A Slip-Line Field for Ploughing During Orthogonal Cutting

Under normal machining conditions, the cutting forces are primarily due to the bulk shearing of the workpiece material in a narrow zone called the shear zone. However, under finishing conditions, when the uncut chip thickness is of the order of the cutting edge radius, a ploughing component of the forces becomes significant as compared to the shear forces. Predicting forces under these conditions requires an estimate of ploughing. A slip-line field is developed to model the ploughing components of the cutting force. The field is based on other slip-line fields developed for a rigid wedge sliding on a half-space and for negative rake angle orthogonal cutting. It incorporates the observed phenomena of a small stable build-up of material adhered to the edge and a raised prow of material formed ahead of the edge. The model shows how ploughing forces are related to cutter edge radius—a larger edge causing larger ploughing forces. A series of experiments were run on 6061-T6 aluminum using tools with different edge radii—including some exaggerated in size—and different levels of uncut chip thickness. Resulting force measurements match well to predictions using the proposed slip-line field. The results show great promise for understanding and quantifying the effects of edge radius and worn tool on cutting forces.