The influence of tool coating on the length of the normal operating region (steady-state wear) for micro end mills

An Experimental Investigation on Micro End Milling with High-Speed Up Cut Milling for Hardened Die Steel

“…At this time, it was possible to precisely measure the profile of the cutting edge and radius reduction of the tool with the pickup of the roughness testing machine for surface roughness measurement [ 20 ]. It could be noted that most studies on tool wear [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] evaluate tool wear based on cutting edge observation; however, the method presented herein has the ability to measure details of the tool edge shape. Furthermore, the positions of the cutting edges in the axial direction of the tool were measured at five locations where the workpieces were actually machined, as this is necessary to obtain the flank wear width compared with the nose shape of the cutting edge, which was not interfered with the workpiece.…”

“…M. Bohley et al [ 15 ] and C. Bandapalli et al [ 16 ] conducted a study on the conditions around tool wear during the micro end milling of a Ti-alloy, and I. G. Reichenbach [ 17 ] showed tool life criteria and the wear behavior of single-edge ultra-small micro end mill for polymethyl methacrylate. Moreover, K. Vipindas [ 18 ] and L. Alhadeff [ 19 ] investigated changes in machining performance considering tool wear in a Ti-alloy and brass, respectively, and N. Swain [ 20 ] experimentally studied the machining characteristics of a Ni-alloy using micro end mills. Nevertheless, there are only a few papers to date that have dealt with the actual machining phenomena of a hardened die steel, a material widely used for the manufacture of industrial parts.…”