CONTOUR MAPPING OF CUTTING-TOOL FACE WITH THE AID OF DIGITAL IMAGE-PROCESSING TECHNIQUE

In metal cutting work, it is important to know the accurate geometric feature of the cutting tool edge which directly and greatly affects the cutting state and machining accuracy. To resolve the problems involved, the authors have developed a new measuring system, in which an overall geometric feature of the tool tip in microscopic view is described as a 2-dimensional (2D) digital picture having wider applicability. Any individual measurement mentioned above may be obtained easily from the picture with the aid of digital picture processing techniques. This paper first proposes and discusses tool face contour mapping with the aid of the scanning optical section method.