CHIP MORPHOLOGY CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING IN MACHINING HARDENED 52100 STEELS

Abstract

Hard machining is attracting more and more attention as an alternative to grinding in finish machining some hardened steels. The saw-toothed chips formed in hard machining have their own unique characteristics. The saw-toothed chip morphology is of great interest since the understanding of the saw-toothed chip morphology and its evolution in machining helps unveil hard machining chip formation mechanisms as well as facilitate hard machining implementation into industry. In this study, the effect of tool wear and cutting conditions on the saw-toothed chip morphology was examined in machining 52100 hardened 52100 bearing steel. It was found that the chip dimensional values and segmentation frequency were affected by tool wear and cutting conditions while the chip segmentation angles were approximately constant under different tool wear and cutting conditions. The shear band spacing has also been predicted at the same order of magnitude as the measurement, and improved spacing modeling accuracy is expected if the cutting process information can be better predicted first.

Keywords:

• Chip morphology
• Cutting condition
• Hard turning
• Saw-toothed chip
• Tool wear

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Mr. Yu Long, Mr. Michael Justice, and Dr. JoAn Hudson of Clemson University for their help. Financial support from the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium is also highly appreciated.