Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630

© Scholarlink Research Institute Journals, 2011 (ISSN: 2141-7016)

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630 (ISSN: 2141-7016)

Investigation into the Effect of Tool-Chip Contact Length on

Cutting Stability
1
S.J. Ojolo and 2O. Awe
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Lagos, Lagos. Nigeria
2
Industrial Maintenance Engineering Department, Yaba College of Technology,
Lagos. Nigeria
Corresponding Author: S.J. Ojolo
___________________________________________________________________________
Abstract
This work examines the impact of feed, cutting speed, depth of cut and tool-chip contact length on machining
process stability of mild steel and aluminium alloys. Forty experiments were carried out on aluminium and mild
steel alloys based on cutting parameters (feed rate, cutting speed and depth of cut). Tests conducted entails
measuring the lengths of chips that slide on the tool face (tool-chip contact length) at various combinations of
cutting parameters. Results showed that as the cutting force increased from 347$ to 1346$ at constant depth of
cut (0.10mm) and cutting speed (47m/min), the contact length increased from 0.05mm to 0.26mm for Aluminium
alloys. At higher cutting speed of 71m/min and 0.20mm depth of cut, lower cutting force of 261$ to 612$ was
recorded giving rise to increased contact length of 0.57mm to 0.81mm. Higher values of contact length (0.08mm
to 0.74mm) were obtained for mild steel as the cutting force increased from 505$ to 1187$ at the same cutting
conditions for aluminium. At higher cutting speed of 71m/min and 0.20mm depth of cut, lower cutting force of
484$ to 1105$ were obtained for mild steel with contact length increasing from 0.73mm to 0.90mm. Therefore,
tool-chip contact length decreases as feed rate increases and mild steel gives higher instability of machining
process than aluminium alloys under the same cutting conditions.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Keywords: feed rate; depth of cut; cutting speed; mild steel; aluminum; machining
__________________________________________________________________________________________
I!TRODUCTIO! high quality and fully automated production focuses
Vast majority of manufactured products require attention on the surface condition of the product; in
machining at some stage in their production, ranging particular, the roughness of the machined surface as it
from relatively rough operations to high-precision affects product appearance, function and reliability;
processing (tolerances of 0.001 mm or less) the quality of the machined surface is useful in
associated with high quality surface finish. Hence, diagnosing the stability of the machining process,
machining is undoubtedly the most important of the because a deteriorating surface finish may indicate
basic manufacturing processes; and so since work-piece material non-homogeneity, progressive
industries around the world spend billions of dollars tool wear, cutting tool chatter, etc (Mohammed et al,
per year to perform metal removal (DeGarmo et al. 2007). The quality of the surface also plays a very
1997). Machining can be referred to as the removal of important role in the performance of turning as a
metal chips from a work-piece in order to obtain a good-quality turned surface significantly improves
finished product with the attributes like size, shape, fatigue strength, corrosion resistance, and creep life
and surface roughness (Hayes et al, 2006). A recent while surface roughness affects several functional
estimate in industrialized countries showed that the attributes of parts, such as wearing, heat transmission,
cost of machining accounts to more than 15% of the ability to hold lubricant, coating or resisting fatigue.
total value of all products by their entire On the other hand, several factors influence the final
manufacturing industry, whether or not these surface roughness in end-turning operation
products are machined, whereas an estimated 15% of (Astakhov, 2004). However, factors such as spindle
the value of all mechanical components manufactured speed, feed rate and depth of cut responsible for
worldwide is derived from machining operations cutting operations can be set-up in advance. Factors
(Merchant, 1998; Astakhov, 2004). Despite its such as, tool geometry, tool wear and chip formation,
obvious economic and technical importance, or the material properties of both tool and work-piece
machining remains one of the least understood are uncontrollable (Boothroyd and Knight, 1989).
manufacturing operations due to low predictive
ability of the machining models (Coelho et al, 2003). According to some studies on metal cutting, factors
such as cutting speed have the greatest influence on
It is important to maintain consistent tolerances and tool wear and consequently tool life, while other
surface finish in machining because the demand for parameters and characteristics of the cutting process

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630 (ISSN: 2141-7016)
have not attracted as much attention in this respect
(Ashok and Tanmaya, 2008; Ivana, 1998). It was also
found that depth of cut does not have a significant
influence on the tool wear rate (Astakhov and Shvets,
2004).
According to Coelho et al (1986), cutting at a
constant cutting speed and width of cut can
sometimes lead to the transition from an unstable to a
stable condition by increasing the feed. However, the
shape of the stable boundary obtained showed that
the greatest benefit from increasing feed occurs at a
relatively low feeds. At higher feeds the curve
becomes flat making stabilization by this method,
impractical. In addition, it should be noted that a
large feed may not give stable machining and that a
small feed (reduced metal removal rate) results in
promoting chatter (Sadik and Lindström, 1993).
MATERIALS A!D METHODS
Materials Used for the Experiment
The following materials were used for the research
work: Colcherster Mastiff 1400 lathe machine, force
dynamometer- Type 9263 (force transducer), carbide
cutting inserts/high speed steel cutting tool,
calliper/micrometer, mild steel and aluminium alloy
workpiece, each with dimensions 32mm by 290mm
in diameter and length respectively. Figure 1 shows
the experimental set-up.
Figure 1: Setup for the experimental procedure
Experimental Procedure
Forty experimental tests were conducted; the first
experiment entails keeping cutting speed and depth of
cut at given values constant while feed is varied; the
second involves keeping cutting speed constant while
depth of cut and feed are varied across the range of
values. The length of the chip that slides on the tool
face, i.e., tool-chip contact length is measured. The
total contact length l c was obtained measuring chip
traces on the rake face by a caliper. The tool rake face
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was carefully polished and cleaned before each test is
carried out while each successive test were performed
on a new section of the cutting edge to eliminate wear
effects. Graphs were plotted using MATLAB.
The whole experimental procedure is carried out in
two steps. The first step involves a testing procedure
where at a given depth of cut, feed rate and cutting
speed, a Kistler turning dynamometer (Type 9263)
was used to measure the thrust, and cutting/feed
forces. Outputs from the dynamometer were fed into
the Kistler charge amplifiers, generating direct
current (DC) signals that will be transmitted to the
data-acquisition card installed on a personal
computer. The amplifiers must be set to match the
settings on the computer. Custom built software
installed on the computer will receive the force data
in analog form and thereafter convert same to a
digital format, which is later transferred to
spreadsheets for analysis. Figure 1 shows the set up
for the experimental procedure.
The second step involves a sensitivity analysis which
is done by repeating the first step while adjusting
each of the three critical parameters namely: depth of
cut between 0.10 and 0.20mm, feed rate ranging from
0.05 to 0.50mm/rev and cutting speed between 47
and 71m/min.
RESULTS A!D DISCUSSIO!
The interaction of a cutting tool with the rotating
work-piece produces cutting forces that combine with
tangential, feed and radial forces. These forces were
measured by a three-component turning
dynamometer. The tangential force produces the
greatest among the three cutting force components,
generating torque on the work-piece being rotated by
the spindle. The outputs are shown in Table 1.
The result of the experiments carried out on
aluminum and mild steel to investigate the effect of
feed and tool-chip contact length on metal cutting
stability during orthogonal machining is shown in
Figures 2 to 5.
Figures 2 and 3 show the relationship between
contact length and feed rate at different cutting
conditions. Figure 2 shows the relationship obtained
between the tool-chip contact length of aluminum
and mild steel at varying feed rates 0.05, 0.11, 0.13,
0.19 and 0.26 mm/rev, constant depth of cut of
0.10mm and constant speeds, 47m/min and 71m/min.
The tool-chip contact lengths obtained for aluminium
at constant speed of 47m/min and 0.10mm depth of
cut increased from 0.05mm to 0.53mm as the feed
rate increased from 0.05mm/rev to 0.26mm/rev. As
the cutting speed increased to 71m/min under the
same conditions, lower values of tool-chip contact
length 0.03mm to 0.47mm were obtained. This is
 Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630 (ISSN: 2141-7016)

similar to 0.38 mm and 0.32 mm obtained by Iqbal et
al (2008) at cutting speeds of 200m/min and
800m/min for high speed machining of AISI 1050
steel.
Though aluminum is more ductile than mild steel,
results clearly show that the tool-chip contact lengths
values obtained at cutting speeds of 41m/min and
71m/min were less than 0.08mm to 0.74mm and
0.04mm to 0.61mm for mild steel at the same cutting
conditions. This gives an average value of 25.4%
reduction in tool-contact lengths. This shows that
there is more stability during aluminium alloy cutting
than that of mild steel. The result obtained here is
similar to that of low contact length at low speed
obtained by Molinari et al (2002) during high speed
machining of Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

Table 1: Variations in tool-chip contact length, cutting and thrust forces as feed rate changes
Aluminum

47m/min 71m/min

Feed, f Chip-tool Cutting Thrust force, Resultant force, Chip-tool Cutting Thrust Resultant
(mm/rev.) contact force, F(!) F(!) contact force, F(!) force, F(!) force,
length (mm) F (!) length (mm) F(!)

d=0.10mm
0.05 0.05 347.00 415.00 540.96 0.03 226.36 377.27 472.72
0.11 0.32 445.00 632.40 773.28 0.14 333.45 574.91 714.92
0.13 0.39 520.00 731.50 897.49 0.28 325.85 665.00 800.79
0.19 0.41 770.00 1012.60 1272.11 0.34 616.00 920.55 1185.25
0.26 0.53 1346.00 1332.00 1893.66 0.47 520.69 1210.91 1430.15
d=0.20mm
0.30 0.57 334.57 576.85 666.85 0.51 261.18 483.67 633.22
0.35 0.63 476.83 822.12 950.39 0.58 349.01 671.18 893.14
0.40 0.71 521.41 965.58 1097.37 0.61 404.63 763.45 1046.93
0.45 0.77 620.22 1265.75 1409.54 0.73 411.65 840.11 1331.01
0.50 0.81 696.34 1698.40 1835.61 0.78 612.16 1302.47 1805.35

Mild Steel
47m/min 71m/min
d=0.10mm
0.05 0.08 505.23 902.20 1034.03 0.04 344.22 688.45 965.64
0.11 0.40 613.21 1157.00 1309.46 0.36 503.24 882.88 1261.71
0.13 0.47 784.16 1352.00 1562.95 0.43 526.16 1031.68 1450.77
0.19 0.59 1081.08 2002.00 2275.24 0.52 748.56 1527.68 2137.37
0.26 0.74 1187.17 2826.60 3065.79 0.61 1068.19 2670.46 3021.70
d=0.20mm
0.30 0.76 1213.29 703.71 1402.59 0.73 484.34 835.06 854.27
0.35 0.81 1648.15 890.00 1873.10 0.78 612.56 1134.36 1080.43
0.40 0.86 2020.20 1212.12 2355.94 0.82 834.26 1390.43 1471.47
0.45 0.91 2498.06 1274.01 2804.17 0.85 876.86 1719.33 1546.60
0.50 0.94 3642.03 1893.86 4105.01 0.90 1105.07 2762.69 2192.69

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630 (ISSN: 2141-7016)
Figure 2: Effect of tool-chip contact length and feed
on aluminium and mild steel at a depth of cut, 0.10m
and constant speeds V= 47m/min and 71m/min
As the depth of cut increased from 0.10mm to
0.20mm, the tool-chip contact length of aluminium
increased from 0.57mm to 0.81mm at constant speed
of 47m/min (Figure 3). The same trend was observed
at cutting speed of 71m/min but with reduction in the
tool-chip contact length (0.51mm to 0.78mm). At
these conditions, more materials are removed from
the work piece, leading to longer chips sliding on the
tool face. This result is in agreement with 0.38mm
and 1.08mm obtained by Abukhshim et al (2006)
during high speed machining of alloy steel at depth of
cut of 0.1mm and 0.30mm respectively. This showed
an average reduction of approximately 4.67 and
8.02% in mild steel and aluminum respectively.
Hence, there is a considerable reduction in the
instability of machining process with increased
cutting speed.
Figure 3: Effect of tool-chip contact length and feed
on aluminium and mild steel at a depth of cut,
0.20mm and constant speeds, V=47m/min and
71m/min
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Figure 4 shows the relationship obtained between the
resultant force of aluminum and mild steel at varying
feed rates 0.05 to 0.26 mm/rev, constant depth of cut
and speed of 0.10mm and 47m/min respectively. As
shown, resultant force rises (540N to 1893N) with
increase in feed rate (0.05 mm/rev to 0.26mm/rev). It
implied that as the feed rate increases, more material
is removed from the work-piece, this will require
more force to achieve this removal, hence, the
increased resultant force. It can be seen that
instability of cutting in mild steel is similar in trend to
that of aluminum, the only difference being that mild
steel gives higher instability than aluminum, under
the same cutting conditions. This could be due to the
high percentage of carbon present in mild steel
thereby making it harder than aluminum, coupled
with the interaction of cutting tool on mild steel
work-piece. As the cutting speed increased to
71m/min, there is decrease in the resultant force on
both metals; mild steel (1034N to 965N) and
aluminum (472N to 540N) having approximate
reductions of 4.44% and 14.39% respectively.
Figure 4: Effect of feed on the resultant forces of
aluminum and mild steel at a depth of cut, 0.10m and
constant speeds , V= 47m/min and 71m/min
At the same speed of 47m/min but different depth of
cut of 0.20mm and feed rate of 0.3mm/rev to 0.50
mm/rev, there is an increase in the resultant force as
depicted in Figure 5. There is a slightly steady
increase in the resultant force for mild steel up to
2804.17N before a sudden upswing to 4105.01N
giving an approximate increase of 46%. There was a
reduction in resultant force as the cutting speed
increased to 71m/min, ranging from 2508.16N to
1429.1N and 1192 to 1141.9N approximating 75.5%
and 4.4 % reductions for mild steel and aluminum
respectively. Hence, it can be concluded that
instability is higher when turning mild steel than
aluminium alloys.
Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences (JETEAS) 2 (4): 626-630 (ISSN: 2141-7016)

Astakhov, V.P. (2004). The assessment of cutting to

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Figure 5: Effect of feed on the resultant forces of
Hayes, T.A., Kassner, M.E., Rosen, R.S. (2006).
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CO!CLUSIO!
Iqbal, S.A., Mativenga, P.T., Sheikh, M.A. (2008).
The work has investigated the effects of tool-chip
Contact length prediction: mathematical models and
contact length on cutting stability during machining
effect of friction schemes on FEM simulation for
of mild steel and aluminium alloys. The results
conventional to HSM of AISI 1045 steel. Int J.
showed that tool-chip contact length decreased with
Machinability Machining Mater vol.3, nos. 1&2,
increased cutting speed under the same conditions of
pp18–33
feed rates and depth of cut for the two metals
considered. As the feed rates increased, the tool-chip
Ivana K. (1998). "The chatter vibrations in metal
contact length increased at constant cutting speed for
cutting - theoretical approach", The scientific journal
the two metals. There was also a decrease in the
FACTA UNIVERSITATIS, Series: Mechanical
cutting force as the cutting speed and feed rates
Engineering Vol.1, No 5, 1998 pp. 581- 593
increased. It can therefore be concluded that as
cutting force increases, the tool-chip contact length
Mohammed, T.H., Montasser, S.T., Joachim, B.
increases leading to decrease in cutting stability. Low
(2007). A study of the effects of machining
feed rates lead to low tool-chip contact length which
parameters on the surface roughness in end-milling
in turn increases metal cutting stability. Also, metal
process. Jordan Journal of Machining and Industrial
cutting stability could be achieved at high speed and
Engineering, vol. 1, no. 1, pp 1-5.
depth of cut, therefore, aluminium alloys have better
stability during cutting than mild steel.
Molinari, A., Musquar, C., Sutter, G. (2002)
Adiabatic shear banding in high speed machining of
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