An experimental study of temperature at the tip of point-attack pick during rock cutting process

A special thermocouple configuration was developed to measure the temperature upon the contact surface between a point-attack pick and the rock material. The transient temperature at the hot spot was successfully measured when the rock advanced against the pick. The effects of the cutting parameters including depth of cut (DOC), spacing and cutting speed on pick temperature were investigated. It was found that the pick tip temperature increased significantly with the increased DOC and cutting speed. The effect of spacing on the pick tip temperature was smaller than that of the DOC and cutting speed, particularly when the spacing was greater than that required to change from unrelieved to relieved cutting. For all cutting conditions used, the pick tip temperature varied from 313 °C to 1100 °C. The highest temperature was obtained as about 1100 °C with cutting speed of 2.5 m/s, DOC of 10 mm and spacing of 50 mm. Reddish and black discontinuous banding chips were found in the cutting grooves under this cutting condition.