Product development based on metal 3D printing has been expanding steadily in the manufacturing industry. Powder bed fusion (PBF) is currently the most widely used metal 3D printing method, as it produces parts of complex shape with high precision. Applying PBF to the cutting tool industry could shorten process time relative to conventional sintering routes and reduce the material waste generated during machining. It also allows internal lattice structures and fluid channels to be designed within the tool, facilitating light-weighting and improved cutting performance. In this study, nTop software was first used to design the internal lattice structure of an end mill tool for additive manufacturing and to perform the corresponding simulation analysis. Three configurations were compared, in which the tool lattice was defined either by thickness dimension or by thickness range, and the reinforced results confirmed that none of the designs posed problems for actual additive manufacturing within the software. On this basis, tool bodies were fabricated on PBF metal 3D printing equipment, and their feasibility for tool applications was evaluated.

In recent years, the demand for lightweight parts has been gradually increasing, particularly in the E-mobility industry. Among lightweight materials, aluminum alloys are highly beneficial for improving the fuel efficiency of automobile engines due to their lighter weight compared to iron-based materials. As electric vehicles become more prevalent, aluminum alloys are also extensively used in components such as battery housings and EV platform frames. To enhance productivity, aluminum parts processing companies require Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) cutting tools for high-speed and ultraprecision processing. PCD cutting tools are known for their excellent cutting performance and wear resistance in highspeed aluminum machining, and they are anticipated to have significant growth potential in the global cutting tool market. In this study, we manufactured three types of PCD cutting tools (Drill, Endmill, and Reamer) using a self-developed brazing device and analyzed the machining surface quality through experiments. The results showed that the brazing joint quality of the PCD cutting tools was high, and the differences in surface roughness values under various machining conditions were minimal, confirming no issues with machining performance. Future research will focus on evaluating machining precision and tool life through comparative experiments with advanced PCD cutting tools from overseas.

Tool wear is an essential parameter in determining tool life, machining quality and productivity. Current or power signals from motor drivers in machine have been used to estimate tool wear. However, accuracy of tool wear estimation was not enough to measure the amount of tool wear. In this study, flank wear of a drill tool was measured using vision sensor module which has zoom lens, CCD camera and image processing technique. The vision module was set up in the machine tool. Therefore, the image was acquired without ejecting the tool from the machine. Image processing techniques were used to define the cutting edge shape, tool diameter, and the wear edge on cutting rips with the proposed measuring algorithm. The automatically calculated wear value was compared with a manually measured value. As a result, the difference between the manual and the automatic methods was below 4.7%. The proposed method has an advantage to decrease the measuring time and improve measuring repeatability because the tool is measured holding chuck in a spindle.