Importance

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Abstract

A common way of shaping a metal workpiece by the removal of material therefrom involves rubbing contact, as experienced in a conventional wedge-shaped metal or ceramic cutting tool or in abrasive rubbing using grinding wheels. In conventional cutting and abrading it is commonplace to introduce at the cutter/workpiece interface a material that principally acts as a coolant and as a chip remover but which normally has lubricating properties to minimized rubbing friction. The method of the present invention, in contrast, depends for its function on deliberately causing very high levels of friction between the tool and workpiece; it proposes a method of shaping metal in which the surface of the work piece is 'rubbed' by a tool in a friction-inducing manner and in the presence of an anti-lubrication (friction enhancing) agent in a quantity and in a form such that actual friction enhancement occurs. Such an anti-lubricant allows, under some conditions, any part of the tool in rubbing contact with the workpiece surface momentarily to heat and soften the surface, whereupon, due to the system's momentum (as the rubbing action continues), the further friction caused by the tool shears off the softened surface material under and forward of the contact with the tool.

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First Claim