Experimental investigation on tool wear and measurement method in micro milling with carbide tools

Abstract

In this paper, the carbide tool wear in micro milling is investigated and a new tool wear measurement method is proposed. Al7075 alloy and C45 steel is used as the work-piece materials due to their common application. The cutting tools with different machining time are obtained by experiments and the states of tool wear with different work-piece materials are compared. The influence of tool wear on micro milling forces and surface topographies is studied through experiments. The traditional tool wear measurement methods based on the tool edge radius, tool diameter and flank wear width are introduced. For a more complete explanation of the tool wear, a new tool wear measurement method based on the wear area is proposed. The carbide tool wear values based on the tool edge radius, tool diameter, and flank wear width and wear area are measured and the tool wear process is obtained. Compared with the traditional methods, the new tool wear measurement method based on the wear area can explain the tool wear process more reasonable.