Cutting Equipment

Cutting Equipment

Cutting Equipment are parts of a machine tool which comes into contact with and removes material from the workpiece by the use of a cutting medium. They are devices used in machining workpieces on regular, turret, and vertical lathes, boring and slotting machines, planers, gear-shaping machines, and special machine tools. It consists of a shank comprising a head with the cutting element and a holder that secures the cutter to the machine tool.

Design

Cutting tools are classified according to the shape of the head as straight, bent, cranked, and round-nosed cutters and according to the cross section of the holder as rectangular, square, and round. Cutting-tool designs may feature a head or cutting blade that is welded on, a blade that is soldered on, a head that is guided by a slide or produced in the form of an insert, or a blade that is mechanically fixed. Various types of cutting tools are distinguished according to the intended purpose, including straightway, facing, cut-off and grooving, boring, thread-cutting, radiusing, and shaping cutters. Depending on the machining process, cutting tools may also be classified as roughing, finishing, fine turning, and smoothing. A distinction is made between right-hand and left-hand cutters according to the feed direction. Among the materials used for the cutting element are tool steel, including high-speed steel, hard alloys, mineral and ceramic materials, synthetic diamonds, and Elbor (a synthetic corundumlike material).

The shape chosen for the top surface depends on the material used for the cutting element, the material being worked, the method used to produce the billet, and the type of machining (see Figure 1). The geometric parameters of the cutting element affect the primary factors of the cutting process, including the friction between the cutter and the billet material, the shape of the chip and the direction in which it is removed, deformation of the surface layer, the strength of the cutter, cutting forces, the rate and degree of cutter wear, and the roughness of the surface being worked.