Mechanism of Surface Finish Production
There are basically five mechanisms which contribute to the production of a surface which have been machined. These are:
(1) The basic geometry of the cutting process. In, for example, single point turning the tool will advance a constant distance axially per revolution of the workpiecc and the resultant surface will have on it, when viewed perpendicularly to the direction of tool feed motion, a series of cusps which will have a basic form which replicates the shape of the tool in cut.
(2) The efficiency of the cutting operation. It has already been mentioned that cutting with unstable built-up-edges will produce a surface which contains hard built-up-edge fragments which will result in a degradation of the surface finish. It can also be demonstrated that cutting under adverse conditions such as apply when using large feeds small rake angles and low cutting speeds, besides producing conditions which lead to unstable built-up-edge production, the cutting process itself can become unstable and instead of continuous shear occurring in the shear zone, tearing takes place, discontinuous chips of uneven thickness are produced, and the resultant surface is poor. This situation is particularly noticeable when machining very ductile materials such as copper and aluminum.
(3) The stability of the machine tool. Under some combinations of cutting conditions; workpiece size, method of clamping ,and cutting tool rigidity relative to the machine tool structure, instability can be set up in the tool which causes it to vibrate. Under some conditions this vibration will reach and maintain steady amplitude whilst under other conditions the vibration will built up and unless cutting is stopped considerable damage to both the cutting tool and workpiece may occur. This phenomenon is known as chatter and in axial turning is characterized by long pitch helical bands on the workpiece surface and short pitch undulations on the transient machined surface.
(4)The effectiveness of removing swarf. In discontinuous chip production machining, such as milling or turning of brittle materials, it is expected that the chip (swarf) will leave the cutting zone either under gravity or with the assistance of a jet of cutting fluid and that they will not influence the cut surface in any way. However, when continuous chip production is evident, unless steps are taken to control the swarf it is likely that it will impinge on the cut surface and mark it. Inevitably, this marking besides looking.
(5) The effective clearance angle on the cutting tool. For certain geometries of minor cutting edge relief and clearance angles it is possible to cut on the major cutting edge and burnish on the minor cutting edge. This can produce a good surface finish but, of course, it is strictly a combination of metal cutting and metal forming and is not to be recommended as a practical cutting method. However, due to cutting tool wear, these conditions occasionally arise and lead to a marked change in the surface characteristics.
Limits and Tolerances
Machine parts are manufactured so they are interchangeable. In other words, each part of a machine or mechanism is made to a certain size and shape so will fit into any other machine or mechanism of the same type. To make the part interchangeable, each inpidual part must be made to a size that will fit the mating part in the correct way. It is not only impossible, but also impractical to make many parts to an exact size. This is because machines are not perfect, and the tools become worn. A slight variation from the exact size is always allowed. The amount of this variation depends on the kind of part being manufactured. For examples part might be made 6 in. long with a variation allowed of 0.003 (three-thousandths) in. above and below this size. Therefore, the part could be 5.997 to 6.003 in. and still be the correct size. These are known as the limits. The difference between upper and lower limits is called the tolerance.