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.

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.

Cutting Edge is inclined at an acute

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

Back Rake Angle

Side Rake Angle

Fs

Fn

Fc N
Ft

V
R
Front View

N
F

Normal
Normal
Friction
Friction
Shear
Force
Force
Force
Frictional
Angle
RAKE
ANGLE
Shear
Angle
Cutting
Thrust
Force
Force
This
Force
It
Resisting
act
on
atangle
the
force
the
chip
tool
acted
provided
chip
at
interface
the
by
tool
the
isthe
the
angle
between
Back
Rake
Angle:
Itthe
isby
the
angle
is
made
the
shear
acted
along
velocity
of
Resistance
force
to
acts
shear
normal
of
the
metal
to
in
resultant
workpiece.
workpiece
normal
to
,of
the
Acts
interface
the
cutting
normal
Frictional
face
to
toof
resist
of
the
Force
the
the
&
between
plane
the
the
face
direction
of
thevelocity
tool
and
the
tool
tool with
forming
cutting
force
the
chip.
or
the
It
acts
along
ofshear
Normal
plane.
motion
and
provided
of tool.
by the
and
tool. Normal
measured
travel.
inForce,
a plane
perpendicular
shear
tool.is plane.
Reaction.
to
side cutting
edge
the
Cutting
force increases
as speed

Side Rake
Angle:
It is the as
angle
increases
and
decreases
rake
-1

tanthe face of the tool and

between
angle= decreases
: coefficient
of friction
measured
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
Ft

 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
Ft

Now,

R
F

Let be the shear angle

Where,

Fs

Now shear plane angle

Fn
Fc

The average stresses on the

shear plane area are:

Ft

F
N

Now the shear force can be written as:

Fs

and

Fn
Fc

Ft

Assuming that is independent of ,

for max. shear stress

R
F
N

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