Investigation of chip formation, cutting force and surface roughness during orthogonal cutting of polytetrafluoroethylene

Abstract

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has become a significant material for producing key components like special pumps, pipes, sealing rings in various fields, especially in the immersion lithography. However, most of these components are produced by molding techniques. The lack of researches related to the mechanical cutting of PTFE leads to many challenges in producing complex parts. This paper investigated the cutting performance of PTFE by orthogonal cutting experiments. Chip formation, cutting force, and surface quality were used to evaluate the influence of cutting parameters on cutting performance. The effect of cutting parameters on the cutting force and surface roughness was investigated by using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). And an empirical-mathematical model was developed for cutting force and surface roughness. The results showed that the cutting depth had the most obvious effect on cutting force while the cutting speed had the most significant effect on surface roughness. The smallest cutting force of 33.519 N and the best surface quality were achieved when the cutting speed and depth were 300 mm/min and 0.1 mm. And the proposed model showed good accuracy, which had the maximum error of 2.89 and 2.75% for cutting force and surface roughness, respectively. The present study suggests that higher cutting speed with small cutting depth is ideal conditions for ensuring the cutting performance and machining quality of PTFE.