Proposed Methodology for Optimizing Grooving Operations of Ferrous Sintered Material

Abstract

Nowadays, powder metallurgy technology is increasingly used for the production of components with complex prismatic geometries. On account of the sintering process, machining operations have to be used for obtaining the final workpiece. Cutting operations are the limitation processes for sintered product owing to the weak machinability of sintered materials. Design has to consider such limitations early in the product development for reducing cost and enabling powder technology to compete with other technologies. This goal can be achieved only if cutting operations are well optimized through a unified methodology. In this paper, ‘couple workpiece-tool’ (CWT) methodology is used to optimize the machining of sintered steels. The study case used in this paper consists in determining optimal cutting conditions for an external grooving operation on sintered tooth sprockets on the basis of results obtained with continuous grooving operations. The influence of cutting parameters on machined surface and quality indices of the process, such as burr height, tool wear, and surface integrity, is studied. Results, based on experiments, are used to propose recommendations and new criteria to consider in CWT methodology for intermittent and continuous cutting of sintered steels.