THE PERFORMANCE OF LOW COST CUTTING TOOLS WHEN MACHINING HARDENED STEEL OF 60 HRC

Abstract

Hard turning is a topic of great interest in today’s industrial production and scientific research. The hard turning technology has the potential for improving productivity against grinding in the manufacturing process. Today, tool manufacturers are constantly developing new combinations of coatings and substrates to precisely match different workpiece materials and operations. Nevertheless, the suitability of coated mixed ceramic (AI2O3 + TiCN) cutting tools when hard turning AISI D2 cold work tool steel (60 HRC) is yet to be investigated. An understanding of the tool life and wear mechanisms, surface integrity produced by coated mixed ceramic cutting tools will give an alternative to the manufacturing industries to exploit low costs cutting tools in hard turning of AISI D2 (60 HRC). The noticeable trend of the tool life was observed at test conditions where the cutting speed is at 100 m/min instead of 140 m/min or 200 m/min. The wear mechanism of coated mixed ceramic cutting tools with TiN is subjected to abrasion, adhesion, chipping and notching, especially when machining at high cutting speed of 200 m/min.