WEC

ME- 305
MANUFACTURING PRPOCESSES - II

Module 2
Lecture 3 - Cutting Tools
05/30/10 1
Cutting
 Cutting is the separation of a physical object, or
a portion of a physical object, into two portions,
through the application of an acutely directed
force.
 Cutting is a compressive and shearing
phenomenon, and occurs only when the total
stress generated by the cutting implement
exceeds the ultimate strength of the material of
the object being cut. The simplest applicable
equation is stress = force/area: The stress
generated by a cutting implement is directly
proportional to the force with which it is applied,
and inversely proportional to the area of contact.
Hence, the smaller the area (i.e., the sharper the
cutting implement), the less force is needed to
cut something
Cutting tools
Cutting Tool
Requirements
Single point cutting
tool – Tool Bit
 The term tool bit generally refers to 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. The cutting edge is ground to suit a
particular machining operation and may
be re-sharpened or reshaped as needed.
The ground tool bit is held rigidly by a tool
holder while it is cutting.
Various tool bits,
carbide inserts and
holders
Single point tool
Geometry
Single point tool
Geometry
 Back Rake is to help control the direction of the
chip, which naturally curves into the work due to
the difference in length from the outer and inner
parts of the cut. It also helps counteract the
pressure against the tool from the work by pulling
the tool into the work.
 Side Rake along with back rake controls the chip
flow and partly counteracts the resistance of the
work to the movement of the cutter and can be
optimized to suit the particular material being cut.
Brass for example requires a back and side rake of
0 degrees while aluminum uses a back rake of 35
degrees and a side rake of 15 degrees.
Single point tool
Geometry
 Nose Radius makes the finish of the cut
smoother as it can overlap the previous cut and
eliminate the peaks and valleys that a pointed
tool produces. Having a radius also strengthens
the tip, a sharp point being quite fragile.
 All the other angles are for clearance in order
that no part of the tool besides the actual cutting
edge can touch the work. The front clearance
angle is usually 8 degrees while the side
clearance angle is 10-15 degrees and partly
depends on the rate of feed expected.
Single point tool
Geometry
 Minimum angles which do the job required are
advisable because the tool gets weaker as the
edge gets keener due to the lessening support
behind the edge and the reduced ability to
absorb heat generated by cutting.
 The Rake angles on the top of the tool need
not be precise in order to cut but to cut
efficiently there will be an optimum angle for
back and side rake.
Tool Geometry
Tool Geometry
Tool Geometry
Tool Geometry
Tool Geometry - Broach
Tooling hardness and
temperature
Mill cutters

 Milling cutters are cutting tools

used in milling machines or
machining centres. They remove
material by their movement within
the machine (eg: a ball nose mill) or
directly from the cutters shape (a
form tool such as a Hobbing cutter).
Milling Cutters
Features of a milling
cutter
 Milling cutters come in several shapes and many sizes.
There is also a choice of coatings, as well as rake angle
and number of cutting surfaces.
 Shape: Several standard shapes of milling cutter are
used in industry today, which are explained in more
detail below.
 Flutes / teeth: The flutes of the milling bit are the
deep helical grooves running up the cutter, while the
sharp blade along the edge of the flute is known as the
tooth. The tooth cuts the material, and chips of this
material are pulled up the flute by the rotation of the
cutter. There is almost always one tooth per flute, but
some cutters have two teeth per flute. Often, the words
flute and tooth are used interchangeably. Milling cutters
may have from one to many teeth, with 2, 3 and 4
being most common. Typically, the more teeth a cutter
has, the more rapidly it can remove material. So, a 4-
tooth cutter can remove material at twice the rate of a
2-tooth cutter.
Features of a milling
cutter
 Helix angle: The flutes of a milling cutter are
almost always helical. If the flutes were straight,
the whole tooth would impact the material at
once, causing vibration and reducing accuracy
and surface quality. Setting the flutes at an
angle allows the tooth to enter the material
gradually, reducing vibration. Typically, finishing
cutters have a higher rake angle (tighter helix)
to give a better finish.
 Center cutting: Some milling cutters can drill
straight down (plunge) through the material,
while others cannot. This is because the teeth of
some cutters do not go all the way to the centre
of the end face. However, these cutters can cut
downwards at an angle of 45 degrees or so.
Features of a milling
cutter
 Roughing or Finishing: Different types of cutter are
available for cutting away large amounts of material, leaving
a poor surface finish (roughing), or removing a smaller
amount of material, but leaving a good surface finish
(finishing). A roughing cutter may have serrated teeth for
breaking the chips of material into smaller pieces. These
teeth leave a rough surface behind. A finishing cutter may
have a large number (4 or more) teeth for removing
material carefully. However, the large number of flutes
leaves little room for efficient swarf removal, so they are
less appropriate for removing large amounts of material.
Features of a milling
cutter
 Coatings: The right tool coatings can have a great influence on the
cutting process by increasing cutting speed and tool life, and
improving the surface finish. Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) is an
exceptionally hard coating used on cutters which must withstand
high abrasive wear. A PCD coated tool may last up to 100 times
longer than an uncoated tool. However the coating cannot be used at
temperatures above 600 degrees C, or on ferrous metals. Tools for
machining aluminium are sometimes given a coating of TiAlN.
Aluminium is a relatively sticky metal, and can weld itself to the
teeth of tools, causing them to appear blunt. However it tends not to
stick to TiAlN, allowing the tool to be used for much longer in
aluminium.
 Shank: The shank is the cylindrical (non-fluted) part of the tool
which is used to hold and locate it in the tool holder. A shank may be
perfectly round, and held by friction, or it may have a Weldon Flat,
where a grub screw makes contact for increased torque without the
tool slipping. The diameter may be different from the diameter of the
cutting part of the tool, so that it can be held by a standard tool
holder.
An End Mill cutter with
two flutes
Types of milling cutters

End Mill
 End mills (middle row in image) are those
tools which have cutting teeth at one end,
as well as on the sides. The words end mill
are generally used to refer to flat
bottomed cutters, but also include
rounded cutters (referred to as ball nosed)
and radiused cutters (referred to as bull
nose, or torus). They are usually made
from high speed steel (HSS) or carbide,
and have one or more flutes. They are the
most common tool used in a vertical mill.
Types of milling cutters
Slot drill
 Slot drills (top row in image) are generally
two (occasionally three or four) fluted cutters
that are designed to drill straight down into
the material. This is possible because there
is at least one tooth at the centre of the end
face. They are so named for their use in
cutting keyway slots. The term slot drill is
usually assumed to mean a two fluted, flat
bottomed end mill if no other information is
given. Two fluted end mills are usually slot
drills, three fluted sometimes are not, and
four fluted usually are not.
Types of milling cutters
Roughing end mill
 Roughing end mills quickly remove large
amounts of material. This kind of end mill
utilizes a wavy tooth form cut on the
periphery. These wavy teeth form many
successive cutting edges producing many
small chips, resulting in a relatively rough
surface finish. During cutting, multiple
teeth are in contact with the workpiece
reducing chatter and vibration. Rapid stock
removal with heavy milling cuts is
sometimes called hogging. Roughing end
mills are also sometimes known as ripping
cutters.
Types of milling cutters

Ball nose cutter

 Ball nose cutters (lower row in image) are
similar to slot drills, but the end of the
cutters are hemispherical. They are ideal
for machining 3-dimensional contoured
shapes in machining centres, for example
in moulds and dies. They are sometimes
called ball mills in shop-floor slang,
despite the fact that that term also has
another meaning. They are also used to
add a radius between perpendicular faces
to reduce stress concentrations.
Types of milling cutters

Slab Mill
 Slab mills are used either by
themselves or in gang milling
operations on manual horizontal or
universal milling machines to machine
large broad surfaces quickly. They
have been superseded by the use of
carbide-tipped face mills which are
then used in vertical mills or
machining centres.
Types of milling cutters

The side-and-face cutter

 The side-and-face cutter is designed
with cutting teeth on its side as well
as its circumference. They are made
in varying diameters and widths
depending on the application. The
teeth on the side allow the cutter to
make unbalanced cuts (cutting on one
side only) without deflecting the
cutter as would happen with a slitting
saw or slot cutter (no side teeth).
Types of milling cutters

Involute gear cutter

 There are 8 cutters (excluding the
rare half sizes) that will cut gears
from 12 teeth through to a rack
(infinite diameter).
Types of milling cutters

Hob
 These cutters are a type of form tool
and are used in hobbing machines to
generate gears. A cross section of the
cutters tooth will generate the
required shape on the workpiece, once
set to the appropriate conditions
(blank size). A hobbing machine is a
specialised milling machine.
Types of milling cutters
Types of milling cutters
Face mill
 A face mill consists of a cutter body (with the
appropriate machine taper) that is designed to
hold multiple disposable carbide or ceramic
tips or inserts, often golden in color. The tips
are not designed to be resharpened and are
selected from a range of types that may be
determined by various criteria, some of which
may be: tip shape, cutting action required,
material being cut. When the tips are blunt,
they may be removed, rotated (indexed) and
replaced to present a fresh, sharp face to the
workpiece, this increases the life of the tip and
thus their economical cutting life.
Types of milling cutters

Fly cutter
 A fly cutter is composed of a body into which one
or two tool bits are inserted. As the entire unit
rotates, the tool bits take broad, shallow facing
cuts. Fly cutters are analogous to face mills in
that their purpose is face milling and their
individual cutters are replaceable. Face mills are
more ideal in various respects (e.g., rigidity,
indexability of inserts without disturbing effective
cutter diameter or tool length offset, depth-of-cut
capability), but tend to be expensive, whereas fly
cutters are very inexpensive.
Types of milling cutters

 Woodruff cutters make the seat for

woodruff keys. These keys locate
pulleys on shafts.
Types of milling cutters

Hollow mill
 Hollow milling cutters, more often called
simply hollow mills, are essentially
"inside-out endmills". They are shaped
like a piece of pipe (but with thicker
walls), with their cutting edges on the
inside surface. They are used on
turret lathes and screw machines as an
alternative to turning with a box tool, or
on milling machines or drill presses to
finish a cylindrical boss (such as a
trunnion).
Types of milling cutters

Dovetail cutter
 A dovetail cutter is an endmill whose
form leaves behind a dovetail slot.
Tool Materials
Steels
 Originally, all tool bits were made of high carbon tool steels
with the appropriate hardening and tempering. Since the
introductions of high-speed steel (HSS) (early years of the 20th
century), sintered carbide (1930s), ceramic and diamond
cutters, those materials have gradually replaced the earlier
kinds of tool steel in almost all cutting applications. Most tool
bits today are either HSS or carbide.
Carbides and ceramics
 Carbide, ceramics (such as cubic boron nitride) and diamond,
having higher hardness than HSS, all allow faster material
removal than HSS in most cases. Because these materials are
more expensive and brittler than steel, typically the body of
the cutting tool is made of steel, and a small cutting edge
made of the harder material is attached. The cutting edge is
usually either screwed on (in this case it is called an insert), or
brazed on to a steel shank (this is usually only done for
carbide).
Tool Materials
High Speed steel (HSS)
Cemented Carbides
Inserts
 Almost all high-performance cutting tools use indexable
inserts. There are several reasons for this. First of all, at
the very high cutting speeds and feeds supported by
these materials, the cutting tip can reach temperatures
high enough to melt the brazing material holding it to
the shank. Economics are also important; inserts are
made symmetrically so that when the first cutting edge
is dull they can be rotated, presenting a fresh cutting
edge. Some inserts are even made so that they can be
flipped over, giving as many as 16 cutting edges per
insert. There are many types of inserts: some for
roughing, some for finishing. Others are made for
specialized jobs like cutting threads or grooves. The
industry employs standardized nomenclature to
describe inserts by shape, material, coating material,
and size.
Form tools
 A form tool is precision-ground into a pattern that
resembles the part to be formed. The form tool can
be used as a single operation and therefore
eliminate many other operations from the slides
(front, rear and/or vertical) and the turret, such as
box tools. A form tool turns one or more diameters
while feeding into the work. Before the use of form
tools, diameters were turned by multiple slide and
turret operations, and thus took more work to make
the part. For example, a form tool can turn many
diameters and in addition can also cut off the part
in a single operation and eliminate the need to
index the turret. For single-spindle machines,
bypassing the need to index the turret can
dramatically increase hourly part production rates.
Form tools
 On long-running jobs it is common to use a
roughing tool on a different slide or turret station
to remove the bulk of the material to reduce wear
on the form tool.
 There are different types of form tools. Insert form
tools are the most common for short- to medium-
range jobs (50 to 20,000 pcs). Circular form tools
are usually for longer jobs, since the tool wear can
be ground off the tool tip many times as the tool is
rotated in its holder. There is also a skiving tool
that can be used for light finishing cuts. Form tools
can be made of cobalt steel, carbide, or high-
speed steel. Carbide requires additional care
because it is very brittle and will chip if chatter
occurs
Form tools
 A drawback when using form tools is that the feed into the
work is usually slow, 0.0005" to 0.0012" per revolution
depending on the width of the tool. Wide form tools create
more heat and usually are problematic for chatter. Heat
and chatter reduces tool life. Also, form tools wider than
2.5 times the smaller diameter of the part being turned
have a greater risk of the part breaking off. [1] When
turning longer lengths, a support from the turret can be
used to increase turning length from 2.5 times to 5 times
the smallest diameter of the part being turned, and this
also can help reduce chatter. Despite the drawbacks, the
elimination of extra operations often makes using form
tools the most efficient option.
Form tool
Factors which effect tool
life & Tool life
relationship
Tool Wear
 Tool wear describes the gradual failure of cutting
tools due to regular operation. It is a term often
associated with tipped tools, tool bits, or drill bits
that are used with machine tools
 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.
Factors which effect tool
life & Tool life
relationship
Tool Wear
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 equaling the cutting depth of the material. Crater
wear depth ~ t0 t0= cutting depth
 Built-up Edge in which material being machined builds up on
the cutting edge. Some materials (notably aluminum 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 sheen
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.
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
 Reduction in tool wear can be accomplished
by using lubricants and coolants while
machining. These reduce friction and
temperature, thus reducing the tool wear.
Tool Life Expectancy
 The Taylor Equation for Tool Life
Expectancy provides a good
approximation.
Crater Wear
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.ram
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.
Temperature gradient of tool, workpiece and chip
during orthogonal cutting. As can easily be seen,
heat is removed from the workpiece and the tool
to the chip. Crater wear occurs around the 720
degree area of the tool.
Cutting Fluids –
Types & Properties
Cutting Fluids –
Types & Properties