Experimental investigation of cryogenic end milling on maraging steel using cryogenically treated tungsten carbide-cobalt inserts

Abstract

The cryogenic machining and cryogenic treatment have already emerged as the sustainable manufacturing process of the future generation. The cryogenic treatment improves the cutting tool life, but the high cutting temperature developed during high-speed machining reduces the effect of cryogenic treatment of cutting tool. This study investigates the possible improvements in cutting tool life by combining cryogenic cooling and cryogenic treatment. The authors believe that these two techniques can replace conventional machining approaches using dry and wet machining conditions using coated carbide tools. The tungsten carbide-cobalt inserts are cryogenically treated (CT) at a soaking temperature of − 195.8 °C for a period of 24 h and are used to evaluate milling performance under dry, wet, and cryogenic cutting environments. The machining experiments are conducted on maraging steel MDN 250 using one factor at a time approach by varying spindle speed and keeping feed rate and depth of cut as constant. The cutting force, surface roughness, tool wear, and subsurface microhardness are some of the machining responses evaluated and compared with an untreated cutting tool (UT). The tool life improved up to 24% during cryogenic machining using CT tools at a spindle speed of 270 rpm.