A Study on Tool Wear and Surface Finish by Applying Positive and Negative Rake Angle during Machining

Abstract

Cutting tools for metal cutting have many shapes, each of which are described by their angles or geometries. Several types of angles are important when introducing the cutting tool's edge into a rotating workpiece. This paper proposes the study of tool wea r and surface finishing by applying the positive and negative rake angle during machining. The experiment was conducted by using conventional lathe machine and aluminium alloy Al6061 as the workpiece. The machining parameters were kept constant while the rake angles were varied from positive to negative values. At every 200mm tool travel distance , the flank wear and surface roughness valu es were measured using Microscope Motic I mages Plus and Handysurf surface roughness tester respectively. The experimenta l result shows that the higher the rake angle used during machining, the higher the value of the flank wear. The surface roughness value however shows a reducing trend with the increase of rake angle. This result can be used by machine operators to assist them in considering the optimum value of rake angle to get the best value of surface roughness with minimum flank wear .