The performance of small diameter twist drills in deep-hole drilling

This paper investigates the performance of small diameter high-speed steel twist drills drilling boreholes with a depth of ten times the diameter into carbon steel AISI 1045 using minimum quantity lubrication. The performance of small twist drills is determined, first, by their deep-hole drilling capability, i.e., in how far the cutting forces can be kept at a noncritical level by maintaining the chip disposal, and, second, by their tool life. This work shows that both the deep-hole drilling capability and tool life of small drills are strongly dependent on their geometry, in particular the size of the chip flutes, and the flute surface topography.