A novel wiper insert design and an experimental investigation to compare its performance in face milling

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ABSTRACT

Machining at higher cutting parameters is required to improve productivity. However, in most metal cutting applications, the surface finish requirement limits the parameters at which the tools can be operated. Therefore, tools with wiper facets are used to improve surface integrity. But the length of the facet limits the parameters at which the tool can be operated. Hence, this paper reports a novel wiper milling insert design (convex wiper edge on the rake side) that can improve the surface finish even at a high feed and depth-of-cut. The insert was manufactured in tungsten carbide material and the surface finish, machining power, and cutting forces were measured at various feeds and depth-of-cuts in machining cast iron. The study finds that the wiper insert can be used to improve the surface finish by around 35% in all the selected machining parameters. The arithmetical mean roughness (Ra) of wiper insert at 0.4 mm/tooth was better than the roughness values produced by the conventional inserts at 0.1 mm/tooth which gives a productivity improvement of more than four times. The machining dynamics of the conventional and the wiper insert are discussed in detail.

KEYWORDS:

• Wiper insert
• surface finish
• cutting force
• high feed machining
• material removal rate
• metal cutting

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the contribution rendered by the staffs of Metal cutting laboratory, Kennametal India Ltd., Bangalore, India, for conducting the experiments and Kennametal Widia Produktions GmbH & Co. KG., Essen, Germany, for manufacturing the test inserts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).