Flank wear prediction of ceramic tools in hard turning

Due to technical and economical factors, hard turning is competing successfully with the grinding process in the industries. Many practical applications require components to be hardened in order to improve their wear behavior. Higher productivity and good surface quality are the requirements of the modern industries. However, tool wear is the major problem in hard turning. The tool wear models, used to assess the performance of hard turning process, play an important role in predicting the surface quality. So, in the present work, an attempt has been made to develop an analytical tool wear model for the mixed ceramic inserts during the hard turning of bearing steel incorporating abrasion, adhesion, and diffusion wear mechanisms. The new model developed can reliably be used to assess the wear of the mixed ceramic tools within the domain of the parameters. It has been observed that tool wear is increasing with the increase in cutting speed, feed, and effective rake angle. However, it has been found to be slightly decreasing with the increase in nose radius. The proposed model was validated by conducting experiments. It could be seen that the model was capable of predicting the flank wear using the cutting parameters and tool geometry.