KRISHNA ENGINEERING COLLEGE,GHAZIABAD

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Basic Interview questions on Metal Cutting

 

1. Define Metal Cutting .

Metal cutting is “the process of removing unwanted material in the form of chips, from a
block of metal, using cutting tool”

2. How is metal removed in metal cutting?

The metal in front of the cutting tool rake face gets immediately compressed first elastically
and then plastically. This zone is traditionally called as shear zone in view of the fact the
material in the final form would be removed by shear from the parent metal.

3. Define Machining.
Machining is the manufacturing process by which parts can be produced to the desired
dimensions and surface finish from a blank by gradual removal of the excess material in the
form of chips with the help of a sharp cutting tool.

4. Which metal is used for metal work?

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, which typically includes a mix of iron ore, coal,
limestone and other elements. It is the most common steel utilized in metal fabrication, and
has an almost endless list of uses from construction materials to machinery and weaponry.

5. What are the important characteristics of materials used for cutting tools?

 High red hardness                           

 High wear resistance

 Low frictional co- efficient

 High toughness

 High thermal conductivity.

6. How do you define tool life?
The duration for which the tool is usable for machining, i.e, the time taken till there
is tool failure. 

7. What is tool signature?

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 1
College,Ghaziabad
 Tool signature is a numerical code that describes all the key angles of a given cutting tool.
convenient way to specify tool angles by use of standardized abbreviated system is known
as tool signature or tool nomenclature 

8. What is the difference between negative and positive rake?

Differences between positive rake angle and negative rake angle.
Cutting tool with positive rake offers a sharp cutting edge. Cutting tool with negative
rake has less sharpness at the cutting edge. ... Due to small wedge angle, tool tip has less
strength and is prone to sudden breakage or catastrophic failure.

9. What is the effect of nose radius in tools?

The nose radius of a cutting tool determines the strength of the tool point and along with
feed rate determines the part finish. A larger nose radius is stronger than a tool with a
smaller radius. The larger radius tool will be better able to resist mechanical failure
(chipping orbreaking)
 

10. What are all conditions for using positive rake angle?

 To machine the work hardened materials.

 To machine low strength ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

 To machine long shaft of small diameters.

 To machine the metal blow recommended cutting speeds.

 Using small machine tools with low horsepower.

11. Define the orthogonal and oblique cutting.

Orthogonal cutting: The cutting edge of tool is perpendicular to the work piece axis. 
Oblique cutting: The cutting edge is inclined at an acute angle with normal to the
cutting velocity vector is called oblique cutting process.
 

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 2

College,Ghaziabad
 12. What are the favorable factors for discontinuous chip formation?

 Machining of brittle materials.                     

 Small rake angle

 Higher depth of cut                                   

 Low cutting speeds

 Excess cutting fluid.

 Cutting ductile materials with low speed and small rake angle of the tool.

13.   What are the favorable factors for continuous chip formation?

 Small rake angle                                       

 Low cutting speed

 Strong adhesion between chip and tool face.       

 Coarse feed

 Insufficient cutting fluid.                           

 Large uncut thickness.

14. Define machineability of metal.

Machine ability is defined as the ease with which a material can be satisfactorily machined.  

15. What is shear plane?

The material of work piece is stressed beyond its yield point under the compressive force.
This causes the material to deform plastically and shear off. The plastic flow takes place in a
localized region is called shear plane.
 

16. What is chip and mention its different types?

The sheared material begins to along the cutting tool face in the form of small pieces is called
chip. The chips are mainly classified into three types.

 Continuous chip.

 Discontinuous chip.

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 3

College,Ghaziabad
  Continuous chip with built up edge.

17. Write the factors affecting the tool life or Write the Taylor’s tool life equation.
Taylor’s equation VT n = C
 Cutting speed  Type of Cutting Fluid

 Feed and Depth of cut.  Work material

 Tool Geometry  Rigidity of the Machine tool.

 Tool material

18. Define “Side relief” and “End relief” angle.

Side relief angle: It is the angle between the portion of the side flank immediately below
the side cutting edge and a line perpendicular to the base of the tool, and measured at right
angle to the side flank.

End relief angle: It is the angle between the portion of the end flank immediately below
the end cutting edge and a line perpendicular to the base of the tool, and measured at right
angle to the angle.

19. What are the differences between orthogonal cutting and oblique cutting?

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 4

College,Ghaziabad
20. What are the three basic categories of material removal processes?

 Conventional Machining
 Abrasive Processes
 Nontraditional processes

21. What distinguishes machining from other manufacturing processes?

Material is removed from the work part so that the remaining material is the desired part
geometry
22. Identify some of the reasons why machining is commercially and technologically
important

 Variety of work materials

 Variety of part shapes and geometric features

 dimensional accuracy

 good surface finish

23. Name the three most common machining processes.

 turning

 drilling

 milling

24. What are the two basic categories of cutting tools in machining? Give two examples of
machining operations that use each of the tooling types.

 Single-Point Tool

o Turning

o Boring

 Multiple-Cutting Edge Tool

o Milling

o Drilling

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 5

College,Ghaziabad
25. What are the parameters of a machining operation that are included within the scope of
cutting consitions?

 cutting speed

 feed

 depth of cut

26. What is a machine tool?

Used to hold the workpart, position the tool relative to the work, and provide power for the
machining process at the speed, feed, and depth of cut that have been set
27. What is an orthogonal cutting operation?
Uses a wedge-shape tool in which the cutting edge is perpendicular to the direction of cutting
speed motion into the work piece
28. Why is the orthogonal cutting model useful in the analysis of metal machining?
Simplifies the rather complex 3-Dimensional machining situation to 2-dimensions. The
tooling in orthogonal model has only 2 parameters which is a simpler geometry than a single
point tool.

29. Name and briefly describe the four types of chips that occur in metal cutting.

 Discontinous Chip
o relatively brittle materials machined at low cutting speed
o Separate segments, some loosely atached at times
 Continous Chip
o ductile work material cut at high speed and small feeds/depth
o Long continous chips are formed, with good surface finish resulting
 Continous Chip with Built-up Edge
o ductile materials at low-medium cutting speeds
o portions of work material adhere to rake faces of tool near cutting edge
 Serrated Chip
o semicontinous in the sense that they possess a sawtooth appearance that is
produced by a cyclical chip formaton alternating from high shear strain to low
shear strain
o Associated with difficult to machine metals

30. Identify the four forces that act upon the chip in the orthogonal metal-cutting model but
cannot be measured directly in an operation.

 friction force

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 6

College,Ghaziabad
  normal force to friction
 shear force
 normal force to shear

31.Identify the two forces that can be measured in the orthogonal metal-cutting model.

 cutting force
 thrust force

32. Describe in words what the Merchant equation tells us.

Defines general relationship between rake angle, tool-chip friction, and shear plane angle

  33. What is the specific energy in metal machining?

The amount of energy required to remove a unit volume of the work material

34. What is a tool-chip thermocouple?

Comprised of the tool and chip as the two dissimilar metals forming the thermocouple
junctions; as the tool-chip interface heats up during cutting, a small voltage is emitted from
the junction that can be measured to indicate cutting temperature.

35. What are the different types of tool material?

Types of cutting tool materials

 High Carbon Steel tools.
 High speed steel (H.S.S) General use of HSS is 18-4-1. 18- Tungsten is used to increase
hot hardness and stability. ...
 Non – ferrous cast alloys. It is an alloy of. Cobalt – 40 to 50%, ...
 Cemented carbides.
 Ceramics and sintered oxides.
 Cermets.
 Diamond.
 Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN)

Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 7

College,Ghaziabad
Satyajeet Singh, Asst.Professor, Krishna Engineering 8
College,Ghaziabad