MONITORING THE WEAR OF SINTERED HIGH-SPEED-STEEL TOOLS

This paper presents the results of a detalied investigation into the relationship between the wear of sintered T15 high-speed-steel cutting tools and the associated cutting forces. The equations for the cutting forces are established taking into account the influence of both crater and flank wear. The experimental results show that during the initial stage of wear, crater wear promotes a decrease of the cutting forces. This behviour of the cutting forces is related to the change of the actual side-rake angle, which depends on the crater depth and width. When the true rake-angle reaches a maximum, the cutting forces tend to stabilize, unless flank wear progresses at a high wear-rate, in which case the cutting forces increase until the failure of the cutting tool. According to the proposed model, the measurement of cutting forces could provide an adequate control variable for monitoring the wear of high-speed-steel tools.