Influence of tool wear on ultra-precision cutting process of aluminum alloy

Cutting edge wear of a single crystal diamond tool in ultra-precision cutting is a serious problem because the tool wear deteriorates accuracy and surface integrity of machined parts. The purpose of this study is to find out effective parameters for monitoring the tool wear. The results obtained are as follows: (1) the principal and thrust forces increased with an increase in real cutting distance, but the feed force continued to be about zero against an increase of cutting distance, (2) rate of increase in the thrust force with increase in the cutting distance was larger than that of the principal force, (3) the RMS-values of the AE-signals also increased with an increase in real cutting distance. (4) the AE-signal component between frequencies of 20 kHz and 30 kHz sharply increased just before the tool life. As a result of consideration of these results, it is demonstrated that the thrust force and the AE-signals are effective parameters to detect the tool wear of the single crystal diamond tool.