Serrated chip formation mechanism based on mixed mode of ductile fracture and adiabatic shear

Abstract

Serrated chip is the frequent chip morphology during high-speed machining of ductile materials, while the mechanism of serrated chip formation still remains some ambiguous aspects. This article presents the investigation of chip morphology from the viewpoint of chip free surface and cross section. Experiments of orthogonal cutting hardened AISI 1045 steel and 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy were carried out. The cutting speed of AISI 1045 steel was varied from 100 to 1000 m/min, while 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy was machined at the cutting speed of 100–2500 m/min. The feed rate per tooth was varied from 0.025 to 0.20 mm/z corresponding to each experimental cutting speed. The research shows that the microstructure of chip free surface evolves from lamellae to folds and then to dimples. According to the experimental results, a new model of serrated chip formation based on mixed mode of ductile fracture and adiabatic shear is proposed. For the “ductile fracture–adiabatic shear” serrated chips, two distinct zones of ductile fracture and dimples were observed on the slide surface of serrated segments. Through studying chip morphology evolution under different combinations of cutting speed and feed rate, it is found that the degree of chip segmentation has positive correlation with the two parameters. The concept of “critical cutting load” is then proposed to illustrate the conditions under which serrated chips may occur. And the critical cutting load of AISI 1045 steel and 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy is determined by experiments as 0.024 and 0.10 m²/(min z), respectively.