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.