Cutting Tool Selection through Tool Wear, Cost, Power Consumption and Surface Roughness Analyses

This paper presents a comparative analysis between equivalent cutting tools from different manufacturers. The study has been carried out with solid carbide flat end mill cutting tools with four flutes and the same cutting conditions for the two tools providers compared. Several aspects have been taken into consideration: tool wear, power consumption and surface roughness. Experimental data has been used to compare the low-cost cutting tool and the high performance cutting tool which provided better results. It has been determined that the higher wear of the low cost tools increases the production cost and, despite their initial low cost, it is not worth to select them to carry out industrial processes where surface roughness requirement is a constraint.