Investigation into the effect of cutting environment on tool life during the milling of a BS970-080A15 (En32b) low carbon steel

Tool wear and eventual tool failure is a consequence of all machining operations and has been the subject of investigative research for the better part of the last century. The demand for higher productivity and reduced costs, together with the introduction of environmental legislation has required a reassessment of conventional cooling practices and the evaluation of other possible alternatives. Experiential research studies have been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of various environments on tool wear, in order to either reduce, or even eliminate totally, the dependency on flood coolants. The work reported herein subjects the tool tip interface to a range of cutting environments to comparatively evaluate their effect on tool life. It is well understood that heat dissipation, cooling, and oxidation play a significant role within metal cutting operations. The nitrogen-rich environments are shown to resist flank wear progression at higher cutting speeds with the lowest overall flank wear recorded for the tests undertaken. In this respect nitrogen-rich cutting environments have been shown to offer a significant improvement in tool wear, and can now be considered as a potential “clean” alternative to conventional cutting fluids.