Bionic design of tools in cutting: Reducing adhesion, abrasion or friction

Cutting is defined as the process of creating an opening or a wound on a surface, particularly using a sharp tool. The process is used to promote the development including in the fields of agricultural, geological, mechanical, forestry, and medical engineering. However, cutting frequently suffers from low efficiency, poor quality, and high energy consumption because of adhesion, abrasion, or friction occurring on the surface of the cutting tool. To solve these problems, bionics has been introduced into the design of tools by several scholars. However, a comprehensive review of the bionic design of cutting tools is not yet available. To address this gap, a literature survey of bionic applications in cutting tool design is conducted in this study. To explain the mechanisms of different bionic tools systematically, the review is conducted from the perspective of cutting materials in different engineering fields because of their different mechanisms of adhesion, abrasion, or friction. Four types of bionic cutting tools are summarized and analyzed based on existing literature: soil, rock, metal, and biological tissue cutting tools. Future development trends of bionic tools from the perspectives of their bionic mechanism and applications are discussed based on literature analysis and bionic investigations. It is expected that new inspirations will be drawn by researchers and the development of bionic cutting tools will be promoted based on this study.