In general practice, chip breakers are used to break chips in turning operations for chip disposal. However, chips of highly ductile materials such as low carbon steel or thin chips generated in finishing operations may not be broken easily with conventional chip breakers. They cause chip-jam and significant downtime in actual production. This paper proposes a novel approach where the generated chip is not broken but guided to overcome first the chip-jam and next to improve the efficiency of conventional turning operations by realizing the chip-pulling turning process. A novel cutting tool geometry is developed to suppress the chip’s side curl to generate straight continuous chip flowing away from the cutting point and hence suppress the chip-jam. The proposed tool tip geometry contains “guide grooves” engraved onto the rake face. The groove topography is optimized to control the chip flow robustly at various cutting conditions so that the cut chip can be guided for effective chip guidance. Continuously flowing guided chip is then pulled to reduce the friction force on the rake face to enhance the machinability. Experimental results show that the designed cutting tool geometry robustly controls the chip flow, and the chip-pulling turning process shows significant potential towards achieving higher machinability in hard turning.
Development of a high-performance chip-guiding turning process—tool design and chip flow control
Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2016
Journal
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Volume
85
Date Published
Jan. 1, 2016
Abstract