Some aspects in the surface integrity associated with turning of powder metallurgy compacts

The shape of the tool insert geometry, particularly the size of the tool nose radius, plays a significant role in influencing a variety of surface integrity characteristics such as surface finish, roundness, tool life, edge frittering etc. It has been found in previous work that a large tool nose radius is beneficial in improving the component quality. This paper substantiates these facts and shows that increasing the feed rate generally debilitates the surface integrity but, probably due to some elasticity in the porous compact's surface, this does not cause residual hardening to the machined surface. Abrasion during secondary machining suggests that flank, rather than crater, wear determines the end point during cutting operations. Tool nose geometry plays a significant role in improving surface topography, by reducing the cusp height—when the nose radius is large. The manufacturing envelopes defined by skewness and kurtosis for the machined surfaces suggest that there is a general drift either from a bearing to a locking surface or vice versa. Furthermore, the dispersion of these envelopes reduces with increasing feed rate. These conditions can be attributed to the tool nose geometry, feed rate and depth of cut which modifies the machined surface topography.