Tool Temperatures in Interrupted Metal Cutting

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of theoretical and experimental studies of tool temperatures in interrupted cutting. In the theoretical study, the temperature in a semi-infinite rectangular corner heated by a time-varying heat flux with various spatial distributions is used to investigate the general nature of the tool temperature distribution. The results of this analysis are compared with infrared and tool-chip thermocouple cutting temperature measurements from interrupted end turning tests on 2024 aluminum and gray cast iron at speeds up to 18 m/s. The results show that temperatures are generally lower in interrupted cutting than in continuous cutting under the same conditions. Temperatures depend primarily on the length of cutting cycles and secondarily on the length of cooling intervals between cycles. For short cutting cycles the peak and average surface temperatures are relatively low, but they increase rapidly as the cutting cycle is lengthened and approach steady-state values for long cycles. Temperatures increase for very short cooling intervals, since in this case heat does not disperse between heating cycles, but for moderate and large values varying the cooling interval has little effect on temperatures. The theoretical analysis reproduces the qualitative trends but underestimates temperatures for short cutting cycles. The accuracy of the analysis could be improved by using a transient model to calculate the amount of heat entering the tool from the tool-chip contact.