Although the machining process came into use in industry at the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700’s, virtually no technological/mathematical representations (i. e. “models”), capable of describing the physics or mechanics of the machining process, came into being for over 200 years. Yet such models are essential to establishment of an engineering basis for determining proper machining parameters for obtaining predictable, high productivity in applying the machining process in practice. At last, during the 20th Century, such technology did begin to evolve, going through three main stages in that period, namely empirical modelling, science-based (predictive) modelling and computer-based modelling. Empirical modelling can be said to have had its beginning as an organized process in the late 1890s to early l900s. Science-based modelling began to emerge in the 1940s and computer-based modelling in the 1970s. Each of these three stages was ushered in by a key event in America. The first originated with F W Taylor’s pioneering engineering research and development of empirical methodology (and equations) for estimating reasonably economic machining conditions. The second stage was primarily initiated by Merchant’s mechanics-based modelling and analysis of the basic force system that acts between cutting tool, chip and workpiece in a machining process. The third (and major) stage was the “watershed” event of the advent of digital computer technology and its application to manufacturing in general. That enabled integration of computer-based modelling with all of the databases of the full system of manufacturing.
