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IPE 317 Failure of cutting tools

Lecture # 5
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES II Smooth, safe and economic machining necessitate:
 prevention of premature and catastrophic failure of
the cutting tools

 reduction of rate of wear of tool to prolong its life

Failure of Cutting Tools
& Cutting tools generally fail by :

Tool Life  Mechanical breakage due to excessive forces and shocks.

Dr. M. Abu Hayat Mithu  Quick dulling by plastic deformation due to intensive
Associate Professor stresses and temperature.
Email: mithu‐ipe@sust .edu ; mithuipe@gmail.com

 Gradual wear of the cutting tools at its flanks and rake

Department of Industrial and Production Engineering
Shahjalal University of Science & Technology (SUST), Sylhet, Bangladesh
surfaces.

Failure of cutting tools cont…

The first two modes of tool failure, mechanical breakage and
plastic deformation, are very harmful not only for the tool but
also for the job and the machine tool.
Hence these kinds of tool failure need to be prevented by
using suitable tool materials and geometry depending
upon the work material and cutting condition.
But failure by gradual wear, which is inevitable, cannot be
prevented but can be slowed down only to enhance the service
life of the tool.
Cutting tool is withdrawn immediately after it fails or, if
possible, just before it totally fails. For that one must
understand the nature of tool failure and wear modes.
As suggested by our opening paragraph, there are three possible
modes by which a cutting tool can fail in machining:
1. Fracture This mode of failure occurs when the cutting
failure force at the tool point becomes excessive, causing
it to fail suddenly by brittle fracture.
2. Temp. This failure occurs when the cutting temperature
failure is too high for the tool material, causing the
material at the tool point to soften, which leads to
plastic deformation and loss of the sharp edge.
3. Gradual Gradual wearing of the cutting edge causes loss
wear of tool shape, reduction in cutting efficiency, an
acceleration of wearing as the tool becomes
heavily worn, and finally tool failure in a manner
similar to a temperature failure.

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Cutting tool failure or about to failure characterized by the
following conditions:
(a) In R&D laboratories
 total breakage of the tool or tool tip
 massive fracture at the cutting edge(s)
 excessive increase in cutting forces and/or
vibration
 average wear (flank or crater) reaches its specified
limit(s)
(b) In machining industries
 excessive power consumption
 excessive vibration or abnormal sound (chatter)
 total breakage of the tool
 dimensional deviation beyond tolerance
 rapid worsening of surface finish
 adverse chip formation.
Mechanisms and pattern of tool wear
 Diffusion wear becomes predominant when the cutting temp.
becomes very high due to high cutting velocity and high strength
of the work material.
 Chemical wear, leading to damages like grooving wear may
occur if the tool material is not enough chemically stable against
the work material and/or the atmospheric gases.
 Galvanic wear, based on electrochemical dissolution, seldom
occurs when both work tool materials are electrically conductive,
cutting zone temperature is high & cutting fluid acts as
electrolyte.
(a) (b) (c)
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Mechanisms and pattern of tool wear
Cutting tool undergoes various mechanisms of wears, such as:
a) Mechanical wear
i. thermally insensitive type, like abrasion,
chipping and delamination
ii. thermally sensitive type, like adhesion,
fracturing, flaking etc.
b) Thermo-chemical wear
i. macro-diffusion by mass dissolution
ii. micro-diffusion by atomic migration
c) Chemical wear
d) Galvanic wear
In diffusion wear, material from the tool at its rubbing surfaces, particularly
at the rake surface gradually diffuses into flowing chips either in bulk or
atom by atom when the tool material has chemical affinity or solid solubility.
Gradual of tool wear
Gradual wear occurs at 3 principal locations on a cutting tool:
1. on the top rake face,
2. on the flank, and
3. on the front end of nose
Two main types of tool wear on faces can be distinguished:
1. crater wear, consists of a cavity in the rake face of the tool
that forms and grows from the action of the chip sliding
against the surface.
2. flank wear, occurs on the flank, or relief face, of the tool.
High stresses and temperatures characterize the tool–chip
contact interface, contributing to the wearing action. The crater
can be measured either by its depth or its area. Flank wear,
results from rubbing between the newly generated work surface
and the flank face adjacent to the cutting edge.
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Gradual of tool wear
Fig. Diagram of worn cutting tool
An extreme condition of flank wear often
appears on the cutting edge at the location corresponding to the
original surface of the workpart. This is called notch wear.
Essential properties of tool materials
Cutting tool material essentially require the following properties:
 high mechanical strength; compressive, tensile and torsion
 fracture toughness – high or at least adequate
 high hardness for abrasion resistance
 high hot hardness to resist plastic deformation and reduce
wear rate at elevated temperature
 chemical stability or inertness against work material,
atmospheric gases and cutting fluids
 resistance to adhesion and diffusion
 thermal conductivity – low at surface to resist incoming of
heat and high at core to quickly dissipate the heat entered
 high heat resistance and stiffness
 manufacturability, machinability, availability and low cost.
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Effect of tool wear
In addition, following effects are also caused by the tool wear:
 increase in cutting forces and power consumption
- mainly due to the principal flank wear (Vb)
 increase in dimensional deviation and surface roughness
- mainly due to tool-tip wear and auxiliary flank wear (Vs)
 odd sound, vibration and chatter
 worsening surface integrity
 mechanically weakening of the tool tip.
Possible detrimental effects of the high cutting temperature are:
 rapid tool wear which reduces tool life,
 plastic deformation of the cutting edge, if the cutting
material is not enough hot-hard and hot-strong
 thermal flaking and fracturing due to thermal shocks,
 build- up-edge
Measurement of tool wear
Various methods used to measure tool wear, these are:
a. direct measurement - by loss of tool material in volume
or weight, in one life time
– this method is crude and is generally applicable for
critical tools like grinding wheels.
b. grooving and indentation method – in this method
approximate wear depth is measured indirectly by the
difference in length of the groove or the indentation
outside and inside the worn area
c. using optical microscope fitted with micrometer – very
common and effective method
d. using scanning electron microscope – used generally, for
detailed study; both qualitative and quantitative
e. Talysurf, specially for shallow crater wear.
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Tool life: Definition
Tool life generally indicates, the amount of satisfactory
performance or service rendered by a fresh tool or a
cutting point till it is declared failed.
Tool life is defined in two ways :
(a) In R&D: Actual machining time (period) by which a
fresh cutting tool (or point) satisfactorily works after
which it needs replacement or reconditioning.
− Modern tools hardly fail prematurely or abruptly by
mechanical breakage or rapid plastic deformation.
− Tool fails mostly by slowly wearing with machining time.
Here, tool life means the span of actual machining time
by which a fresh tool can work before attaining the
specified limit of tool wear.
− Mostly tool life is decided by machining time till flank
wear, Vb reaches 0.3 mm or crater wear reaches 0.15 mm.
Major Effects
• Excessive temperature 
lowers the strength, 
hardness, stiffness, and 
wear resistance of the 
cutting tool;  tools also may 
soften and undergo plastic 
deformation;  thus tool 
shape is altered.
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Tool life: Definition
In industries or shop floor:
The length of time of satisfactory service or amount
of acceptable output provided by a fresh tool prior to
it is required to replace or recondition.
Assessment of tool life
For R & D purposes, tool life is always assessed or expressed by
span of machining time in minutes,
In industries, machining time in minutes, and some other means
are also used to assess tool life, depending upon the situation,
such as:
• number of pieces of work machined
• total volume of material removed
• total length of cut.
Major Effects
• Increased heat causes uneven dimensional changes in the part 
being machined, making it difficult to control its dimensional 
accuracy and tolerances.
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Major Effects Temperature Distribution

• Excessive temperature rise can induce thermal 
damage and metallurgical changes in the machined 
surface, adversely affecting its properties.

• The maximum temperature is about halfway up the 
tool‐chip interface.

Techniques for Measuring Temperature
21.5 Tool Life: Wear and Failure
Traditional • Tool wear is a major consideration 
Infrared in all machining operations.  Tool 
Thermometer wear adversely affects tool life, 
quality of the machined surface 
and its dimensional accuracy, and 
cutting operations
• Thermocouples embedded in the tool.
• Thermal emf (electormotive force) at the tool‐chip 
interface, which acts as a hot junction between two 
different materials.
• Infrared radiation from the cutting zone may be 
monitored with a radiation pyrometer.

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Tool Wear Tool Wear

• Crater Wear
• Tool‐chip interface
• Predominant at high speed
• Mitigated by efficient use of 
carbides
Flank wear
• Tool‐work piece inter
• Predominant at low speeds

• (a) Crater Wear
• (b) Flank wear on a carbide tool

Tool Life Curves Tool Life Curves

• Effect of work piece microstructure on tool life in turning.  Tool life is 
• Tool life curves for a variety of cutting tool materials.  The negative inverse of 
given in terms of the time(min) required to reach a flank wear land of  the slope of these curves is the exponent n in the Taylor tool life equation. (b) 
a specified dimension. (a) ductile cast iron. (b) Steels, with identical  Relationship between measured temperature during cutting and tool life (flank 
hardness.  Note the rapid decrease in tool life as the cutting speed  wear).  Note that high cutting temperatures severely reduce tool life.
increases.

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Extended Taylor’s Equation Crater Wear

Relationship between crater wear rate and average tool chip interface temperature.
(a) High speed steel, (b) Carbide, ( c ) C5 carbide

Other Types of Wear, Chipping and Facture
21.6 Surface Finish and Integrity
• Surface Finish describes the geometric features of a 
surface.
• Surface integrity pertains to the material 
properties. 

• (a)  Schematic illustration of 
types of wear observed on 
various cutting tools.
• (b)  Catastrophic tool 
failures.

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Effects of tool‐tip profile
• Built‐up edge has the greatest influence on surface 
finish.
(a) (b)

Building exterior suffers from unsightly damage of mold infestation due to Figure 20.21 Surfaces produced on steel by cutting, as observed with a
high humidity. The strong oxidation effect of photocatalyst effectively scanning electron microscope: (a) turned surface and (b) surface produced
removes mold and protects the surface integrity by shaping. Source: J. T. Black and S. Ramalingam.

Effect of tool‐tip profile Dull Tools
• Ceramic and diamond tools generally produce  • Large radius along its edge. 
better surface finish than other tools because of  • If tip radius of the tool is large in relation to the 
their much lower tendency to form a BUE. depth of cut, the cool simply will rub over the 
machined surface.
• May cause surface damage, such as tearing and 
cracking

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Factors influencing surface 
Vibration and chatter 
integrity
• Temperatures generated during processing and 
• Vibration and chatter will affect the dimension of the  possible metallurgical transformations.
workpiece surface finish adversely.
• Surface residual stresses. 
• Vibrating tool periodically changes the dimensions of 
• Severe plastic deformation and strain hardening of 
the cut. 
the machined surfaces, tearing, and cracking. 
• Excessive chatter also can cause chipping and 
premature failure of the more brittle cutting tools. 

Finish Machining and Rough 
Machining
Finish and Rough Machining
• In finish machining, it is important to consider the 
surface finish to be produced
• In rough machining, the main purpose is to remove 
a large amount of material at a high rate. Surface 
finish is not a primary consideration. 

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21.7 Machinability Machinability 
• Machinability can be defined in terms of four  • Good Machinability indicates good surface finish 
factors: and integrity, long tool life, and low force, and low 
• 1. Surface finish and surface integrity of the machined  power requirement.
part.
• Tool life and surface roughness are considered to 
• 2. Tool life. be the most important factors. 
• 3. Force and power required.
• 4. The level of difficulty in chip control.

Machinability Ratings (index) Machinability of ferrous metals
• Standard material: AISI 1112 steel, with a rating of  • Machinability of steels, alloy steels, stainless steels, 
100. and cast iron. 
• This means; for a tool life of 60min, this steel  • 21.7.1 Pg: 638.
should be machined at a cutting speed of  • Effects of various elements in steels.
100ft/min (30m/min).  • Presence of aluminum and silicon in steel is harmful. 
• Some examples; 3140 steel at 55; free‐cutting brass  • Carbon and manganese have various effects depending 
at 300; 2011 wrought aluminum at 200. on their composition. 

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Machinability of nonferrous  Machinability of miscellaneous 
metals materials
• Examples of nonferrous metals are: • Thermoplastics
• Aluminum, Copper, Magnesium, Titanium, and  • Thermosetting plastics
Zirconium.
• Polymer‐matrix composites
• 21.7.2 Pg: 640 • Metal‐matrix and ceramic matrix composites
• Graphite and Ceramics
• Wood
• 21.7.3 Pg: 641

Thermally assisted machining (hot 
machining)
Hot machining
• Metals and alloys that are difficult to machine at  • General advantages;
room temperature can be machined more easily at  • Reduced cutting force
elevated temperatures. • Increased tool life
• A source of heat (such as a torch, induced coil,  • Higher material‐removal rates
electric current, laser‐beam, electron‐beam, and  • Reduced tendency for vibration and chatter.
plasma arc) is focused onto an area just ahead of 
the cutting tool. 

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