AN EXPERIMENTAL AND FEM STUDY ON DRY TURNING OF ROTOR STEEL 26NiCrMoV145 USING MULTILAYER COATED CEMENTED CARBIDE TOOL

Abstract

Rotor steel 26NiCrMoV145 has been widely employed in aerospace and power industry because of its unique properties. As to this new material that is used widely in important places, it is worth studying its machinability. An experiment and finite element (FE) simulation has been carried out to study the cutting forces, cutting temperature and tool wear mechanism during high speed dry turning of 26NiCrMoV145 using multilayer TiCN + Al₂O₃ coated carbide inserts. The orthogonal test was chosen and cutting forces were measured to validate the FE simulations. SEM analysis has been carried out on worn tools to determine the tool wear mechanism. Crater wear and coating peeling could be found at every cutting speed. Flank face wear appears smooth when cutting speed increases. Analyses of tool stress and temperature distribution during simulated cutting process were also taken out to help in understanding tool wear mechanism. At last, an optimization of the cutting conditions was suggested when considering material remove rate, cutting forces and tool wear.

Keywords:

• dry turning
• experiment
• FEM
• multilayer coating
• rotor steel

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.50935001, No.U0734007), Important National Science & Technology Specific Projects (2009ZX04014-041), National 863 project (2009AA04Z150) and National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB731703).