Towards Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Manufacturing Applying Environmentally Friendly Machining of a Precipitation Hardened Stainless Steel Using Hot Turning Process

Abstract

This study aims to address the aforementioned challenges, solutions and implementation perspectives with regard to sustainable manufacturing. In this research, the conventional and hot turning of AISI630 hardened stainless steel have been investigated using PVD-(Ti,Al)N/(Al,Cr)2O3 coated carbide cutting tools at various feed rates and cutting speeds. The high hardness of AISI630, along with the low thermal conductivity, has made it one of the most difficult-to-cut materials, and consequently, its machining is associated with high tool wear and poor workpiece surface quality. AISI630 stainless steel is used in the manufacture of pressure vessels and components exposed to high-stress and corrosive environments in the oil and gas industries. In the present research work, tool flank wear and crater wear mechanisms have been studied in different cutting conditions as well as different preheating temperatures using SEM microscopy. Experimental results showed that hot turning operation at temperatures up to 300 °C reduces flank wear by 33% and improves machined surface roughness by 23%. In addition, FEM simulation has been developed to predict tool tip temperature and cutting forces during turning processes. Experimental and FEM analysis shows that cutting force reduction at a preheating temperature of 300 °C is one of the reasons that reduces tool wear compared to conventional turning. Moreover, it has been shown that by increasing preheating temperature in hot turning, the hardness of the carbides in the workpiece decreases more than the hardness of the tool substrate and reduces coating materials, consequently reducing cutting tool abrasion wear phenomenon.