Theoretical and experimental investigations of finish machining with a rounded edge tool

It is important to consider the effect of tool edge geometry in finish machining where the feed rate is small and on the same order of magnitude as tool edge dimension. In this paper, both theoretical and experimental investigations are performed in finish machining with a rounded edge tool. The experimental set-up is introduced first, followed by a brief description of a recently developed, new analytical model of chip formation and a commercially available finite element (FE) model. Multiple criteria, including the cutting force, the thrust force, the chip thickness, and the tool-chip natural contact length, are employed to compare experimental results with theoretical predictions from both the analytical and FE models. A good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results has been found. The analytical results show that tool-chip friction along the tool rake face and on the round tool edge decreases with increasing cutting speed and feed rate. The FE results show that large strain, high strain rate, and high temperature exist in the tertiary deformation region near the tool round edge. Particularly, the maximum temperature occurs on the round tool edge in finish machining with small feed rates.