Tool Life Distributions—Part 3: Mechanism of Single Injury Tool Failure and Tool Life Distribution in Interrupted Cutting

Abstract

Tool life distribution under production machining conditions must be suitably accounted for in any rational design of large volume or automated machining lines. Reliable data on the type of distributions likely to be encountered are, however, unavailable. To remedy this, using relevent physical arguments, probabilistic models of tool failure which produce distribution functions germane to tool life scatter have been proposed and developed in earlier parts of this paper. An arbitrarily introduced hazard function was used to predict the life distributions likely to be obtained. The details of the mechanisms giving rise to tool failure were, however, not examined. Mechanistic questions connected with the single-injury tool failure (tool fracture) are examined in this part. The arbitrarily introduced hazard function is shown to have a physical basis. It is shown that the hazard function is determined by the interaction between the characteristics of the environment in which the tool operates and the mechanical properties of the tool material. The concepts outlined and the mechanistic model of tool failure proposed have been tested experimentally in interrupted cutting. It is shown that the predicted Weibull-distributed tool life is obtained when tool failure is due to a single injury and that the parameters of the Weibull distribution are governed by the properties of the tool material as well as those of the machining system.