Investigation of the Effect of Workpiece Hardness on Flank Wear, Energy Consumption and Surface Roughness in Dry Turning

In this investigation, the effect of workpiece hardness on flank wear of cutting tool, electrical energy consumption and roughness of machined surface in dry turning operation at two different cutting speeds are experimentally investigated. The dry turning experiments are conducted with coated carbide inserts. The workpieces are selected with ten different hardness values ranging from 10 to 55HRC. The two levels of cutting speed selected are 100m/min. and 50m/min. and the other parameters such as feed rate and depth of cut are maintained constant at 0.3mm/rev. and 0.5mm respectively. Each experiment is conducted for an experimentally determined duration of 31 minutes and at the end of each experiment, the flank wear, electrical energy consumption and arithmetic average surface roughness of machined surface are measured and recorded. The flank wear is significantly affected by the hardness of workpiece and cutting speed. This analysis provides guidelines on tool and workpiece material selection in finish dry turning operations for minimizing tool wear and energy consumption by maintaining the surface roughness value at the desired level.