Investigation of Notch Shear Cutting for JIS SCM420 Steel Wire Rod

Abstract

This paper aims to study the notch shear cutting of JIS SCM420 steel wire rod. In the notch shear cutting experiment, the wire rod specimens were initially notched on the surfaces using a sharp insert installed at a lathe turning machine. Then, the specimens were cut off using the punch/die shearing tool. After the shear cutting, the sheared edge features of the wire rod were investigated and compared with the results obtained from the conventional shear cutting. In addition, the geometry of the notch, the notch depth, was varied ranging from approximately 333 to 537 μm and studied. The experimental results revealed that the cutting load resistance significantly decreased with the notch shear cutting technique. The roll over and the size of the burr zones also decreased, compared to the conventional shear cutting. This technique also improved the quality of the sheared edge in term of the roundness of the wire rod. Concerning the notch depth, it was a primary factor affecting the cutting results, especially the cutting load resistance and the occurrence of the long burr protruded from the surface of the wire rod. The improvement of the sheared edge quality by the notch shear cutting seemed to be caused by the suppression of the plastic deformation of the wire rod during shearing.