The effects of sharpened tools on tool flank wear–surface roughness and optimization of cutting parameters in milling Vanadis 4E powder metallurgic tool steel

Abstract

Vanadis 4E is a powder metallurgic tool steel that provides an excellent combination of wear resistance and ductility for high-performance tools, and it is more machinable than AISI D2 tool steel. This study applied grooving on Vanadis 4E powder metallurgic tool steel with the dimensions of 80 × 105 × 35 mm, and during the milling process, investigated the effects of cutting parameters on surface roughness and tool flank wear. Using the Taguchi L9 (34) array, 9 experiments were carried out. In the experiments, uniform carbide end mills with diameters of 12 mm were used as new and sharpened (first usage, first sharpening, second sharpening), and the experiments were performed with three cutting depths (1, 1.5 and 2 mm), three cutting speeds (60, 80 and 100 m/min) and three feed rates (0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 mm/tooth). During the experiments, temperature measurements were made with a thermal camera from the cutting area, and surface roughness and tool wear measurements were made after every one experiment. The cutting parameters were optimized by using the obtained roughness and flank wear values, and the results were analyzed by signal-to-noise ratios, analysis of variance (ANOVA), three-dimensional graphs and thermal images. After optimization, three confirmation experiments were conducted by using the optimum parameters, and the values that were estimated with the Taguchi method and the results of the verification experiments were compared.