“Peel cutting” – A new cutting method for difficult-to-cut workpieces with hard oxide surfaces

A new cutting method named “peel cutting” is proposed in this research to suppress notch wear in machining of metals with hard oxide surfaces. In general, metals are produced by hot deformation processes like rolling, forging, and extrusion, which cause hard oxide surfaces called scales on their surfaces. These hard scales need to be removed first in machining of precision parts. However, the machining causes the severe notch wear at the depth-of-cut position, where the tool contacts the hard scale. To solve this problem, the proposed peel cutting avoids this direct contact between the tool and the scale by inclining the end cutting edge at an extremely large inclination (oblique) angle. This extremely oblique cutting changes the material flow and generates a “burr-like chip”. In the proposed cutting method, the tool contacts only soft non-oxide metal under the scale during cutting. Cutting of titanium alloy Ti–6Al–4V is conducted by modifying commercial tools to provide extremely large inclination angles, and it is clarified that an inclination angle of 70 deg or greater is required to realize the proposed cutting. Tool wear in the proposed cutting of the alloy with a hard scale is also observed in comparison with the ordinary cutting, and the result verifies that the notch wear can be suppressed successfully by the proposed peel cutting.