Background - Friction and Tool Wear

• The main critical points associated with the definition of cutting tests for tool condition monitoring (TCM) have been analyzed

• During a cutting process, friction takes place at the workpiece-tool interface

• This is a very complex phenomenon and involves combined effects of adhesion, erosion, abrasion, fatigue, plastic deformation, diffusion and corrosion

• Friction produces a gradual wear of the cutting tools causing a negative influence on the quality of the machined surface and on the workpiece geometry as specified in the design

• If the machine tool operates with other machines tools and robots under the control of a computer, the breakdown of the machine generates a critical problem for the whole system

• To prevent such problems, various methods for tool wear monitoring have been proposed, but none of these has been universally accepted due to the complexity of this type of procedures