Tool Wear: Flank Wear

This article is part of a 9-part series on tool wear and how to manage it. For insights into other wear mechanisms and how to address them, be sure to read the rest of the series.

Tool wear is arguably the most disruptive event—and a major cause of missed production time—on the manufacturing floor. It is also a key factor driving overall tooling spend. On most machines, production comes to a complete stop during tool changes. Additional time is lost when test cuts and offsets are made to reset the dimensional position of the cutting edge. Add inspection time and scrapped components due to wear or tool breakage—and all of this is before even addressing the time spent solving tool wear issues.

Of course, cutting tools don’t last forever, and while we can never fully eliminate the costs associated with tool wear, its disruptive effects can be reduced through an improved understanding of the various wear mechanisms—and by taking appropriate corrective actions.

Flank Wear (Normal / Balanced Flank Wear)

What it is:

Flank wear appears as even, relatively uniform wear along the side flank of the tool beneath the main cutting edge. This wear often wraps around the tool nose and may include small, manageable notches at the primary and secondary cutting edges.

Why it happens:

Good news—this is expected. If most of your cutting tools exhibit this type of managed flank wear, you’re on the right track. This is how tools are intended to wear when they’re correctly applied and monitored.

How to Correct:

There’s no correction needed—this is the ideal wear pattern. In finishing operations, typical normal flank wear ranges from 0.005" to 0.010" for the usable life of the edge. This measurement is taken from the top of the cutting edge down the flank to where wear stops. In roughing applications, this value generally increases to 0.020" to 0.030". For heavy-duty machining of large components, acceptable flank wear can reach as high as 0.100", depending on the size of the machine and the insert being used.