Surface conditioning and texturing of cutting tool edges for the optimization of machining processes

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Fritz Klocke
• Co-Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Heinrich Schmitt
• Subject Area: Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 224589080

Looking on technical and mechanical assemblies contact surfaces mainly determine the performance of a system as they are the interfaces where energy is transferred, converted and dissipated. In the recent years functionalization of such surfaces by special manufacturing techniques became more and more important within the field of production technology. New surface conditions could be developed leading to increased performance of the entire system. This cooperative research project aims on the development of a manufacturing technique which improves the performance of cutting tools. A milling process is defined to be investigated in this project. Against the aforesaid the interfaces, which define the performance of the process, are located at the area, where interactions between tool and workpiece material take place.To reach the overall target, three scientific tasks are addressed:Development of a manufacturing technique for functionalizing the process contactsurfaces (surface modification)Development of a metrological strategy for the characterization of surface conditionsAnalysis of the addressed cutting process and determination of the influence whichthe surface modification evokesThe expected effects of the surface modification are lower friction in the chipping zone, lower tool wear, reduced energy consumption, enhanced cutting tool life time and higher applicable process velocities. For the execution of the works two research institutes from Germany and Brazil plan to cooperate in this project. While the manufacturing and metrological techniques are developed at the Houses of Production in Aachen (RWTH Aachen University/ Fraunhofer Institute for Process Technology IPT) in Germany, the process analysis and surface performance tests are conducted at Laboratory of surface phenomena LFS at University of São Paulo in Brazil. Thus the required experience and competence is available for the investigations which are settled in different scientific disciplines. The gained scientific-technological knowledge will be a comprehensive visualization of the phenomena which occur in the interface of cutting tool and workpiece material during the cutting process. This description of the phenomena will be aligned to experimental findings, which will pave the way for a technological upgrade of a broad range of cutting processes. The upgrade will be an adopted manufacturing technique for tools from many classes. The new kind of tool surfaces will exhibit the viability of reducing energy losses during the operation and thus a raise of process efficiency.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Brazil
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Amilton Sinatora