Evaluation of high temperature characteristics and tool life of high carbon and high chromium steel as a single point cutting tool

Abstract

The cutting tool plays a very important role in the machining process of a part in production. It not only performs the cutting action but helps in getting required surface finish and accuracy of the part. In order to perform these tasks the tool has to be strong enough to withstand wear resistance and serve for long period of time to produce more number of components with the same accuracy. Machining is important in metal manufacturing process to achieve near-net shape, good dimensional accuracy and for aesthetic requirements. In modern machining process and using the CNC machine tools the cutting tool will play a vital role in machining process and in improving the surface finish. Many reputed cutting tool manufacturing organizations globally with their rich experience of research and development, invented different ways of enhancing the life of cutting tool in order to optimize the rate of the production and to reduce the cost of production, which is highly acceptable to the manufacturing Industry. This paper demonstrates the use of High Carbon High Chromium Steel (HCHC) as a single point cutting tool and also evaluated the properties at high temperature range (200°C to 400°C), HCHC tool find its applications in blanking or forming dies and thread rolling dies. The experiment results like hardness, tool force analysis using lathe tool dynamometer and tool life using Taylor’s tool life equation are compared with HSS single point tool. The results shows that the forged and heat treated HCHC single point cutting tool performs similar to HSS tool and at high temperature performs better than HSS single point tool with higher tool life.