Development of a patterning system for vitrified CBN wheels based on modal analysis

One of the alternatives under development by industry to reduce tailpipe emissions in internal combustion engines is the texturing of the crankshaft bearings using patterned grinding wheels. As modern industrial grinding solutions for forged crankshafts are based on vitrified CBN wheels, a new approach is needed for rotary dressing patterning. This paper describes the development of patterning system for vitrified CBN wheels based on modal vibration analysis. Aspects related to the device design, modelling and simulation of the texturing process are discussed in the paper. The obtained results reported in this paper indicate a high potential for industrial application.     

Performance evaluation of pure CBN tools for machining of steel

Ultra-precision machining is one of the most important machining technologies for the manufacture of precision dies and molds. Typically, single point diamond cutting tools are used to machine molds which are coated with electroless nickel (NiP) for such applications. The high cost of diamond cutters and electroless nickel plating, coupled with problems of pre-mature failure of the coating in service and long lead time are negative factors in this approach. Hence, there is a strong need for the direct ultra-precision machining of mold steel and to develop relevant technologies to address the problem of tool wear. In the machining of alloy steel, cubic boron nitride (CBN) has long been used as an ideal cutting tool material but recently binderless CBN or pure CBN (PCBN) with superior mechanical properties has been developed by Sumitomo Electric Industries in Japan. The objective of this paper is to explore the feasibility of using PCBN tools for direct ultra-precision machining of Stavax, a type of alloy steel from ASSAB. The performance characteristics in terms of surface roughness and tool wear of PCBN (Sumitomo IZ900) and conventional CBN (Sumitomo BN600) under different machining conditions were studied and their results were compared. Based on the experimental results, PCBN has been found to perform better in terms of wear resistance compared to conventional CBN tool. It is also able to achieve near mirror finish of less than 30 nm R_a, and hence it appears to be a promising tool for direct cutting of die and mold materials.     

Effects of Edge Preparation and Feed when Hard Turning a Hot Work Die Steel with Polycrystalline Cubic Boron Nitride Tools

Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PcBN) is usually employed in hard turning. Selection of optimum edge preparation is machining parameter dependent. This paper investigates the effects of edge preparation and feed on tool life and workpiece residual stresses. An Arbitrary Lagrangian and Eulerian (ALE) finite element model was used to explain tool wear rate and residual stress profile. Experimental results showed that honed edges could be employed for hard turning when tensile principal stresses in the tool were maintained at a low magnitude. Chamfered edges produced less compressive residual stresses on the surface. However, away from the machined surface, compressive residual stresses penetrate deeper into the workpiece.     

An Investigation of Grinding with Electroplated CBN Wheels

Grinding of hardened bearing steel with electroplated CBN wheels was Investigated with particular attention to how the wear of the abrasive grains affects the wheel topography and grinding performance during the wheel ire. Power, surface roughness, and wheel topography data were obtained throughout the wheel life for internal cylindrical grinding. Dulling of CBN gratis by attrition was found to cause an increase in the grinding power, but the degree of dulling was restricted mainly by grain fracture and also by grain pullout. Grain fracture and pullout had a much smaller effect on the progressive increase in active grain density, which caused the surface roughness to progressively decrease. Wheel failure tended to occur by stripping of the abrasive layer when the radial wear reached about 70% - 60% of the grain dimension     

Process Requirements for Cost-Effective Precision Grinding

Costs in precision cylindrical grinding are compared for different abrasives, machines and grinding conditions. The analysis is for repeated batch production. Account is taken of machine cost and abrasive cost. Cost comparisons were based on extensive trials to assess re-dress life against workpiece quality requirements. Experiments show that different workpiece materials require different strategies to reduce costs. Easy-to-grind AISI 52100 and difficult-to-grind Inconel 718 materials were ground at conventional speeds and at high speeds. It is shown that wheel speed affects production rate through acceptable values of re-dress life, removal rate and dwell time. Advantages were gained using vitrified CBN at conventional speed and at high speed. For both materials, vitrified CBN wheels used at high speed, gave better quality at lower cost than conventional abrasives. Wheel costs became negligible and labour costs greatly reduced. Re-dress life trials, usually neglected, are shown to be essential to reduce costs and maintain quality [1].     

Profiled Superabrasive Grinding Wheels for the Machining of a Nickel Based Superalloy

Machining data are presented for small diameter, profiled (fir tree root form), single layer/electroplated CBN (B46, B76 and 91) and diamond (D46) grinding wheels, when cutting Udimet 720. Spindles operating at 60,000 and 90,000 rpm were employed, with a synthetic polyalphaolefine (PAO) oil based fluid in a down grinding mode on single sided specimens. Operating parameters were selected to reflect finishing conditions. Measured tool wear was lower for CBN grit as compared to diamond however workpiece roughness was lower with Ra approaching 0.75 μm when using D46 wheels. Higher rotational speed produced lower grinding wheel wear. No workpiece burning was observed irrespective of grit type at the conditions tested.     

High-speed five-axis milling of hardened tool steel

This paper investigates critical issues related to high-speed five-axis milling of hardened D2 tool steel (hardness HRc 63). A forging die cavity was designed to represent the typical features in dies and molds and to simulate several effects resulting from complex tool path generation. Cutting tool materials used were coated carbide for the roughing and semi-finishing processes and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) for the finishing process. The effects of complex tool paths on several critical machining issues such as chip morphology, cutting forces, tool wear mechanisms, tool life and surface integrity were also investigated. The main tool failure mode was chipping due to the machine tool dynamics. A five-axis analytical force model that includes the cutter location (CL) data file for computing the chip load has been developed. The effect of instantaneous tilt angle variation on the forces was also included. Verification of the force model has been performed and adopted as a basis for explaining the difficulties involved with high-speed five-axis milling of D2 tool steel.     

Evaluation of superabrasive grinding points for the machining of hardened steel

Small diameter grinding points offer greater flexibility for machining free-form contours compared to traditional grinding wheels, despite fewer effective cutting edges. The paper evaluates the influence of grit size (B32, B46, B76), feed rate (125, 250 mm/min) and depth of cut (20, 40 μm) when machining D2 tool steel using electroplated CBN grinding points. Highest G-ratios (～2441) were obtained using B32 tools with corresponding workpiece surface roughness (Ra) of ～0.8 μm after ～6000 mm³ material removed, due to the greater number of effective cutting edges. Attritious wear was the primary wear mechanism although material loading was observed with B76 tools.     

Chemical metallisation of cubic boron nitride for the production of composite materials

Data are reported on the successful metallisation of cubic boron nitride by chemical reduction of solutions containing nickel and cobalt ions. The processes of growth of these two types of films differ substantially from each other. While in cobalt plating no screw-like dislocation mechanism film growth is observed, in nickel plating growth is by a screw-like dislocation mechanism. The titanium film deposited as a pretreatment on grains of cubic boron nitride does not influence the rate and structure of subsequent cobalt and nickel deposition. Thus, the metallised super-hard material obtained is useful for embedding into composite materials for the production of abrasive materials.     

Effect of various parameters on the surface roughness of an aluminium alloy burnished with a spherical surfaced polycrystalline diamond tool

The effect of various parameters on the surface roughness of an aluminium alloy burnished with a spherical surfaced polycrystalline diamond tool are studied experimentally with a theoretical analysis. Problems in selecting the optimum burnishing parameters and some burnishing mechanisms are discussed. With suitable parameters employed, the new no-chip finishing process developed can eliminate or reduce the cutting marks left on the workpiece surface by diamond cutting tools, with its surface roughness reduced to Ra=0.026 μm from the original 0.5 μm.     

钨及其合金的切削加工

钨及其合金是非常好的工程材料熏但其切削加工性差。文中介绍了钨及其合金的性能熏以及在切削加工时刀具材料与几何参数的合理选择。     

Analytical investigations concerning the wear behaviour of cutting tools used for the machining of compacted graphite iron and grey cast iron

Compacted graphite iron (CGI) is the material for the upcoming new generation of high-power diesel engines. Due to its increased strength compared to grey cast iron (CI) it allows an increase in the cylinder-pressures and therefore a better fuel economy and a higher power output are possible. First examples of such engines are the 3.3 L Audi V8 TDI and the 4.0 L BMW V8. The reason why CGI is not used to a larger extent in large scale production up to now is its much more difficult machinability as compared to conventional CI, especially at high cutting speeds. In modern transfer lines high cutting speeds are used in the cylinder-boring operation. And especially in these continuous cutting operations the tool life decreased due to the change from CI to CGI by about a factor of 20. As was found out previously by us, the difference in tool lifetime can be explained by the formation of a MnS-layer on the tool surface in the case of CI. This layer cannot form when machining CGI because the formation of MnS-inclusions is not possible in this material due to the higher magnesium content which in turn is responsible for the formation of the graphite vermicles. The MnS-layer acts as a lubricant and prevents the adhesion of workpiece particles. This is the reason for the greatly reduced wear of CI in high speed machining operations. This MnS-layer is inspected closer by X-ray diffraction, X-ray induced photoelectron spectrometry, atomic force microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry in this work. Furthermore, available information on the performance of MnS as lubricant in PM-steels is comparatively discussed. This knowledge led to an economic solution of high productivity machining of CGI. The key was to reduce the cutting speed, replacing single insert tools with multiple insert tools. This allowed to increase the feed rate. By increasing the feed rate in the same amount as decreasing the cutting speed, the same productivity can be realized. This concept is leading to a number of multiple insert tools thus realizing a high productivity machining of CGI cylinder-bores with multi-layer-coated carbide tools.     

Development of a rapid heat ablation (RHA) process using a hot tool

Rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RPM) technologies have played a crucial role in reducing the lead-time and development costs of new products since its birth in the late 1980s. As compared with laminating processes for RPM, the machining process has been more commonly used because it offers such practical advantages as precision and versatility. However, the traditional machining process requires a large amount of time for product cutting and the remaining material causes problem as inconvenience due to cleaning process. The objective of this paper is to propose a new rapid manufacturing process using a hot tool with tangential grooves, rapid heat ablation process (RHA), to overcome the limitations of traditional machining processes. In order to investigate the material removal zone according to process parameters, several experiments were carried out. From the results of experiments, the relationships between the radius of the material removal zone and the process parameters were obtained. Furthermore, the depth of cut was compared with the kerfwidth in order to verify the isotropy of the material removal zone. As a result, a method of toolpath generation for ball-end mill commercially used can be adopted into the RHA process because the geometry of material removal zone is equal to that of the ball-end mill. The practical applicability of the RHA process is then demonstrated by the results of these fabrications for a hemispherical shape and a standard test part for machining in terms of geometrical conformity, volume of remaining material, ablating time and dimensional accuracy.     

Direct laser sintering of a copper-based alloy for creating three-dimensional metal parts

Direct laser sintering of metal, as one of the important developments in rapid prototyping technologies, is discussed in this paper. A special copper-based alloy is used for this rapid prototyping process. Experiments on the sintering conditions of this material had been conducted in a self-developed high temperature metal sintering machine. The mechanism of laser sintering for this kind of material was disclosed by SEM analysis of microstructures of sintered parts. The density, surface roughness and mechanical properties of the laser sintering parts due to variation of process parameters were measured and analysed. The effect of process parameters to the accuracy of sintered parts was also investigated. Thus, optimum parameters were obtained for direct laser sintering of three-dimensional metal parts.     

A multivariate robust parameter design approach for optimization of AISI 52100 hardened steel turning with wiper mixed ceramic tool

This paper presents an experimental study of AISI 52100 hardened steel turned with wiper mixed ceramic (Al₂O₃ + TiC) inserts coated with TiN, using Multivariate Robust Parameter Design (MRPD). The main characteristic of this new optimization approach consists of considering both controllable (x_i) and noise (z_i) variables of the hard turning process to find out the parameter levels which minimize the distance of each response (y_i) from its respective targets (T_i) while keeps each variance caused by the noise variables as low as possible. Using a crossed array, a response surface design formed by cutting speed (Vc), feed rate (f) and depth of cut (d) is submitted to the influence of four scenarios built with an 2² full factorial design of two noise factors — workpiece hardness decreasing (Z₁) and tool flank wear (Z₂). This experimental arrangement allows the generating of mean, variance and mean square error (MSE) of five surface roughness parameters (Ra, Rz, Ry, Rt and Rq). As these responses are highly correlated, to extract and employ this information, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used. Adopting the Multivariate Mean Square Error (MMSE) as optimization criteria, a robust solution could be found. Theoretical and experimental results were convergent and confirmed. With Vc = 199.9 m/min, f = 0.191 mm/rev and d = 0.190 mm, the five surface roughness parameters and respective variances were minimal, with better results than those obtained with individual optimization.