Cutting mechanics and efficiency of forward and reverse multidirectional turning

In the manufacturing industry, many studies have been conducted on the features of cutting force, temperature and chip that are directly related to tool wear and cutting performance. However, most of the leading investigations have focused on unidirectional cutting and relatively few on multidirectional cutting. This study proposes a new approach of forward-and-reverse multidirectional cutting (MDC) to overcome deficiencies of tool wear, low processing efficiency and chip breakage using conventional cutting. The mechanism and fundamentals of MDC are illustrated through dynamics analysis. A thermomechanical coupling simulation model is established in ABAQUS to analyze the mechanical properties of MDC. Three machining schemes are created with tool cutting edge angles as variables, and the optimal machining scheme is selected by analyzing features of cutting force, temperature, stress and chip morphology. Furthermore, the smaller-the-better characteristic of Taguchi's method and signal-to-noise ratio are used to analyze the effect of cutting parameters on the MDC performance. Finally, a case study illustrates practicability of the proposed approach is verified by the experimental studies.