The method of using maps and diagrams to present wear rates and wear mechanisms, as well as showing the relationships between them, has been app2ied to cutting tools. In this s u m m a y paper, wear maps obtained earlier for uncoated high-speed steel ( H S S )
INTRODUCTlONA primary cause of cutting-tool replacement in the manufacturing industry is tool wear. Its impact on a nation's economy can be gauged from a report that a significant portion of the estimated €20,000 million spent per m u m on metal cutting in the UK in the early 1980s was used for replacing worn tools, and about $4,000 million was wasted every year due to inefficient application of modern tools and tooling techno1ogy.l Although this data is more than a decade old, it nevertheless highlights the severity of this problem. A sizeable reduction in the total operating cost to industry could therefore be achieved if the cutting tools could be used for longer before being replaced; productivity could also be increased as less time would be spent setting up these tools when they were replaced. One way to achieve this goal is to make cutting tools from more wear-resistant materials, another is to use the tools in conditions that will result in lower rates of tool wear. The use of more wear-resistant cutting tools invariably increases operating costs,