3.2.

Study of the chips

Chip types in machining are determined by the combined effects of workpiece and
tool materials, cutting parameters, and tool geometry. Usually, the type of chip and
the undersurface morphology are a direct indicator of frictional conditions at the
tool/chip interface. Less friction and wear corresponds to curlier chips and a smoother
undersurface morphology [13]. Chips were collected after the tests at 100 m/min. Fig.
2shows SEM images of the chips for the four cutting tools at low (left) and high (right)
magnifications. The lower magnification images reveal some tearing of the chips,
which were adjacent to the leading tool edge due to the small depth of cut and large
nose radius used in the machining test. In the higher magnification images, the
smoothness of the chips' undersurfaces can be observed. CT1 and CT2 were
previously studied by Zawada-Tomkiewick [14] in the cutting of low chromium alloy
steel, the chips of which showed similar smooth undersurfaces. Karpat and
zel [15] showed similar geometries by 3D finite elemental analysis (FEA). In the
present study, chips produced by each cutting tool looked similarly smooth and no
concluding remarks could be obtained directly from these morphological
observations.

Fig. 2. Morphology by SEM at low (left) and high (right) magnification of the chips from the
four different cutting tools: (a) CT1, (b) CT2, (c) CT3, and (d) CT4.
Figure options

The CCR is a parameter defined as the ratio of the deformed chip thickness to its
undeformed thickness [16]. CCR is a direct indication of the frictional condition on the
tool surface, which helps explain and understand the tool wear mechanisms. Fig.
3 shows the CCRs for different cutting tools at different cutting speeds. For each tool,
one can observe the same general behavior. At low speeds (30 m/min), CCR values
are near their lowest, between 3.5 and 3.75, probably due to discontinuous chip
formation below this cutting speed. With an increase in the cutting speed to about
4050 m/min, the CCR increases dramatically to a peak of about 4.25 (CT3 and CT4)
or 5 (CT1 and CT2). Further increases in the cutting speed lead to a gradual decrease
in CCR towards the previously stated low speed CCR values. In general, chips

produced by CT2 had the highest values of CCR whereas chips produced by CT3 had
the lowest CCR values. These results could indicate greater adhesion between the cBN cutting tool and the workpiece material, thus accelerating the wear rate more
than for the Al2O3+TiC and multilayer coated carbide tools.
Fig. 7 shows SEM images of chip shapes for a cutting speed of 75 m/min, a feed rate
of 0.02 mm/tooth, and a depth of cut of 0.5 mm under dry, wet, and LN2 machining
conditions. In LN2 coolant machining, shorter chips are obtained compared to those in
dry and wet machining. This may be attributed mainly due to better penetration of
LN2 into the toolchip interface, resulting in the reduction of the cutting temperature.
At a lower temperature, the chip cannot promote curl due to increased chip hardness
and lower ductility. Further, the colour of the chips obtained under the three
machining conditions is also different. In dry cutting, the chips produced are dark
blue in colour, which was caused by the extreme heat generated at the toolchip
interface that results in burnt chips. The chips obtained in the case of wet machining
are black, which also indicates intense heat generated at the toolchip interface. This
is because the conventional coolant does not penetrate into the toolchip interface
resulting in an inadequate lubrication effect, whereas, the chips produced by
LN2 machining were silver in colour indicating chips that were not burnt, due to the
better cooling and lubrication effect.

Fig. 7. SEM photographs of chips at cutting speed of 75 m/min, feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth
and depth of cut of 0.5 mm for the (a) dry machining, (b) wet machining, and (c)
LN2 machining cases.
Figure options

Fig. 8 shows SEM images of the chip morphology for a cutting speed of 125 m/min, a
feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth, and a depth of cut of 0.5 mm under dry, wet, and
LN2 machining conditions. In dry cutting, large serrated teeth are obtained indicating
the heavy shearing action at the cutting zone. In the case of wet machining also,
similar serrated teeth are produced due to the intensive shearing action. This can be
attributed to the fact that conventional coolant does not provide effective cooling and
lubrication at the toolchip interface. However, smaller serrated teeth are produced
under LN2 machining, indicating lower shearing forces compared to those under dry
and wet machining. This is because, the penetration of LN 2 into the toolchip
interface results in the formation of a nitrogen cushion, which reduces the friction.

Fig. 8. SEM micrographs of chips at cutting speed of 125 m/min, feed rate of 0.02 mm/tooth
and depth of cut of 0.5 mm for the (a) dry machining, (b) wet machining, and (c)
LN2 machining cases.

Fig. 4. Chip morphology as a function of cutting speed and feed in the orthogonal cutting of
Ti6Al4V alloy of 330 HV. All scale bars in (b) are 100 m.
Figure options

Fig. 5. SEMs of the free surface of chips formed from Ti6Al4V alloy under the conditions
listed. The arrows indicate the chip flow direction.
Figure options

Fig. 6. (a) Lamellae on the free surface of a continuous chip produced from a tool steel of 45
HRC with cutting speed,

. (a)

, (b)

. (c) Folds on

the free surface of a continuous chip produced from the same steel (as in (a)) of 49 HRC
with

. (d) Illustration of the manner in which the depth of cut increases shortly

after initial tool engagement. (e) Lamellae on the free surface of a continuous chip produced
from Ti6Al4V alloy,

. (f) Folds on the free surface of a continuous

chip produced from Ti6Al4V alloy,

.
Figure options

Fig. 7. SEMs of a localised shear band in a Ti6Al4V chip,

The arrows point to localised shear bands. Note the elongation of the (light) -phase
lamellae in (b).
Figure options

Fig. 8. Shear surfaces on the underside of saw-tooth segments: (a)

(b),

,f=80m. The arrows indicate the chip flow direction

3.3. Chip analysis

Chips, formed during the two machining methods with the feed rate of 0.1 mm/tooth,
were analyzed (Fig. 3ad). From the figure it is observed that the chips formed at
50 m/min during machining under room temperature condition have very clear
secondary serrated teeth formed at the free edge. This is related to higher amplitude
of chatter at 50 m/min. But chips formed at 150 m/min have less pronounced
secondary serrated teeth at the free edge. This also indicates the absence of chatter

at this speed. Serrated teeth are also formed at the free edge of the chip during
machining under preheated condition.

Fig. 3. SEM top views of chips formed during: (a) room temperature machining and (b)
during preheated machining at cutting speed, Vc = 50 m/min; and (c) room temperature
machining,

and

(b)

preheated

machining

at

cutting

speed,Vc = 150 m/min.

Feed

rate, Fz = 0.1 mm/tooth, DOC = 1 mm. Magnification: 40.

Figure options

Primary serrated teeth are also observed under both the cutting conditions. The teeth
formed are more pronounced in the case of preheated machining. The frequencies of
the primary and the secondary serrated teeth are calculated from the SEM
micrographs taking into consideration of the coefficient of chip shrinkage, cutting
speed and magnification of the picture. It is observed from Fig. 4 that the primary
chip serration frequency is higher at room temperature machining.
Cutting of ductile materials consists of plastic deformation in small areas. The cutting
velocity affects the temperature, chip formation, mechanics and metallurgy in cutting
processes based on the phenomena described at the beginning of Section 2. With
increasing cutting speeds the time for material deformation in a cutting process
decreases and the deformation takes place in a limited area. The material shearing
process produces significant amounts of heat in the shear zone. The temperatures
occurring in the small scale shear zone in high speed cutting affect the whole process
including tool wear, material behaviour and friction[41] and [178].
The limiting factor as regards cutting velocity for many workpiece materials is the
tool wear and resulting tool failure. The main reason for these problems is that the
temperature increases asymptotically with cutting speed approaching the workpiece
material melting temperature. However, the cutting speed range where the ultimate
temperatures are reached is material-specific. Titanium alloys, for example, and steel
AISI 1045 show similar chip temperatures but the cutting speed varies by an order of
ten. The highest temperature rise in cutting metals is found at conventional cutting
speeds [21], [44], [91], [107], [150] and [154].

The temperature in the shear zone has a radical influence on chip formation. When
cutting steel or aluminium alloys with low speeds, continuous chip formation takes
place in accordance with the shear plane model. As the speed increases, the average
chip compression ratio decreases, the shear angle increases and a change to higher
shear localisation is identified as shown in Fig. 6. At high cutting speeds, thin shear
bands may be observed in comparison to conventional cutting speeds. It is
anticipated that the higher strain rates will cause an increase in the shear force at
the shear zone. Since the shear time decreases with increasing cutting speeds, the
temperature gradients within the shear bands become higher and lead, therefore, to
a higher shear localisation [21], [92] and [188].

Fig. 6. Influence of the cutting speed on chip formation.

Figure options

With further increases in the cutting speed the material failure mechanism changes.
The temperature and the chip formation mechanism have a radical influence on the
cutting power and hence the process forces. Shear localisation and material failure
mechanisms lead to a change in chip formation resulting in a reduction of process
forces [188]. As regards the measurement of process forces at high cutting speeds, it
is necessary to consider the dynamic behaviour of the measurement device in order
to avoid measurement errors [159].
The characteristics of the cutting force behaviour with increasing cutting speed have
been subject to some initial fundamental investigations [6] and [98]. The
corresponding cutting power can be subdivided into a constant fraction of power
required for the high speed cutting range and a variable fraction depending on the
cutting speed [188]. The point of inflection of the variable power fraction is then
defined as the transition velocity vHSC. This shift cutting speed can be calculated on
the basis of mechanical and thermal properties for various materials:
(10)

where TM melting temperature, Rm tensile strength, cp specific heat capacity,

thermal conductivity and density.
Fig. 7 shows the shift speed for different materials. Siems [166] enhances the
correlation between chip formation mechanism and cutting forces. The cutting forces

decrease with higher cutting speeds for all materials investigated. For materials with
a change in chip formation from continuous to segmented this decrease begins with
initiation of segmentation.

Fig. 7. Material specific definition of the HSC range.

Figure options

The cutting forces approach a minimum for these metals. Materials with continuous
chip formation, however, exhibit an increase in cutting forces for high cutting speeds
after a local minimum [166]. Fig. 8 shows the change in force for wide range of
cutting speeds [91].

Fig. 8. Cutting force propagation for a wide range of cutting speeds.

Figure options

According to Arndt, the forces of inertia exceed the forces due to friction, separation
and shearing when a critical cutting speed of around vc = 8000 m/min is reached.
Sutter and Molinari identify this border velocity as being around 1200 m/min for
42CrMo4 [175] and [176].

3.3. Chip formation

Fig. 7 shows the progress of the chip shapes and chip
undersurfaces versus the length of cut. Curly chips with a
smooth undersurface were observed at the initial stage of
wear (Fig. 7(a)). At this stage, the major mode of chip flow
was sliding. After cutting 30 m, the shape of the chips
started to become quite flat and the chip underside became

wavy (Fig. 7(b)) as compared to the ones generated by the

new coated tool. In this case, the major modes of chip flow
became sliding and sticking. The chips were caught by the
rake face and released due to a high shearing force. In
addition, the undeformed chip thickness was very small
(0.06 mm). Therefore, a wavy chip surface was formed. As
the cutting length grew, the shape of the chips had no
significant change; however, rough ears on the underside
of the chips were visible (Fig. 7(c)(e)). As the tool wear
increased, the cutting edge became dull and more plowing
action, instead of cutting, was involved in the cutting
process. This resulted in the formation of a large number of
big ears (Fig. 7(e)). During chip formation, there were
three phenomena involved. The first one was material
strain hardening due to the large plastic deformation of the
chip material. The second was thermal softening due to a
high cutting temperature. The third one was the quenching
effect of the chip by the compressed air blast under the
intermittent cutting operation. The quenching took place
when the actual temperature at the tool/chip interface was
above the austenization temperature for H13 tool steel. As
a result, very hard and brittle chips were formed with a
structure that consisted of untempered martensite with
retained austenite. At different wear stages, the dominant
phenomenon changed. As the tool became worn, the combined
effect of strain hardening and quenching resulted
in brittle chips. Therefore, lots of cracks were formed
(Fig. 7(c)(e)).
The SEM images of the chip cross sections are presented
in Fig. 8. Again, curly (Fig. 8(a)), flat (Fig. 8(b)), wavy
(Fig. 8(c) and (d)) and brittle chips (Fig. 8(e)) were
observed from the low magnification images corresponding
to the cutting lengths of 0.5, 30, 60, 100 and 150 m,
respectively. Based on the higher magnification images,
continuous chip formation was observed at a cutting length
of 0.5m (Fig. 8(a)). As the tool was gradually worn, the
regular saw-tooth chips for hard machining were formed.
These are shown in Fig. 8(b)(e). It was also found that as
the tool wear increased, the chip segmentation frequency
decreased, plastic deformations in the primary shear zone
became larger and the crack propagation from the free
surface to the tool tip got deeper (Fig. 8(b)(e)). Fig. 9
shows the typical saw-tooth chip cross section that was
obtained from this study. Four zones were observed, i.e.,
1white layer zone due to a phase transformation
associated with a quenching phenomenon; 2deformation
zone (underside of the chip at the secondary shear zone)
due to friction; 3shear plane/zone due to primary shearing; 4lower deformed
zone due to saw-tooth chip
formation. Again, this result further confirms the combined
effect of strain hardening, thermal softening and quenching
on chip formation. From the SEM images with high
magnification (Fig. 10), it was found that the secondary
shear zone became wider as the cutting length increased,
which indicated that the frictional force became higher.

As stated earlier, the chip temperatures were estimated

(Table 4) based on the relationship between the color of
chips and chip temperatures.
Thecauseforthesaw-toothchipformationduringHSMAISI 1045 steel For
microscopicobservation,thechipshavebeencollected and
embeddedintoresin.Thecrosssectionwasmechanically polished withaluminumoxideof1 mm
particlesize,andthen etched withreagentNital2%for5s.Microscopicobservations were
carriedouttoexaminetheinfluenceofcuttingspeedonthe chip
formation.Withincreasingthecuttingspeed,chipschange from continuoustosaw-tooth-like,asshownin Fig. 3.
The microstructureoftheuncutchip(theas-receivedmate- rial)
presentsamatrixcomposedpredominantlyofWidmanstat- ten
ferriteandpearliteinclearanddarkcolors,respectively (Fig. 4a).
Themorphologyofferriteandpearliteispolygonalwith many occurrencesofslightlystretchedandirregulargrains,
which canbecharacterizedasapredominantacicularstructure. The
microscopicobservationshowsthatthemetallographic structures intheasreceivedmaterialarequitedifferentform that inthechips,bothforcontinuouschipformation(Fig. 4b) and for
saw-toothchipformation(Fig. 4c). For velocitieslowerthan38.6m/s,thechipsarecontinuous. These
chipsareofconstantthicknessalongitslength. Fig. 4b shows
themicrostructureofthechipobtainedatacuttingspeed of
30.8m/s.Themicrostructureobservationshowsthat,the crystal
particlesinthechiphaveundergonealargedeformation in
thechipformationprocess.Itcanbenoticedthat,underthis cutting
speedthechipformsthroughrelativelyhomogenous shear strainsincethegrainsinthechipexhibitamarkedly
preferred orientation.Thisisinagreementwiththehomogenous shear
assumptionofthecontinuouschip,basedonwhichthe single-shear
planeorthogonalcuttingmodelswereproposed [2831]. For
cuttingspeedhigherthan38.6m/s,thechipsbecome serrated.
Itcanbeseenthat,thistransitionspeedisindeedmuch higher thanthatreportedintheworkofSutteretal. [24]. This
could beprimarilyattributedtothesmalleruncutchipthickness applied inthisstudy [14,26].
Whenthevelocityisupto67.3m/s, the shearlocalizationbecomesverysharp,andtheadiabaticshear bands
arewidelyobservedbetweenthesaw-teeth,asshownin Fig. 4c.
Itcanbeeasilyfoundfromthefigurethatthegrainsare dragged seriouslyinnarrowlayers,resultinginanextremely
large sheardeformationinsidetheshearbands.Moreover,from the magnifiedfigurein Fig. 4c,
thesecondaryshearzone(SSZ), which isresultedfromthefrictionbetweentoolandchip,alsocan be
identifiedclearlybynotingwherethegrainshavebeen severely draggedintheoppositedirectionofchipflow.Thisis
quite differentfromthatoflowercuttingspeed,wheretheSSZis obscure,
andonlyafewgainswhicharecloselyadjacenttothe tool-chip interfacehavebeensweptback,see Fig. 4b.
Thismeans that, increasingthecuttingspeedaggravatesthetool-chipfriction [32],
whichintensifiesthematerialplasticdeformationintheSSZ and henceraisesthelocaltemperatureatthetoolchipcontact surface [32,33]. Itisalsointerestingtonoticethat,thecrystal particles
betweentheadjacentshearbandsarestretcheddeviat- ing
fromthesheardirection.Thisindicatesthataseverematerial flow
occursalongthechipflowdirection.AsstatedbyBurns [21] and Jiang [22],
thematerialflowleadstoamasstransferofheat, which takesheatawayfromthePSZ,andhenceinfluencesthe
temperature distributioninPSZ.Especiallyatsufficientlyhigh cutting
speeds,thetransferofheatinthecuttingprocesscouldbe dominated
bytheseveremasstransferofheataswellasthe