Chipbreakers

Maximize uptime by controlling chips.

by David Wynn

Director of Technical Services, PMPA

Published May 1, 2025

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In the world of machining, the selection and utilization of appropriate chipbreakers play a pivotal role in optimizing cutting processes. Chipbreakers are features integrated into cutting tools to control chip formation, breakage and evacuation during material removal. Effective chip management is crucial for enhancing cutting efficiency, improving surface finish and extending tool life.

The formation and management of chips are critical to having a stable process. Improper chip control can lead to several issues but the most important issue is machine downtime. Chipbreakers are designed to move the chip from the work area and create manageable chunks that can be evacuated from the machine. Proper management of chips is crucial to maximizing uptime.

There are several ways to break a chip. Many times, changes to machining parameters can break chips. Adjusting the feed and speed, creating peck cycles or utilizing the new features on some machines to create automated peck cycles while turning. (Think Citizen LFV, Tsugami Oscillation Cutting or Star HFT technology.) Some materials, no matter what techniques we utilize, still need help from tool geometry to break the chip. Chipbreakers will even vary by material because different properties require different geometry to break the chip. Copper alloys will need different geometry than high nickel alloys.

Types of Chipbreakers

Chipbreakers come in various designs, each tailored to specific machining requirements. Most manufacturers have proprietary chipbreakers, but I feel most fall into these primary types:

2 Dimensional (2D)
Examples include top grooves ground into a tool, grinding grooves along the drill margin to break chips, creation of raised back walls or reduced back walls on tools. All of these give room for the chip to flow away from the work and create a stress point to break the chip. Most 2D chipbreakers are simple types that we have learned how to grind into our tooling. Chipbreakers of this type were discovered through trial and error while cutting metal.

Simple 3 Dimensional (3D)
These types of chipbreakers are much more complex than traditional 2D styles. It takes precise manufacturing techniques to produce the more complex shape. Tools with simple 3D chipbreakers have been CNC ground or had the shapes pressed into them during manufacturing. Variable grooves, flowing rank angles, stepped geometries and more are precisely designed for specific purposes and materials.

Complex 3 Dimensional (3D)
Complex chipbreakers are formed by pressing raw inserts to create complex shapes such as dimples, finger grooves, wavy formations, chip channels along the insert cutting edge and more. New styles are being developed every day. The complex shapes have allowed insert manufacturers to tackle very specific machining problems. Advances in manufacturing have allowed insert manufacturers the ability to make higher mixes of shapes providing greater variety in choice of chipbreakers.

In conclusion, the selection and utilization of appropriate chipbreakers is integral to achieving efficient and effective machining processes. By understanding the importance of chip control and becoming familiar with different chipbreaker types, machinists can optimize cutting tool performance, increase uptime to improve tool life and enhance overall productivity.

Author

David Wynn is the PMPA Director of Technical Services with over 20 years of experience in the areas of manufacturing, quality, ownership, IT and economics. Email David

What I Wish I Knew Then That I Know Now

I had no idea that we need experts. That I could become an expert. That my passion to be the best helped make it so. What do you know now?

by Miles Free III

Director of Industry Affairs, PMPA

Published May 1, 2025

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When I started my career in manufacturing, it was a decision born out of necessity. Out of economics. Out of a desire to be independent. But what I have learned is that while economics and a desire for more and better choices in my life were important, they paled in comparison to the real joy of operating at my highest and best use. Of continuously growing my knowledge and capabilities and by doing my job, making things that made a difference in the lives of millions of people. Manufacturing became my success space, my community and my expertise. This is because I did the work.

Why is doing the work important? Let me share a quote from Dorothy Sayers: “Work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but a thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties.”

Our work is not just a job. What we make literally touches the lives of thousands each day, millions each year. We were deemed essential workers. Be essential.

How essential? You are — I am — all are — the customer. A precision machinist made the parts that you and I come into contact with every day: the breakaway hose fittings at the gas station, the nozzles and fittings on the coffee machines and soda fountains, parts on our appliances, HVAC, not to mention our cars (gas, electric or diesel) or the nozzles that glued the boxes and packages for food.

I didn’t know when I started, but I learned on the job that my safety comes first. Safety of others comes second. I put on my own PPE before worrying about others. That business about putting on your own oxygen mask on an airplane before helping someone else makes perfect sense. Call for assistance before trying to make a rescue. Calling backup first improves everyone’s odds.

Maintaining identification of materials and lot control of production comes after others’ safety. Then comes everything else. Maintaining material and lot identification is your greatest responsibility. Even if the part is perfectly machined, if it is of the wrong material the part is unusable. We cannot detect material differences with our senses — we can’t see, taste, smell, hear or feel differences in grades of metals. So, when we lose material identity and apply the incorrect material, perhaps it won’t weld, crimp or withstand the forces for which it was designed. That opens up the possibility of injury or even death for the end user.

There really aren’t any shortcuts. College doesn’t make you an expert at manufacturing. Manufacturing makes you an expert at manufacturing. Community college is a great place to first learn, and then grow the skills that will help you become the go-to expert on your shop floor.

There is more to a job than just doing the job. Learning more about materials, methods, tools, geometry, quality, safety — all these will combine to give you greater problem-solving abilities. Don’t be a one-note performer. Do find an area where you can become the expert. Maybe it’s regrinding a tool, 5-S, GD&T, quality, estimating, maintaining fluids, software, machines or G and M codes. We need experts. Become an expert. Bring your passion to be the best.

Learning is a process. Find your process to retain knowledge. I used a notebook for recording things as they came up about suppliers and processes. I also put brochures into binders by subject — steel, non-steel materials, tools, coatings, drills, fluids and so on. People always came to me because I had the answer. Actually, they came to me because I had a process for knowledge retention.

The last of the baby boomers will be out of the industry by 2030 — that’s just five years from now. When boomers are gone, it will be up to you. What do they know that you will need?

A second pair of safety shoes will keep you comfortable and less distracted. You are spending over 40 hours a week — 2,000 hours a year on your feet — so give your feet a break.

Pay yourself first. Younger me invested in my employer-sponsored savings plan. Today, I am all set for a comfortable retirement. Social security will be extra, not the base.

Quality is the absence of waste. This applies to you. Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste your talent. Precision machinists see the value that they create with each and every part, each and every day.

Our lives today are increasingly revolving around technology. Technology requires our talent to produce the functionality to make that technology work. Precision machinists hold a commanding position of advantage —
we make the things that make a difference. That’s what I know now and what I wish I knew then.

Author

Miles Free III is the PMPA Director of Industry Affairs with over 50 years of experience in the areas of manufacturing, quality and steelmaking. Miles’ podcast is at pmpa.org/podcast. Email Miles

Process Parsimony — Automation’s Secret Key for Scale and Quality

Automation is thought to be the secret to improving quality in manufacturing. What if I told you it was something else?

by Miles Free III

Director of Industry Affairs, PMPA

Published March 31, 2025

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The volume of messages in my email inbox extolling some kind of automation solution to improve my quality continues to grow. These emails all tend to make the same claims: “(Fill in the blank) automation solution will ensure that you 1) Avoid operator error; 2) Ensure more repeatable and reproducible results; 3) Speed performer time to complete tasks; 4) Reduce cost of failures.” These claims are logical consequences of an automation solution. But are the consequences actually the result of the automation? Or are they the result of process simplification and engineered error proofing?

Our contract precision machining shops are tasked with producing no-fail quality for many human safety critical applications and other capital applications — regardless of batch size/order quantity/release quantity. And while inspection is known to not be foolproof, in small batch production, often it is the only economically feasible way of taking steps to ensure that the product the customer receives meets their specified requirements and functions as designed. But as lot sizes increase, so too do the opportunities for systemic as well as random causes to trigger a nonconformance in your work product. As well as exceed the ability for humans to inspect reliably.

Blindly automating — which could also be called “throw a robot on it to remove the human factor” — is an often heard but hardly proven approach to process improvement.

At best, it reduces challenges to our performers by simplifying their task  and cognitive burden, but at worst, it is a straw man, as those random causes may not in fact be due to human failures. As quantities increase, so do opportunities for random fluctuations, as well as the appearance of rare but conceivable systemic anomalies. The 99.72% covered by plus-or-minus three standard deviations of process capability are a solid assurance when the lot size is in the double or triple digits range. But when the quantities scale up into the thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions, our enterprise volumes are in the medium to high double-digit millions. Then that 0.28% residual  suddenly becomes a real possibility — 0.28% of 1 million results with 2,800 “normally expected” deviations from the control limits.

Now how many million parts does your shop produce over the course of a year? Multiply that by 2,800 and tell me how many opportunities for rejection, failure to meet specification and increased chances a claim is possible based on your volume, even if you are statistically capable at plus-and-minus three standard deviations?

If it costs your shop just $100 per reported occurrence from a customer (a very low estimate to be sure, but suitable for the discussion here) how much “risk” could you be facing? Keep in mind that I define risk as the destruction of capital. The product of 2,800 times $100 is $280,000. That is the potential capital that you could waste should your process just behave normally for every million parts sold.

Again, how many million parts does your shop produce over the course of a year? My guess is that you do not have $280,000 built into your pricing per million parts sold for “just in case.”

The point is, every step, every operation that you can eliminate reduces (by a multiplicative factor) your odds of a nonconformance. If the tag is already filled out by the system, then a human error creating the tag will not happen. How many steps does one of your products take to get from order to shipment to customer? 25? 50? 100?

My guess is the number of discreet steps is higher than these round numbers for the typical, highly complex precision engineered component that you make in your shop. I am talking about each and every step from order acceptance, order entry, engineering review, material and tool ordering, scheduling, set up, quality, production, further processing/outside processing, mark, pack, load, release and ship. Every phone call, conversation, written note or computer entry is a step. Does your order entry software preload the engineering and quality software with the data, or must there be redundant manual entry of critical inspection notes or other must-have factors? How does this double entry affect the potential for error occurrence now that your millions just got doubled by this additional (and every other repeated) nonvalue adding step?

Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is not the result of automation per se. Continuous improvement of processes and systems is the direct result of process simplification reducing the opportunity for probable occurrences to appear as we scale our production to ever-higher volumes. Reducing redundant steps — in all systems — is the real power underlying an automation solution. It is removing the opportunities for variability. Removing the opportunities for non-compliance. If you do not have to do a particular step, eliminating it reduces your odds of failing when you do (or fail) to do it.

As our sales and volumes grow, I hope that we are smart enough to recognize that the opportunities for risk grow as well. When you are working in volumes of millions, a simple doubling of potential opportunities (from one needed step to two steps — one needed, one not) will be multiplied by those volumes of millions. Expected occurrence is only 2,800 per million, right? So, what is your potential risk (capital destroyed) by having to investigate, solve and remediate these unneeded failures? More than you can afford.

Automation is not the answer. Process parsimony — simplification is. Continuous improvement is driven by eliminating the waste of unneeded process complexity. Automation is the cover story. The real power is to eliminate the unnecessary steps in your process. Show me a team focused on eliminating steps in process and I will show you a team that will continue to succeed in scaling up their business as they reduce the opportunities for anomalies to occur.

Author

Miles Free III is the PMPA Director of Industry Affairs with over 50 years of experience in the areas of manufacturing, quality and steelmaking. Miles’ podcast is at pmpa.org/podcast. Email Miles