Cutting Tool Coolant Deflection for Reliable Chip Evacuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cutting tools face challenges in efficiently removing chips from complex component structures, such as engine blocks made of aluminum, as chips are often thrown against the workpiece and remain in recesses, requiring extensive cleaning efforts and leading to rejects of expensively produced workpieces.
Innovation Solution
The cutting tool incorporates a toothed ring baffle disc that deflects the coolant jet backwards, directing it towards the cutting edge and guiding chips into the chip channel, with coolant grooves oriented counter to the tool's rotation direction and a chip removal surface that widens rearward to enhance chip removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the coolant jet is directed directly from the tool head against the cutting edge, then cooling effect is improved, but chips are flushed into the cavities of the workpiece requiring extensive cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
The baffle plate is segmented into a toothed ring structure with multiple radially projecting toothed segments. These segments divide the coolant flow into multiple directed streams, allowing the coolant to cool the cutting edge effectively while preventing chips from being flushed into workpiece cavities. The segmentation transforms a single undirected coolant jet into controlled multiple flows.
Solution Approach 2:
The baffle plate acts as an intermediary element between the coolant supply and the cutting zone. It intercepts the coolant flow and redirects it along the chip channel toward the cutting edge, serving as a mediator that achieves both cooling and chip evacuation without allowing chips to enter workpiece recesses.
2Temperature
If conventional coolant delivery is used, then cooling is provided, but chips remain in recesses leading to workpiece rejects
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of directing coolant forward toward the cutting edge (conventional approach), the baffle plate inverts the flow direction by channeling coolant backward along the chip channel. This reverse flow direction achieves both cooling and reliable chip removal, preventing chips from entering workpiece cavities and improving production quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The baffle plate converts the potentially harmful effect of uncontrolled coolant dispersion into a beneficial directed flow. By structuring the baffle plate with radially projecting segments, the previously harmful scattered coolant flow is transformed into controlled streams that follow the chip channel, achieving both cooling and chip evacuation benefits.
3Productivity
If the baffle plate covers coolant grooves, then chip removal is improved, but coolant flow control becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The baffle plate performs multiple functions simultaneously: it covers the coolant grooves to prevent chip escape, directs coolant flow along the chip channel, and provides structural support. This multi-functionality simplifies the overall design by combining several components into one universal element, reducing device complexity while improving chip removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The toothed ring structure with radially projecting segments changes the flow parameters of the coolant by dividing it into controlled streams. This parameter change (from single jet to multiple directed streams) improves chip removal efficiency while maintaining relatively simple structural control, avoiding complex flow management systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively prevents chips from escaping and facilitates reliable removal, improving production quality by ensuring chips are directed away from the workpiece, reducing cleaning efforts and minimizing rejects.
Implementation Method 1
the covering baffle disc ensures that the coolant jet does not simply escape freely, but is instead directed towards the cutting edge with a backwards component
Implementation Method 2
the cutting element delimits a chip removal surface leading backwards away from the front side, which prevents the flow of chips from the workpiece
Implementation Method 3
In order to support the chip removal directed backwards by means of a suction effect or a turbine effect, it is advantageous if the cutting element and/or the respective chip flute delimit a chip removal funnel which widens toward the rear
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
AI summary
The invention relates to a cutting tool having a tool head (14) that can be rotated about its mid-axis (12) and has a front end face (24) and a circumferential surface (16), a plurality of cutting elements (18) and associated chip grooves (20) arranged to be distributed in the circumferential direction on the circumferential surface (16), and a channel system (22) running through the tool head (14) for the coolant supply to the cutting elements (18). According to the invention, the end face (24) of the tool head (14) has coolant grooves (26), which each lead from an outlet opening (42) of the channel system (22) to an end opening (44) in a chip groove (20), wherein the longitudinal openings (14) of the coolant grooves (26) are covered by a baffle plate (28) fixed to the front face of the tool head (14).