Spiral Fluted Tap Stepped Design for Chip Discharge
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Solution Overview
Problem
Spiral fluted taps face issues with chip entanglement and clogging, leading to tool and workpiece damage due to chips being discharged towards the shank and becoming entangled in the spiral flute, hindering automation in thread hole tapping processes.
Innovation Solution
A spiral fluted tap design featuring a stepped portion with a smaller flute bottom diameter at the distal end compared to the shank side, where the diameter difference between the flute bottom diameters satisfies a specific formula, and the flute is gradually varied to prevent chip entanglement, with a rough cut flute on the shank side and a finishingly-ground flute on the distal end, enhancing chip discharge.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If chips are discharged toward the shank side through the same spiral flute, then the spiral flute structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but chips become mutually entangled to be like a ball causing clogging and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The spiral flute is segmented into multiple flutes that divide the chip discharge path. Each flute handles a portion of the chips separately, preventing them from entangling into balls. This segmentation maintains manufacturing simplicity while significantly improving chip discharge performance and preventing clogging.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different flute bottom diameters at different locations along the spiral flute. The flute bottom diameter varies to create optimal chip flow conditions at each section, preventing entanglement while maintaining overall structural simplicity and manufacturability.
2Reliability
If workers manually monitor and remove chips, then chip entanglement and clogging are prevented, but full automation of contiguous tapping cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The spiral flute design with multiple flutes and varying bottom diameters enables the tool to automatically manage chip discharge without manual intervention. The structure itself performs the chip removal function through its geometric design, allowing full automation of the tapping process while maintaining reliable chip discharge performance.
3Ease of manufacture
If the flute bottom diameter is uniform throughout, then manufacturing is simpler, but chips become entangled in the spiral flute extending from the distal end
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements varying flute bottom diameters at different locations along the spiral flute. This local variation in geometry prevents chip entanglement by creating optimal flow conditions at each section, while the overall structure remains simple and manufacturable through standard machining processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A spiral fluted tap is provided which includes a threaded portion having an external thread corresponding to an internal thread to be cut and a cutting edge formed along a spiral flute formed to divide the external thread, and being screwed into a prepared hole that is provided on a workpiece to cut an internal thread by the cutting edge on an inner circumferential surface of the prepared hole with discharging chips toward a shank via the spiral flute, the spiral flute having a stepped portion at a rear end of a chamfer portion or in a portion on a shank side from the rear end of the chamfer portion in the threaded portion, and a flute bottom diameter on a distal end side of the spiral fluted tap from the stepped portion being smaller than a flute bottom diameter on a shank side from the stepped portion.