Abstract
The cutting performance of a small ball endmill was investigated by measuring the temperature of the cutting edge. The hardness of the workpiece, which is made by sintering metal powder with laser beam irradiation, is slightly higher at the surface layer within about 1 mm of the surface than that internally. The tool temperature at the cutting of the surface layer is higher than that at the inside. The cutting temperature increases with increasing cutting speed, but the influence of depth of cut and feed rate on the tool temperature is not so great. The diameters of ball end mills used were 0.6, 1, 2, and 6 mm, so that there were large differences in cutting speed but the tool temperatures of these end mills were not markedly different with equal revolutions. The thermal conductivity of the sintered materials was so small that its influence on tool temperature was very high.
