Analysis of the Cutting Force

Components and Friction in High

G. Suttera) Speed Machining
A. Molinari
An original experimental device is used to reproduce conditions of orthogonal cutting for
L.P.M.M., U.M.R. C.N.R.S. n7554, I.S.G.M.P., a wide range of cutting speeds (from 15 to about 100 m/s) (Sutter et al.). Improvement of
Universite de Metz the initial device (Sutter et al.) makes it possible to record both values of normal and
Ile du Saulcy, 57045 Metz Cedex 1, France tangential forces in orthogonal cutting. An analysis of the toolchip friction is then
possible for a large range of cutting speeds. The evolution of cutting force components as
well as the evolution of the friction coefficient are presented and analyzed. In addition, the
process of chip formation during high speed machining is illustrated by photographic
recording with a high speed camera. DOI: 10.1115/1.1863253

Keywords: High Speed Machining, Cutting Forces, Orthogonal Cutting, Friction

1 Introduction quently, the obtained cutting conditions remain precisely orthogo-

nal and quasi-stationary after a short transient period.
The complex phenomenon of cutting is the subject of numerous
Measurement of the thrust force component, F T , is made pos-
theoretical and experimental studies. The evolution of technolo-
sible by a new design of the tool holding fixture. Figure 2 shows
gies tends to increase continuously the cutting speeds and the
details of the tool holding fixture located at the entry of the trans-
performance of material properties. Thus there is a strong need for
mitter tube. Two tools are symmetrically disposed on the tool
experimental analyses of high speed cutting processes. In this ar-
holding so as to permit simultaneous machining on both sides of
ticle an experimental setup, originally developed in 1 is used to
the workpiece specimen. A projectile launched by an air gun car-
analyze orthogonal cutting. Orthogonal cutting is defined by Mer-
ries the specimen. Each tool is fixed on a beam with a sufficient
chant 2 when the cutting tool generates a plane surface parallel
section to insure high rigidity. Cutting forces subject the beams to
to an original plane surface of the material being cut and is set
compression and bending solicitations. Strains are measured on
with its cutting edge perpendicular to the direction of relative
each beam with gauges placed at two different locations. The
motion of tool and workpiece. These conditions are rarely found
components of the cutting forces in the directions parallel and
in industrial processesbecause in general several cutting edges
normal to the cutting direction can be deduced from strain mea-
are involved particularly in milling and cutting edge directions
surements.
are oblique, however, these simplifications permit the analysis
Measurements are obtained on the right and left tools. A precise
and understanding of phenomena.
positioning of tools and specimen is assured so as to be as close as
The present device allows experiments to be performed without
possible to symmetric cutting. The specimen geometry is meticu-
some of the constraints found in conventional machining tests.
lously measured before and after every test to determine the
Therefore, it is possible to investigate a range of speeds from 15
depths of cut for each side. The difference in the depth of cut due
to 100 m/s by keeping the device very rigid and limiting parasite
to the small positioning default is taken into account by a correc-
vibrations. Furthermore, the good accessibility ensures a perfect
tion of the value of the forces, see 1. Let us remember that the
visualization of the cutting process. Numerous studies have been
launched tube is designed to assure a precision of 0.015 mm in the
published concerning experimental devices in high speed machin-
lateral position of the projectile.
ing 3 8, but they are limited either by the speed of cutting, or by
However, a little difference in the depth of cut is observed
the measurement of a single component of acting forces.
between tools. This is due partly to a symmetry defect in the
Improvement of the existing setup 1, allows now measuring
position of the specimen on the projectile of the order of 0.02 mm
the two force components in orthogonal cutting. The first results
and to the precision of the guidance of the projectile. Therefore,
obtained on medium carbon steel 42Cr Mo4 are presented here.
the possible variation of the depths of cut for each tool is in the
Photograph recordings during the chip formation illustrate the
order of 0.05 mm. This small disparity between the real cutting
evolution of the chips morphology with the cutting speed.
depth t 1 and the theoretical value t 01 for a perfect symmetric test
is corrected in the following way. Denoting by F C , the measured
cutting force in the cutting direction Fig. 4, the cutting force F C0
2 Experimental Device associated to t 01 is evaluated as:
The main characteristics of the modified device 1 are pre-
sented here. The modifications are made to allow measurements t 01
of the thrust component of the cutting force together with the F C0 FC (1)
longitudinal component. Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic t1
description. These measurements give an estimation of the value
of the friction coefficient at the toolchip interface. An important The same correction is made for the transverse component of the
characteristic of the experimental setup is its high rigidity. Conse- force F T normal to the cutting direction, see Fig. 4. In that way,
considering the reference depth of cut t 0 , small deviations with
a
Corresponding author: Telephone: 33-3-87-31-53-67; Fax: 33-3-87-31-53- respect to t 0 are corrected as in 1 and the forces reported in this
66. E-mail address: sutter@lpmm.univ-metz.fr
Contributed by the Manufacturing Engineering Division for publication in the
paper are F C0 and F T0 . The supports of tools have strong sections to
JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. Manuscript received limit the flexion that could modify too much the expected depth of
October 5, 2004. Associate Editor: M. A. Davies. cut t 0 .

Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering MAY 2005, Vol. 127 245
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 Fig. 1 Schematic description of the experimental setup
The workpiece carried by the projectile is a rectangular paral-
lelepiped with a length L parallel to the cutting direction Fig. 2,
a width w, and a height h. All the tests have been carried out with
carbide tools type: SCMT 12 04 08-UR 235, a new one being
used for each shoot. These tools were of square shape without
chip-breaker. All the tests presented here have been performed
with a rake angle having a value of zero, two depths of cut t 0
0.2 and 0.5 mm, and a length L12 mm.
The calibration of the device, in other words the relation be-
tween the signal intensities obtained and the cutting force compo-
nents, is made in two ways. First, by static test where the loads are
imposed on the cutting tool with a hydraulic machine and then by
finite element calculations. These two calibrations are confirmed
by results already obtained from the previous setup, see 1. The
mass of the projectile is calibrated in order to have a kinetic en-
ergy large enough with respect to the mechanical work necessary
to perform the cutting operation. Thus the cutting velocity is
nearly constant during the process and quasi-stationary cutting
conditions are realized. In that purpose it is worthwhile using
projectiles with the same geometry but different mass densities
steel, aluminum, polymer. Speed and acceleration of the projec-
tile are measured from a set of three sources of light, photo-diodes
and time counters near the process cut zone. The light beams
located at the end of the launch tube detect the passing-by of the
projectile. The possible range of velocity is from 15 to 100 m/s.
To complete the range of cutting speeds, similar tests were
made on an NC lathe with the same tools and for cutting speeds
going from 0.5 to 20 m/s. This NC lathe is equipped with a dy-
namometer KISTLER 9265B which allows two components of
the forces to raise cf. Fig. 3. To obtain cutting conditions close to
the orthogonal cutting process a circular piece with an important
diameter 125 mm is machined on this lathe. The significant di-
ameter makes it possible to neglect the effect of the curvature of
the machined surface. Before testing grooves are machined on the
piece.
Fig. 2 Details of the tool holding fixture
246 Vol. 127, MAY 2005
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Fig. 3 Cutting device on numerically controlled lathe
A high speed camera is located near the zone of manufacturing.
The phenomenon duration time to be filmed requires a very short
exposure time of the order of a few microseconds so a signifi-
cant luminous intensity is needed, which is assured by two flashes
of high power. This requires a perfect synchronization of the trig-
ger mechanism with the photographic recording system.
3 Results
Experiments have been driven on a medium carbon steel
42CrMo4 with chemical composition specified in Table 1. Fig-
ure 4 presents the different components of acting forces developed
in the process.
Let us assume that all useful forces to chip production act only
on the tool rake face. The mean coefficient of friction 0 , be-
tween the tool and the workpiece is defined by the ratio of the
cutting forces R T and R N acting on the tool and obtained as fol-
lows:
RT
0 tan (2)
RN
where is the friction angle. Considering that:
R T R sin F C sin F T cos
R N R cos F C cos F T sin
the relationship 2 can be written as:
F T F C tan
0 (3)
F C F T tan
so, for a rake angle 0 deg, the friction coefficient can be
obtained directly by the measurement of the cutting forces:
FT
0 (4)
FC
However, in metal cutting, intimate contact occurs between the
work material and the cutting tool. This contact extends from the
tool rake face to the tool nose region. As a consequence, the forces
coming from the third zone located near the cutting edge, cf. Fig.
4 may be taken into account to determine a real friction coeffi-
cient at the toolchip interface 9. In fact the measured result-
ing forces are the sum of the cutting and parasitic forces. These
parasitic forces include in a large part edge forces depending on
the tool nose geometry because the cutting tool has a defined
Table 1 Chemical composition of the 42CrMo4 steel
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 4 Different forces in orthogonal cutting process
cutting edge roundness greater than zero. Additional forces due to
the built-up formation and tool wear mechanism are neglected as
all tests are short-lived and use a new cutting tool. It is supposed
to be identical for each test. For the lower cutting speeds corre-
sponding to the longest durations of cut, the tools are examined by
an interferometric microscope. Except for light marks on the tool
rake face, no change was observed on the profile of the tool.
Similarly results are obtained at a high cutting speed around 40
m/s. These edge forces do not depend on the chip thickness.
Experiments showed that even for a very small chip thickness
there is cutting force. Parasitic forces are identified by a linear
regression of the cutting forces according to the chip thickness at
constant speed 9. The magnitude of these residual forces is read
by extrapolating down to zero chip thickness. This approach is an
approximation to evaluate the evolution of the friction. Thus, the
longitudinal cutting force F Ct and the transverse cutting force F Tt
which act on the tool rake face are:
F Ct F C F Ce (5)
F Tt F T F Te (6)
where F C and F T are the longitudinal and transverse cutting
forces measured experimentally and F Ce and F Te are the edges
forces. Finally the real friction coefficient at the toolchip in-
terface is given by:
F Tt
(7)
F Ct
Fig. 5 Oscillograms from strain gauges located near the tools
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A typical oscillogram obtained from the strain gauges setup
located on each tool support is presented in Fig. 5. This measure-
ment corresponds to a cutting velocity of V C 22.5 m/s and for
t 1 0.2 mm. The recording is commanded by the impact of the
workpiece on tools. Four signals correspond, respectively, to the
recording of the gauges situated on the tool holders. Gauges 1 and
3 as well as gauges 2 and 4 are similarly localized on each beam
supporting the tools. When the test is symmetric these signals are
similar two for two and present each a plateau having a duration
corresponding to the machining length of 10.5 mm. This length of
cut corresponds to the almost constant part of the signal without
the peak due to the dynamic load. These plateaus characterize the
longitudinal cutting force F C and confirm the stationary process
conditions.
The various oscillations result from the flexibility of the support
tools and fixations as well as from reflections of loading waves.
The symmetry of the cutting process creates this similarity by a
pair of signals. The strains recorded by the gauges result from the
superimposing of a load in flexion and in compression on beams
supporting the tools. The load of compression imposed by the
transverse component F T of the cutting force reduced the signal
amplitude for gauges 1 and 3.
To maintain similar conditions on the NC lathe to those ob-
tained with the air gun setup, the measurements were made during
the second revolution of the workpiece. Indeed during the first
revolution on the lathe, the uncut chip thickness increases as the
tool approaches the cylindrical workpiece. Later this uncut chip
MAY 2005, Vol. 127 247
 thickness keeps a constant value. The higher duration of the cut on
the lathe before measuring corresponds to the lower cutting speed
and reached 0.8 s. With the air gun setup the maximum duration is
about 8 ms.
Figure 6 presents two real-time photographs of the chip forma-
tion during the cut the depth of cut is 0.5 mm for the two cases.
This picture has been taken with 1 s of exposure time. On this
picture we observe that the cutting tool surface remains perpen-
dicular to the relative motion of the workpiece during the process.

4 Discussion
The duration of each test on the NC lathe or on the ballistic
setup has been less than one second. For these conditions there
was no built-up edge to be liable for incurring an increase of the
cutting forces. The dispersion of the results may be attributed to
the different sharpnesses of the tool tip or size margins after each
tool change. For the two depths of cut considered and for the low
velocities up to 15 or 20 m/s, the measured cutting forces F C and
F T decrease with increasing cutting speed see Figs. 7 and 8 until
a minimum value. This evolution is directly related to the decrease
of friction at the toolchip interface due to the increasing tem-
perature at this interface when the cutting speed is increased. This
result confirms the Mathews and Oxleys 10 analyses, which
consider that the temperature sensitivity of the material is more
important than the strain rate sensitivity. The same results were
found by Findley and Reed 8.
For velocity higher than 15 m/s, the cutting forces have an
inverse evolution. The inertial forces can be estimated using a
basic dynamics approach suggested by Bredendick 11:
t 1 wV C2 t 2 wV 2 (8)
where is the workpiece material density. The normal component
of the inertial forces R iN normal to the rake face acting on the
tool is expressed by:
R iN t 1 wV C2 t 2 wV 2 sin /cos (9)
So, for a rake angle 0 deg, the inertial forces can be simply
written:
Fig. 6 Real time photographs of chip formation for two cutting
speeds V C . a V C 15 ms; b V C 45 ms R iN t 1 wV C2 (10)
The inertial forces at a cutting speed of V C 40 m/s for t 1
0.2 mm) normal to the rake face are R iN 25 N, which is about
0.5% of the measured value of F C 5000 N. Therefore, the iner-

Fig. 7 Longitudinal F C and transverse F T cutting forces as a function of

the cutting speed for medium carbon steel 42CrMo4, width of cut w
10 mm, depth of cut t 1 0.2 mm, rake angle 0 deg. : NC lathe :
Air gun setup

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Fig. 8 Longitudinal F C and transverse F T cutting forces as
a function of the cutting speed for medium carbon steel
42CrMo4, width of cut w 10 mm, depth of cut t 1 0.5 mm,
rake angle 0 deg. : NC lathe : Air gun setup.
Fig. 9 Effect of the cutting speed on the longitudinal F Ce and
the transverse F Te edge forces
t 0.5
Fig. 10 The ratio Fc t 1 0.5Fc t 1 0.2 as a function of the cutting speed for
medium carbon steel 42CrMo4, width of cut w 10 mm, rake angle t 0 deg
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tial forces take a weak part in the force increase given Figs. 7 and
8. Komanduri et al. 7 have previously observed this thin influ-
ence at around 50 m/s.
A possible reason for the increase of the force could be the
large strain-rate sensitivity observed in steels at very high strain
rates. This was also found by Klocke 12 for high speed turning
of steel and aluminum. Old results obtained by Salomon 13
predicted a critical cutting speed for which a maximum cutting
temperature is reached. More recently, Recht 14 has presented a
similar evolution of the cutting pressure for a 4340 steel, with a
minimum value at around 35 m/s.
In addition, Fig. 6 corroborates that the smallest cutting force is
located above V c 15 m/s, because the length of the chip segment
tends to increase for V c 45 m/s. Indeed, the minimum cutting
force seems to correspond to a minimum length of the chip seg-
ment 15.
To analyze the cutting forces, F Ct and F Tt acting on the tool
rake face, Eqs. 5 and 6 are used with the edge forces previ-
ously defined and presented in Fig. 9. For the cutting speed range
from 0.5 to 55 m/s, they can vary from 180 to 210 daN or 1800
2100 N for the longitudinal component (F Ce ) and from 90 to 200
daN for the transverse component (F Te ). In addition, the evolu-
tion of the parasitic forces versus cutting speed presents a similar
evolution for the transverse cutting forces and opposite for the
longitudinal cutting forces. The corrected force level for different
depth of cut confirms also that the cutting forces are in direct
proportion to t 1 . This feature is illustrated in Fig. 10, where the
t 0.5 t 0.2
ratio (Fc t 1 /0.5)/(Fc t 1 /0.2) of the normalized corrected
cutting forces associated to the values t 1 0.2 mm and t 1
0.5 mm) is shown in terms of the cutting velocity. The normal-
ized cutting forces are defined as being corrected longitudinal cut-
ting forces divided by the uncut chip thickness t 1 . These results
are coherent with the Merchant approach, where the ratio
(F C t10.5/0.5)/(F C t10.2/0.2) is equal to unity, because the nor-
malized forces are not depending upon t 1 .
A particularity of the present experimental device is that it al-
lows, as dynamometers, the deduction of the friction coefficient
evolution between the tool and the chip. Using the above-
mentioned Eq. 7, the evolution of is drawn on Fig. 11. The
broken lines plotted in Fig. 11 show only a tendency. For both
depths of cut, the friction coefficient decreases with the increasing
speed to reach a minimum value. Findley and Reed 8 for lead-
antimony alloy ( 0.85 at V C 0, to 0.3 at 13 m/s, and Tanaka
et al. 16 for steel observe this large decreasing ( 0.6 at V C
0, to 0.18 at 133 m/s and confirm that this coefficient de-
creases as the depth of cut increases. For 4340 steel, Recht 14
explains the drop in from 0.6 at 4 m/s to 0.26 at 36 m/s as being
t 0.2
MAY 2005, Vol. 127 249
 Fig. 11 Experimental evolution of friction coefficient at the toolchip inter-
face for a wide range of cutting speeds
due to melting at the asperities. Similar results are obtained by
Montgomery 17 for a steelsteel friction at sliding speeds up to
550 m/s. For a cutting speed higher than 25 m/s we have to notice
a slight rise of this coefficient for the lowest depth of cut.
5 Conclusions
Results presented in this work show the capabilities of the air
gun setup, which can be used for orthogonal machining in a large
range of cutting velocities from 15 to 100 m/s. A new tool hold-
ing system has been designed, allowing to record the two compo-
nents F C and F T of the cutting force.
The first results confirm the existence of a critical cutting speed
about 1525 m/s for which the minimum forces for medium
carbon steel 42Cr Mo4 are reached. A minimum has been found
for the toolchip friction coefficient at about 25 m/s for the lowest
depth of cut.
On the other hand, the conception of this device makes it pos-
sible to record photographs in real time with one microsecond
exposure. The quality of these records allows carrying on our
attempts to describe the chip formation in detail over a wide range
of cutting speeds.
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