-The operational productivity and the economic efficiency of turning, drilling and milling inserts can be expressed by cutting performance. This complex definition is composed of several main and supplementary features, therefore it is not possible to characterise it by only one indicator. In the present article a new method will be introduced, being able to measure and compare the productive efficiency of turning inserts: the four most important features will be summarised in one indicator. The procedure has a low time requirement, it is built on instrumental investigations, so it does not require great financial and material expenses, it makes possible to use the tools in an optimal way, according to the four aspects, investigated by us, and to qualify the inserts in many ways. The so called complex efficiency indicator serves to measure the effectiveness of innovation, too. The procedure, developed by us, has already been used successfully in case of tools, produced by leading companies and having different functions, design and materials.
IntroductionNowadays, in the area of cutting operations there are appearing new versions of mounted tools. The cutting elements, the inserts, optimised to the given task, are fixed in the tool holders, drill and milling cutter bodies by the manufacturing companies. Although the amount of operationally applicable shape variations is quite limited, the number of the chipbreakers and edge designs, usable under different circumstances, is considerably great. The operational productivity and economical efficiency of turning, drilling and milling inserts can be mostly described by the cutting performance. This term is a complex feature of the tool (its edge geometry and/or material), serving to judge and qualify its behaviour during cutting operation (wear, tool life, force effects, the shape of the developed chips etc.) and the achieved surface quality (waviness, roughness) of the machined workpiece. The judgement is always built on practical experiences, it provides a characterisation, describable with words, i. e. it has a quantitative character. For example, an insert is considered to be appropriate if it breaks the chip well and its wear process is low. The qualification is mainly built on instrumental measurements, it characterises the productive efficiency of the tested tool with the results of measurements, depending from the adjusted data combinations, i. e. in a qualitative wayThe following article is going to introduce a method for measuring and comparing the cutting performance of cutting inserts. The procedure is built on short-time examinations; therefore it does not require great material, instrumental and financial expenses. The developed method has been successfully applied in case of tools, having different tasks, constructions, cutting materials and produced by world-famous tool manufacturing companies [3][4].