Simulation of production metal cutting Processes

Abstract

Conventional and high-speed metal cutting processes are in common use in industry. For example, in order to reduce the weight of an airplane or an automobile, a large amount of material is shaved off metal panels while maintaining required material strength of the panels. The development of a new machining process requires accurate prediction of pertinent physical information such as cutting forces and temperature. Process features such as tool geometry and cutting speed directly influence chip morphology, cutting forces, final product dimensionality, and life of the tool. Computer simulation of the cutting process can potentially reduce the number of design iterations for cutting tool design and result in cost saving. On April 25, 1997 Troy D. Marusich from Third Wave Systems described a finite element scheme he developed jointly with Ortiz [1]. He presented results which correctly predict (i) continuous or shear-localized chip morphologies (for different metals); (ii) temperature and stress distribution throughout the chip, workpiece and tool; and (iii) orthogonal cutting force components.