Getting Technical - 5 Steps to Find Best Tool Life in CNC Machining

There are many ways of defining the tool life. The common way of quantifying the end of a tool life is by a limit on the maximum acceptable flank wear. The term ‘acceptable’ is however subjective and can vary e.g., from application to application. One very important question is about what drives what. Is tool deterioration the cause and tool life the consequence?

Tool life is the duration of the actual cutting time after which a tool is no longer usable because the tool deterioration reaches such a level that the cutting edge needs to be replaced to have a safe, reliable, and sustainable machining process.

One very important question is about what drives what. Is tool deterioration the cause and tool life the consequence? Or is there a wanted tool life that drives the application as such that tool and cutting conditions should be selected as such that a certain level of tool deterioration is reached after that desired cutting time?

Balancing is the magic word! Too short tool life endangers the sustainability of the machining process, while too long tool life jeopardises the overall machining economy.

During this live event 5 steps are outlined to help the machining engineer to find for his application that magic balance point between too long and too short tool life and the correlating tool deterioration.