Experimental investigation during end milling of AISI D2 tool steel using AlCrN coated tool

Abstract

Abstract Machining of tool steel is difficult task due to high hardness for today’s manufacturing industries. Also in die and moulds manufacturing industries, D grade tool steels are widely used as work material due to its extremely high wear resisting properties as well as high corrosion resisting properties. Selection of cutting tool is very essential need for such types of hard machining. Nowadays coated tools are widely used for machining of hard materials due to its high wear resistance properties as wall as high tool life. This research work presents experimental investigation and optimization of machining parameters during milling of AISI D2 tool steel by using coated end mill tool. AlCrN coated end mill tool was used as cutting tool for milling of tool steel by considering four input CNC milling parameters namely cutting speed, feed, depth of cut and width of cut under dry condition. Design of experiment plan was developed to measure two responses cutting force and surface roughness using response surface methodology (RSM) central composite design (CCD) method. Based on that, 30 experiments have been carried out by considering four factor and five level design of experiment. Two empirical models for cutting force (Fz) and surface roughness have been established by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and indicates that a quadratic model was best fit for the variation of cutting force as well as the variation of surface roughness. Cutting forces were measured by using of Kistler 9272 piezoelectric dynamometer during machining process. Surface roughness was measured by using of Mitutoyosurftest SJ 410 at beginning, middle and end of the workpiece after machining and plot the graph based on the average value. From experimental analysis, it has been found that cutting speed and width of cut are two dominant cutting parameters that affect the cutting force (Fz). Feed rate is main influencing cutting parameter that effect on surface roughness