability rating of 100%. Any material with a
machinability rating less than 100% would be more difficult to
machine than the standard B1112 steel, and any material with a value
more than 100% would be comparatively easier.
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Tool Life for Minimum Production time
(Tmin) or Maximum Production Rate (Tmax)
The tool life for minimum production time or maximum production
rate is a function of the index ‘n’ as described in Taylor’s tool life
equation. The equation is of the form as follows:
1
𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥 = [ − 1]𝑇𝑐
𝑛
𝑇𝑐= tool changing Time
𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥= can be calculated using Taylor’s equation: VTn=C, where V =
Vm = Cutting speed for maximum production
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Tool Life for Maximum Efficiency
(Maximum Profit Rate)
The equations discussed w.r.t., the cutting speed & tool life for
minimum cost & maximum production do not throw any light w.r.t.,
maximizing the profit rate. The maximize profit rate depends on the
rate of production & on the margin b/w the selling price & cost or
production. For example, to achieve minimum cost, the cutting speed
has to be minimum, however the production rate may be too low to
maximize the profit rate. Thus the cutting speed for maximum
efficiency (Vmp) would be different from that for minimum cost &
maximum production rate.
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Tool Life for Maximum Efficiency
(Maximum Profit Rate)
Tool Life for Max Efficiency [Max Profit Rate]
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