No abstract

In order to represent actual cutting process conditions, an in-process tribometer is examined to measure friction during orthogonal turning process at cutting speeds up to 300m/min. The tribometer consists of a spring preloaded tungsten carbide pin with spherical tip mounted behind the cutting edge and rubbing on the freshly generated workpiece surface. The pin preload is set according to feed force. A 3D-force measuring device in the fixation of the pin allows evaluating friction coefficient from tangential and normal forces. Experiments show strongly different results when contacting fresh and oxidized surfaces and decreasing friction coefficient with increasing cutting speed.

The influence of the cutting edge micro geometry on cutting process and on tool performance is subject to several research projects. Recently, published papers mainly focus on the cutting edge rounding and its influence on tool life and cutting forces. For applications even more important, however, is the influence of the cutting edge radius on the integrity of the machined part. Especially for titanium, which is used in environments requiring high mechanical integrity, the information about the dependency of surface integrity on cutting edge geometry is important. This paper therefore studies the influence of the cutting edge radius on surface integrity in terms of residual stress, micro hardness, surface roughness and optical characterisation of the surface and near surface area in up and down milling of the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. Moreover, the influence of the cutting edge radius on burr formation is analysed. The experiments show that residual stresses increase with the cutting edge radius especially in up milling, whereas the influence in down milling is less pronounced. The influence of the cutting edge radius on surface roughness is non-uniform. The formation of burr increases with increasing cutting edge radius, and is thus in agreement with the residual stress tests.

The influence of the cutting edge micro geometry on cutting process and on tool performance is subject of several research projects. Recently published papers focus on optimising the cutting edge rounding. The results are partly inconsistent. Unfortunately, no international standard yet exists to properly describe the cutting edge micro geometry. This is seen as the root cause for detected discrepancies. To develop a common understanding for the influence of rounded cutting edges, it is indispensable to use the same basis to characterise the edge profile. This paper gives a review on existing characterisation methods, analyses the difficulties in their application and discusses different modelling ideas to describe the cutting edge profile. Based hereon, a new algorithm and geometrical parameterisation of the cutting edge is proposed, which reduces uncertainties and difficulties in the application of currently available methods. The proposed method considers measurement uncertainties and is robust against form errors and creates thus the basis required for the study of the influence of rounded cutting edges.