Tool Wear, Life and Machinability

Tool Wear, Tool Life

&
Machinability

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 Tool Wear
Consequences of Tool Wear:
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

• Large power consumption

• Affects the dimensional accuracy

• Deteriorated Surface Finish

• Overheating of the tool

• Shortens the tool life

• Generates Chatter vibrations

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 Why Tool Wears?
Failure of the Cutting Tool may be due to:
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

a) Plastic deformation of the tool due to high

temperature and large stress Hot Hardness
b) Mechanical breakage of the tool due to
large force and insufficient strength and
toughness Toughness
c) Blunting of the cutting tool through a
process of gradual wear. Wear Resistance

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 Three Modes of Tool Failure
Excessive stress and mechanical chipping
 Cutting force becomes excessive and/or
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

dynamic, leading to brittle fracture

Thermal cracking and softening
 Cutting temperature is too high for the
tool material losing its hardness
Gradual wear
 Sliding of the chip along the rake face
 Sliding of the tool along the newly cut
work surface
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 Preferred Mode of Tool Failure
 Fracture and temperature failures are
premature failures
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

 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)

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Locations of Tool Wear

 Gradual wear occurs at two locations

on a tool:

 Crater wear – occurs on top of the

rake face
 Flank wear – occurs on flank (side
of the tool)

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Sources of Gradual Wear

Fig.: Sources of heat

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Types of Wear

Fig.: Worn Cutting Tool – Principal Locations and

Types of Wear
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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Crater Wear

Fig.: Crater Wear, as seen through Toolmaker’s Microscope

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Crater Wear

Tool
Failure

Fig.: Tool Wear by Crater Wearing

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 Tool wear, Life and Machinability Crater Wear

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Crater Wear

Fig.: Temperature distribution along tool-chip contact length

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Flank Wear

Fig.: Flank Wear, as seen through a Toolmaker’s Microscope

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 Allowable Wear Land

• ISO Tool Life Criteria:

Tool wear, Life and Machinability

1. Average flank wear , 0.3 mm

2. Maximum flank wear, 0.6 mm
3. Depth of crater wear
KT: 0.06mm + (0.3 x feed)
4. Catastrophic Failure

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 Major Mechanisms of Tool Wear

Abrasive Wear
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

Adhesion Wear

Diffusion Wear

Fatigue Wear

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 Mechanisms of Tool Wear
Abrasive Wear: abrasive action of hard
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

particles of work material

(Dominant cause of flank wear)

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 Mechanisms of Tool Wear
Adhesion Wear: high pressure localized
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

fusion and rupturing

(Causes crater wear)

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 Mechanisms of Tool Wear
Diffusion Wear: Loss of hardening atoms
at tool-chip boundary
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

(Contributes to crater wear)

+Fe +W
+Cr
+V

+Fe

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 Mechanisms of Tool Wear
Fatigue Wear: loading of asperities
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

between work and chip

(Causes crater wear)

Chip

Tool

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Temperature vs Crater Wear

Fig.: Relationship between rate of crater wear and

average tool-chip interface temperature

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 Minor Mechanisms of Tool Wear

Oxide Wear: oxidation of tool material

Tool wear, Life and Machinability

at the elevated temperatures

Plastic deformation due to excessive

heat (contributes to flank wear)

Chemical decomposition through

localized chemical reactions

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Tool wear vs. Cutting time

Fig.: Tool Wear as a Function of Cutting Time

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 Measurement of Tool Wear
Direct Method:
– Optical method by microscope, etc.
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

(Tool Maker’s Microscope)

Indirect Methods:
– Force (dynamometer)
– Power (dynamometer)
– Temperature (thermocouple)
– Surface finish (Talysurf)
– Vibration (Vibration pick-up)
– Acoustic Emission ((Acoustic emission sensor)
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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Tool Life

Length of cutting time that a tool can be

used before the flank wear reaches the
limiting width of flank wear.

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 Tool wear, Life and Machinability Tool Life Equation

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 n & C – Taylor’s Tool Life Equation
Tool Material n C
Plain Carbon tool Steel
Non-steel cutting 0.1 70
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

Steel cutting 0.1 20

High speed steel
Non-steel cutting 0.125 120
Steel cutting 0.125 70
Cemented Carbide
Non-steel cutting 0.25 900
Steel cutting 0.25 500
Cermet
Steel cutting 0.25 600
Cemented Carbide
Steel cutting 0.25 700
Ceramic
Steel cutting 0.6 3000
for turning at feed = 0.25 mm/rev; depth of cut = 2.5 mm
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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Other tool life equations

V = cutting speed, m/min; T = tool life, min;

d = depth of cut, mm; f = feed rate, mm/rev
K = a constant
n1 = exponent for feed (0.5 to 0.8)
n2 = exponent for depth of cut (0.2 to 0.4)
n3 = exponent for hardness (1.25)

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability Effect of Rake angle

Optimum
Range

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability
Effect of Clearance angle

Optimum
Range

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 Concept of Machinability
 It is generally applied to the machining
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

properties of work material

 It refers to material (work) response to
machining
 It is the ability of the work material to be
machined
 It indicates how easily and fast a
material can be machined

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 Quantifying Machinability
Machinability can be measured or
quantified mostly in terms of :
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

 TOOL LIFE which substantially

influences productivity and economy in
machining
 magnitude of CUTTING FORCES
which affects power consumption and
dimensional accuracy
 SURFACE FINISH which plays role on
performance and service life of the
product.
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 Machinability Rating

Machinability rating (MR) =

Tool wear, Life and Machinability

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Tool wear, Life and Machinability
Evaluating Machinability Rating

Fig. Machinability rating in terms of cutting velocity giving 60 min tool life.

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 Machinability - Defined
Keeping all such factors and
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

limitations in view, Machinability

can be tentatively defined as
“ability of being machined”
and more reasonably as

“ease of machining”
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 Machinability Characteristics
Ease of machining or machinability
characteristics of any tool-work pair is to be
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

judged by:
Good Machinability indicators
 cutting forces (less)
 tool wear (less)
 tool life (long)
 surface finish (good)
 cutting temperature (less)
 chip forms (uniform)
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 Influencing Parameters on Machinability
 properties of the work material
 cutting tool: material and geometry
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

 levels of the process parameters

 machining environments (cutting fluid,
etc.)
 strength, rigidity and stability of the
machine
 kind of machining operations done in a
given machine tool
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Tool wear, Life and Machinability
Improving Machinability

 Chemical Composition
 Microstructure
 Treatment given to metal

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 Exercise problems

Pb.: A better surface finish is desired on a

Tool wear, Life and Machinability

workpiece. Recommend three steps without

involving tool change.

Soln.:
1) Increase cutting speed
2) Decrease feed and
3) Decrease depth of cut.

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 Exercise problems
Pb.: Following data has been obtained in a tool life test
at two different cutting speeds. If 0.3 mm width of
flank wear land is the selective failure criteria,
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

Calculate the value of ‘n’ and ‘C’ of the Taylor’s

tool life equation.
Time Width of flank wear land
(min) at 150 m/min at 200 m/min
0 0 0
10 0.10 0.17
20 0.14 0.27
30 0.18 0.37
40 0.22 0.47
50 0.26 0.57
60 0.30 0.72
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 Exercise problems

Pb.: A tool life of 100 min is obtained at 25

Tool wear, Life and Machinability

m/min and 6 min at 70 m/min.

(a) What is the tool life equation
(b) What is the cutting velocity when
tool life = 1 min
(c) What is the cutting velocity for tool
life = 60 min.

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 Exercise problems
Pb.: Following is the record of number of identical
components produced at different spindle speeds
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

and feeds between the consecutive tool changes

in a single pass turning operation. Estimate the
number of components that can be produced at
a spindle speed of 350 rpm and a feed of 0.15
mm/rev.
N (rpm) 250 250 300
f (mm/rev) 0.1 0.125 0.125
m (no. of 311 249 144
components)
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 Exercise problems
Pb.: In a tool life test on turning operation, the
following data has been obtained at a depth
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

of cut, 2 mm

T (min) V (m/min) f (mm/rev)

120 100 0.10
50 130 0.10
70 100 0.12
Find out the tool life, when V = 120 m/min;
f = 0.2 mm/rev and C = 2.22
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 Tool wear, Life and Machinability

Pb.:
Exercise problems

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 Machining Example

Pb.: The n and C values from Machining Data

book for machining steel with HSS are
0.125 and 70 whereas for Ceramic are 0.6
and 3000. These are based on a feed rate of
References

0.25 mm/rev and a depth of cut of 2.5 mm.

Determine and compare the cubic mm of
steel removed for each of the tool materials
if a 15 minute tool life is required.

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 References
 Metal Cutting Principles, M.C. Shaw, Oxford Publishers
Tool wear, Life and Machinability

 Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials,

Processes and Systems, by Mikell P Groover, John Wiley
 Manufacturing Technology, by P.N. Rao, TMH
 Machining & Machine Tools, by AB Chattopadhyay, Wiley
 Fundamentals of Machining and Machine Tools,
by G. Boothroyd, Int. McGraw Hill

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