Brief introduction to Merchants Circle.

Assumptions for Merchants Circle Diagram.

Construction of Merchants Circle.
Solutions of Merchants Circle.
Advantages of Merchants Circle.
Need for the analysis of cutting forces.
Limitations of Merchants Circle.
Conclusion
 Merchants Circle Diagram is
constructed to ease the analysis of
cutting forces acting during
orthogonal (Two Dimensional)
cutting of work piece.

Ernst and Merchant do this

scientific analysis for the first time
in 1941 and gives the following
relation in 1944

It is convenient to determine
various force and angles.
Metal Cutting is the process of removing unwanted material from the workpiece
in the form of chips

Cutting Edge is normal to tool feed. Cutting Edge is inclined at an acute

Here only two force components are
considered i.e. cutting force and thrust
force. Hence known as two dimensional
cutting.
Shear force acts on smaller area.
angle to tool feed.
Here only three force components are
considered i.e. cutting force, radial force
and thrust force. Hence known as three
dimensional cutting.
Shear force acts on larger area.
 : Rack angle Fc: Cutting Force
: Frictional angle Fs: Shear Force
: Shear angle F: Frictional Force
Ft : Thrust Force N: Normal Frictional Force
Fn: Normal Shear Force V: Feed velocity

Normal
NormalFrictional
Friction
RAKE
Shear
Cutting
ThrustFriction
ShearForce
Angle
ANGLE
Angle
Force
Force Force
Force
Side Rake Angle Back Rake Angle
Fs This
Force
Resisting
It
Backact
isisthe
on
Rake
Resistance the
atangle
acted
force the
force
the angle
chip
Angle:
toactstool
acted
made
along
shear provided
chip
between
Itthe
isby
normal
of at
the interface
the
the by
angle
velocity
the tool
the
shear
metal
to of
in
Fn
resultant
workpiece.
workpiece
normal
between
plane
tool
forming
cutting to
withthe,of
force
thethe
Acts
interface
thethe
facecutting
normal
Frictional
direction
chip.
or of
the face
to toof
thevelocity
It tool
acts resist
of
the
Force
andthe
the
alongofshear
the
&
tool
Fc N V
Normal
plane.
motion
and
shearis plane.
measured
travel.
tool. provided
of tool.
inForce, by the
a plane andtool. Normal
perpendicular
Ft R
Front View the
Reaction.
to side cutting
Cutting edge
force increases as speed
F Side Rake
increases and Angle: It is the as
decreases angle rake
P -1
N = decreases
between
angle tanthe face of the tool and
F : coefficient
measured of friction
in a plane perpendicular
to the base
 Tool edge is sharp.
The work material undergoes deformation across a
thin shear plane.
There is uniform distribution of normal and shear
stress on shear plane.
The work material is rigid and perfectly plastic.
The shear angle adjusts itself to minimum work.
The friction angle remains constant and is
independent of .
The chip width remains constant.
The chip does not flow to side, or there is no side
spread.
 Fs
Fn
Fc V
-
Ft
R
F

N
 Fs , Resistance to shear of the metal in forming the chip. It
acts along the shear plane.

Fn , Backing up force on the chip provided by the

workpiece. Acts normal to the shear plane.

N, It at the tool chip interface normal to the cutting face of

the tool and is provided by the tool.
F, It is the frictional resistance of the tool acting on the chip.
It acts downward against the motion of the chip as it glides
upwards along the tool face.
Knowing Fc , Ft , and , all other component forces
can be calculated as:

The coefficient of friction will be then given as :

Fs
Fn
On Shear plane, Fc V
-
Ft
R
F
Now,
N
Let be the shear angle

Where,

Now shear plane angle Fs

Fn
Fc V
The average stresses on the -
Ft
shear plane area are: R
F

N
Now the shear force can be written as:

Fs
and
Fn
Fc V
-
Ft
R
F

Assuming that is independent of , N

for max. shear stress
Analysis of cutting forces is helpful as:-

Design of stiffness etc. for the machine tolerance.

Whether work piece can withstand the cutting force
can be predicted.
In study of behavior and machinability
characterization of the work piece.
Estimation of cutting power consumption, which
also enables selection of the power source(s) during
design of the machine tool.
Condition monitoring of the cutting tools and
machine tool.
Proper use of MCD enables the followings :-

Easy, quick and reasonably accurate determination

of several other forces from a few forces involved in
machining.

Friction at chip-tool interface and dynamic yield

shear strength can be easily determined.

Equations relating the different forces are easily

developed.
Some limitations of use of MCD are :-

Merchants Circle Diagram (MCD) is valid only for

orthogonal cutting.

By the ratio, F/N, the MCD gives apparent (not

actual) coefficient of friction.

It is based on single shear plane theory.

Following conclusions/results are drawn from MCD :-

Shear angle is given by

For practical purpose, the following values of has

been suggested:

= for >15o
= 15o for <15o