EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF OVERALL MACHINING PERFORMANCE WITH OVERALL PROGRESSIVE TOOL WEAR AT DIFFERENT TOOL FACES

In viewing present machining theories, the machinability database and a great number of research papers on the analysis and prediction of machining performance, including surface roughness, cutting forces and chip breakability, almost all of them assume an ideal machining condition, i.e. machining with unworn cutting tools. However, the tool wear formed at different tool faces alters the original tool configuration and thus may result in unexpected machining performance. A detailed experimental analysis of the variations of the overall machining performance with overall progressive major flank wear, crater wear, minor flank wear, nose wear and groove wear at the minor cutting edge is described in this paper. The results are expected to provide a better understanding about the complex interrelationship between the overall machining performance with the progressive development of overall tool wear at different tool faces, and thus a more realistic optimization of machining operations may be achieved.