Cutting performance of coated carbide tools in high-speed face milling of AISI H13 hardened steel

In the present study, high-speed face milling of AISI H13 hardened steel was conducted to investigate the cutting performance of coated carbide tools. The characteristics of chip morphology, tool life, tool wear mechanisms, and surface roughness were analyzed and compared for different cutting conditions. It was found that as the cutting speed increased, the chip morphology evolved in different ways under different milling conditions (up, down, and symmetric milling). Individual saw-tooth segments and sphere-like chip formed at the cutting speed of 2,500 m/min. Owing to the relatively low mechanical load, longest tool life can be obtained in up milling when the cutting speed was no more than 1,000 m/min. As the cutting speed increased over 1,500 m/min, highest tool life existed in symmetric milling. When the cutting speed was 500 m/min, owing to the higher mechanical load, the flaked region on the tool rake face in symmetric milling was much larger than that in up and down milling. There was no obvious wear on the tool rake face at the cutting speed of 2,500 m/min due to the short tool-chip contact length. In symmetric milling, the delamination of tool material, which did not occur in up and down milling, was caused by the relatively large cutting force. Abrasion had great effect on the tool flank wear in symmetric milling. With the increment of cutting speed, surface roughness decreased first and then increased rapidly. Lowest surface roughness can be obtained at the cutting speed of about 1,500 m/min.     

Experimental study on micro electrical discharge machining of porous stainless steel

Various cutter strategies have been developed during milling freeform surface. Proper selection of the cutter path orientation is extremely important in ensuring high productivity rate, meeting the better quality level, and longer tool life. In this work, finish milling of TC17 alloy has been done using carbide ball nose end mill on an incline workpiece angle of 30°. The influence of cutter path orientation was examined, and the cutting forces, tool life, tool wear, and surface integrity were evaluated. The results indicate that horizontal downward orientation produced the highest cutting forces. Vertical downward orientation provided the best tool life with cut lengths 90–380 % longer than for all other orientations. Flank wear and adhesion wear were the primary wear form and wear mechanisms, respectively. The best surface finish was achieved using an upward orientation, in particular, the vertical upward orientation. Compressive residual stresses were detected on all the machined surfaces, and vertical upward orientation provided the minimum surface compressive residual stress. In the aspect of tool wear reduction and improvement of surface integrity, horizontal upward cutter path orientation was a suitable choice, which provided a tool life of 270 m, surface roughness (R _a ) of 1.46 μm, and surface compressive residual stress of ?300 MPa.     

Tribological compatibility and improvement of machining productivity and surface integrity

Machining process productivity and machined part quality improvement is a considerable challenge for modern manufacturing. One way to accomplish this is through the application of PVD coatings on cutting tools. In this study the wear rate and wear behavior of end milling cutters with mono-layered TiAlCrN and nano-multilayered self-adaptive TiAlCrN/WN PVD coatings have been studied under high performance dry ball-nose end-milling conditions. The material being machined in this case is hardened H13 tool steel. The morphology of the worn surface of the cutting tool has been studied using SEM/EDX. The microstructure of the cross-section of the chips formed during cutting was analyzed as well. The surface integrity of the workpiece material was also evaluated. Surface roughness and microhardness distribution near the surface of the workpiece material was also investigated. The data presented shows that achieving a high degree of tribological compatibility within the cutting tool/workpiece system can have a big impact on tool life and surface integrity improvement during end milling of hardened tool steel.     

An Investigation of the Wear Mechanisms of Polycrystalline Cubic Boron Nitride (PCBN) Tools when End Milling Hardened Steels at Low/Medium Cutting Speeds

The commercial availability of PCBN tools has created the possibility for great improvements in the area of machining hardened steels. Roughing and finishing cuts can be carried out to achieve a surface finish as good as that obtained by grinding. Through this procedure, fabrication time can be greatly reduced and quality increased. This work presents a study of the wear of PCBN and cemented carbide tools when end milling hardened steels at low/medium cutting speeds. The experiments were carried out using a 12.0 mm diameter end milling tool with an indexable insert tipped with PCBN. Removal rate was 384 mm 3 min −1 . Carbide inserts were also tested under the same cutting conditions. The tests were carried out in the dry condition. Three different hardened steels were cut and the wear mechanism was investigated using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM). The minimal wear mechanism found was a combination of adhesion and abrasion. The wear occurred predominantly on the flank face, although some indications of crater wear were also detected. The amount of wear was significantly smaller for PCBN tools than for cemented carbide tools.     

涂层硬质合金刀具干式切削淬硬钢的试验研究

通过采用涂层硬质合金刀具对淬硬 4 5钢硬态干式切削试验 ,分析硬态干式切削淬硬钢的特点 ,研究了涂层硬质合金刀具及其几何参数的优化 ,讨论了涂层硬质合金刀具磨损形式、刀具耐用度及加工表面粗糙度 ,得出了可应用于实际干式切削加工的切削条件和参数     

Performance evaluation of CBN,coated carbide,cryogenically treated uncoated/coated carbide inserts in finish-turning of hardened steel

In the present work, the performance of cubic boron nitride (CBN) inserts was compared with coated carbide and cryogenically treated coated/uncoated carbide inserts in terms of flank wear, surface roughness, white layer formation, and microhardness variation under dry cutting conditions for finish turning of hardened AISI H11 steel (48–49 HRC). The flank wear of CBN tools was observed to be lower than that of other inserts, but the accumulated machining time for all the four edges of carbide inserts were nearer to or better than the PCBN inserts. Results showed that tool life of carbide inserts decreased at higher cutting speeds. The surface roughness achieved under all cutting conditions for coated-carbide-treated/untreated inserts was comparable with that achieved with CBN inserts and was below 1.6 μm. The white layer formation and microhardness variation is less while turning with cryogenically treated carbide inserts than the CBN and untreated carbide. At low to medium cutting speed and feed, the performance of carbide inserts was comparable with CBN both in terms of tool life and surface integrity.     

Process investigation on meso-scale hard milling of ZrO2 by diamond coated tools

This paper investigates the feasible machining of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) ceramics, in the hard state, via milling by diamond coated miniature tools (from here on briefly indicated as meso-scale hard milling). The workpiece material is a fully sintered yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline ceramic (Y-TZP). Diamond coated WC mills, 2 mm in diameter, four flutes and large corner radius (0.5 mm) are chosen as cutting tools, and experiments are conducted on a state-of-the-art micro milling machine centre. The influence of cutting parameters, including axial depth of cut (a_p) and feed per tooth (f_z), on the achievable surface quality is studied by means of a one-factor variation experimental design. Further tests are also conducted to monitor the process performance, including surface roughness, tool wear and machining accuracy, over the machining time. Mirror quality surfaces, with average surface roughness Ra below 80 nm, are obtained on the machined samples; the SEM observations of the surface topography reveal a prevailing ductile cutting appearance. Tool wear initiates with delamination of the diamond coating and progresses with the wear of the WC substrate, with significant effect on the cutting process and its performance. Main applications of this research include three dimensional surface micro structuring and superior surface finishing.     

A comparative study on performance of multilayer coated and uncoated carbide inserts when turning AISI D2 steel under dry environment

The present work deals with a comparative study on flank wear, surface roughness, tool life, volume of chip removal and economical feasibility in turning high carbon high chromium AISI D2 steel with multilayer MTCVD coated [TiN/TiCN/Al₂O₃/TiN] and uncoated carbide inserts under dry cutting environment. Higher micro hardness of TiN coated carbide samples (1880 HV) compared to uncoated carbide (1430 HV) is observed and depicts better resistance against abrasion. The low erosion rate was observed in TiN coated insert compared to uncoated carbide. The tool life of TiN coated insert is found to be approximately 30 times higher than the uncoated carbide insert under similar cutting conditions and produced lower surface roughness compared to uncoated carbide insert. The dominant wear mechanism was found to be abrasion and progression of wear was steady using multilayer TiN coated carbide insert. The developed regression model shows high determination coefficient i.e. R² = 0.977 for flank wear and 0.94 for surface roughness and accurately explains the relationship between the responses and the independent variable. The machining cost per part for uncoated carbide insert is found to be 10.5 times higher than the multilayer TiN coated carbide inserts. This indicates 90.5% cost savings using multilayer TiN coated inserts by the adoption of a cutting speed of 200 m/min coupled with a tool feed rate of 0.21 mm/rev and depth of cut of 0.4 mm. Thus, TiN coated carbide tools are capable of reducing machining costs and performs better than uncoated carbide inserts in machining D2 steel.     

Experimental investigations on machinability aspects in finish hard turning of AISI 4340 steel using uncoated and multilayer coated carbide inserts

The present work deals with some machinability studies on flank wear, surface roughness, chip morphology and cutting forces in finish hard turning of AISI 4340 steel using uncoated and multilayer TiN and ZrCN coated carbide inserts at higher cutting speed range. The process has also been justified economically for its effective application in hard turning. Experimental results revealed that multilayer TiN/TiCN/Al₂O₃/TiN coated insert performed better than uncoated and TiN/TiCN/Al₂O₃/ZrCN coated carbide insert being steady growth of flank wear and surface roughness. The tool life for TiN and ZrCN coated carbide inserts was found to be approximately 19 min and 8 min at the extreme cutting conditions tested. Uncoated carbide insert used to cut hardened steel fractured prematurely. Abrasion, chipping and catastrophic failure are the principal wear mechanisms observed during machining. The turning forces (cutting force, thrust force and feed force) are observed to be lower using multilayer coated carbide insert in hard turning compared to uncoated carbide insert. From 1st and 2nd order regression model, 2nd order model explains about 98.3% and 86.3% of the variability of responses (flank wear and surface roughness) in predicting new observations compared to 1st order model and indicates the better fitting of the model with the data for multilayer TiN coated carbide insert. For ZrCN coated carbide insert, 2nd order flank wear model fits well compared to surface roughness model as observed from ANOVA study. The savings in machining costs using multilayer TiN coated insert is 93.4% compared to uncoated carbide and 40% to ZrCN coated carbide inserts respectively in hard machining taking flank wear criteria of 0.3 mm. This shows the economical feasibility of utilizing multilayer TiN coated carbide insert in finish hard turning.     

Tool vibration in internal turning of hardened steel using cBN tool

The machining of hardened materials with hardness over 45 HRC has been an alternative to grinding since the 1970s, with the commercial availability of cubic boron nitride (cBN) and ceramic tools. However, the low toughness of these types of tool materials makes them very sensitive to damages caused by vibrations, which are critical for operations like internal turning, where the tool resembles a cantilever beam and therefore is susceptible to large deflections. This work aims to contribute to the study of tool performance in internal turning of long holes in hardened AISI 4340 steel in finishing conditions. Different machining conditions, two different tool holders (steel and carbide), and several tool overhangs were tested. The surface finish, acceleration (vibration) signals, and tool wear of cBN inserts were evaluated. The results show that vibration and the material of the tool holder may play a secondary role in the surface finish for stable turning, but the use of carbide tool holders makes the process stable for longer tool overhangs. Moreover, when the cutting becomes unstable, surface roughness is increased severely.     

Performance studies of multilayer hard surface coatings (TiN/TiCN/Al2O3/TiN) of indexable carbide inserts in hard machining: Part-I (An experimental approach)

In recent years, hard machining using CBN and ceramic inserts became an emerging technology than traditional grinding and widely used manufacturing processes. However the relatively high cost factors associated with such tools has left a space to look for relatively low cost cutting tool materials to perform in an acceptable range. Multilayer coated carbide insert is the proposed alternative in the present study due to its low cost. Thus, an attempt has been made to have an extensive study on the machinability aspects such as flank wear, chip morphology, surface roughness in finish hard turning of AISI 4340 steel (HRC 47 ± 1) using multilayer coated carbide (TiN/TiCN/Al₂O₃/TiN) insert under dry environment. Parametric influences on turning forces are also analyzed. From the machinability study, abrasion and chipping are found to be the dominant wear mechanism in hard turning. Multilayer TiN coated carbide inserts produced better surface quality and within recommendable range of 1.6 μm i.e. comparable with cylindrical grinding. At extreme parametric conditions, the growth of tool wear was observed to be rapid thus surface quality affected adversely. The chip morphology study reveals a more favorable machining environment in dry machining using TiN coated carbide inserts. The cutting speed and feed are found to have the significant effect on the tool wear and surface roughness from ANOVA study. It is evident that, thrust force (Fy) is the largest component followed by tangential force (Fz) and the feed force (Fx) in finish hard turning. The observations yield the machining ability of multilayer TiN coated carbide inserts in hard turning of AISI 4340 steel even at higher cutting speeds.     

THE SURFACE INTEGRITY IN MACHINING HARDENED STEEL SKD11 FOR DIE AND MOLD

Milling cutters were evaluated by tool wear, cutting force and vibration. Surface integrity of grinding and milling were investigated by comparing residual stress distributions, metallurgical structure, hardened layer depth and surface roughness. And influence of cutting tool wear on surface integrity was investigated. Experimentations revealed that the preferable surface integrity would be obtained if the proper milling cutter as well as a small wear criterion were adopted to avoid the advent of tempered martensite. The research results pointed out the feasibility of taking milling as the finish machining process instead of grinding in machining hardened steel with high efficiency.     

THE SURFACE INTEGRITY IN MACHINING HARDENED STEEL SKD11 FOR DIE AND MOLD

Milling cutters were evaluated by tool wear, cutting force and vibration. Surface integrity of grinding and milling were investigated by comparing residual stress distributions, metallurgical structure, hardened layer depth and surface roughness. And influence of cutting tool wear on surface integrity was investigated. Experimentations revealed that the preferable surface integrity would be obtained if the proper milling cutter as well as a small wear criterion were adopted to avoid the advent of tempered martensite. The research results pointed out the feasibility of taking milling as the finish machining process instead of grinding in machining hardened steel with high efficiency.     

Experimental investigations while hard machining of DIEVAR tool steel (50 HRC)

This paper describes hard machining which offers many potential benefits over traditional manufacturing techniques. In this work, investigations were carried out on end milling of hardened tool steel DIEVAR (hardness 50 HRC), a newly developed tool steel material used by tool- and die-making industries. The objective of the present investigation was to study the performance characteristics of machining parameters such as cutting speed, feed, depth of cut and width of cut with due consideration to multiple responses, i.e. volume of material removed, tool wear, tool life and surface finish. Performance evaluation of physical vapour deposition-coated carbide inserts, ball end mill cutter and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride inserts (PCBN) was done for rough and finish machining on the basis of flank wear, tool life, volume of material removed, surface roughness and chip formation. It has been observed from investigations that chipping, diffusion and adhesion were active tool wear mechanisms and saw-toothed chips were formed whilst machining DIEVAR hard steel. PCBN inserts give an excellent performance in terms of tool life and surface finish in comparison with carbide-coated inserts. End milling technique using PCBN inserts could be a viable alternative to grinding in comparison to ball end mill cutter in terms of surface finish and tool life.     

高速铣削AF1410高强度钢的实验研究

高强度钢具有优异的机械性能和广阔的应用,但切削加工较为困难,存在加工效率低,加工表面质量差等问题.以AF1410高强度钢为研究对象,应用高速铣削的加工方法,使用涂层硬质合金刀片,对AF1410高强度钢进行了高速铣削实验,研究分析了在高速切削条件下刀具磨损、切削力、切削温度以及已加工表面粗糙度的变化规律.研究发现以TiC...     

高速铣削刀具悬伸量试验研究

通过不同刀具悬伸量条件下高速铣削淬硬模具材料的实验研究 ,记录和分析了铣削过程中切削力、振动、刀具后刀面磨损面积和表面粗糙度的变化 ,优选刀具悬伸量。通过刀具的合理使用 ,提高刀具的加工能力     

Turning titanium metal matrix composites (Ti-MMCs) with carbide and CBN inserts

Despite excellent mechanical and physical features of titanium metal matrix composite (Ti-MMC), hard and abrasive ceramic particles within the matrix structure, as well as high price, may lead to severe difficulties on machining and machinability of Ti-MMCs. Review of literature denotes that only limited studies are available on machining Ti-MMCs with commercial cutting tools under various cutting conditions and cutting tools/inserts. Furthermore, limited studies are available on machinability attributes of Ti-MMC under various cutting conditions used. Therefore, to remedy the lack of knowledge observed, this work intends to report turning Ti-MMCs with carbide, and cubic boron nitride (CBN) inserts under various cutting conditions. The mean values of surface roughness (R_a) and directional cutting forces, as well as flank wear (V_B) were studied as the machinability attributes. The microstructural evaluations were conducted to discover the wear modes. Furthermore, the statistical tools were used to present the factors governing machining attributes studied. Adhesion, abrasion, and oxidation were observed as the principle wear modes on the flank sides of the tested inserts. According to experimental results and statistical analysis, the R_a and V_B could be controlled by cutting parameters only when CBN inserts were used. Despite the inset used, factors governing both responses were not identical. Although average cutting forces were directly affected by cutting parameters used, however, the relatively low correlation of determination (R²) of directional cutting forces can be attributed to effects of cutting speed, elevated temperature in the cutting zone as well as rapid tool wear which are all correlated to others.     

Precision milling of high volume fraction SiCp/Al composites with monocrystalline diamond end mill

Silicon carbide particle-reinforced aluminum matrix (SiC_p/Al) composites have attracted considerable interest as potential materials due to their excellent engineering properties. Many research works have been done associated with turning SiC_p/Al in the past. However, it still lacks of experience on milling of SiC_p/Al composites. This paper presents an exploratory study on precision milling of SiC_p/Al composites with higher volume fraction (SiC_p, 65 %) and larger particle size. The experiments were conducted on a Kern MMP 2522, high-precision micromilling machine center. A single flute monocrystalline diamond end mill was used to mill straight grooves with cutting parameters in a few micros. The machined surface quality including surface roughness and surface topography were studied. The cutting mechanisms of SiC particle and tool wear characters were also investigated. The results showed that mirror-like surface with surface roughness around 0.1 μm Ra can be achieved by precision milling with small parameters in the range of a few micros. Most of the SiC reinforcements were cut in partial ductile way with microfractures and cracks on the machined surface; tool wear included chipping and cleavage on monocrystalline diamond edge. A large flank wear on tool bottom face was observed and suspected to be caused by coaction of chemical transition and mechanical abrasion.     

Elliptical vibration cutting of hardened die steel with coated carbide tools

Elliptical vibration cutting of hardened die steel with coated carbide tools is examined in this research in order to achieve low-cost high-precision machining. Diamond coated tools are applied because of superior hardness of their polycrystalline diamond coating and its low manufacturing cost. TiN coated tools are also tested, since they are widely used for conventional machining of steels. Machinability of hardened die steel by the elliptical vibration cutting with coated carbide tools is discussed in three aspects in this study, i.e. transferability of cutting edge profile to cut surface, cutting force, and tool life. The transferability is evaluated quantitatively by calculating correlation coefficients of measured roughness profiles. It is clarified that the diamond coated tools have high transferability which leads to diffraction of light on the surface machined at micro-scale pick feed. Total cutting forces including ploughing components are measured at various feed rates, and then shearing components and ploughing components are separated utilizing linear regression. The measured results indicate, for example, that the all forces become considerably smaller only when elliptical vibration is applied to the TiN coated tool without cutting fluid. It is also found that this considerable reduction of forces interestingly corresponds to higher friction coefficient, which is identified from the ploughing components. Tool life tests are carried out by various machining methods, i.e. elliptical vibration/ordinary wet/dry cutting with diamond/TiN coated tools. The result shows, for example, that the flank wear is smallest in the wet elliptical vibration cutting with the diamond coated tool.     

陶瓷刀具干切削淬硬钢的研究

通过采用陶瓷刀具对８６ＣｒＭｏＶ７淬火态轧辊钢进行干切削试验,分析了干切削淬硬钢的特点,研究了陶瓷刀具材料及刀具几何参数的优选、刀具磨损特性及Ｔ┐Ｖ规律、加工表面粗糙度等,得出了对实际加工具有指导和参考作用的结论。