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Study shows cooling lengthens tool's life

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 12:56 CDT

A Purdue University researcher says he's discovered cooling cutting tools can result in a longer life, with sharper cutting capability.

Professor Rado Gazo found cryogenically treating router bits, as well as cooling them while they cut, increased the tools' lives -- in some cases doubling them.

He said cryogenically treating the bits to harden them, blowing cooled air on them during use -- or doing both -- improved the life of the tools and kept cuts clean longer.

Cryogenic treating requires cooling the tools to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit and then bringing them back to ambient temperature.

Gazo said he used a router bit that had not been cryogenically frozen or exposed to cool air during use as a control and cut more than 100 miles of tool path in a medium-density fiberboard.

Bits that were not frozen, but were subjected to 40-degree and 20-degree Fahrenheit air during use, had as much as a 25 percent increased tool life.

A bit cryogenically frozen, but not cooled during use, showed an increased tool life of about 65 percent over the control.

The research appears in the early online edition of the Journal of Materials Processing Technology.

Source: United Press International

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