Production Process II (Module 3 - Notes)

Elements mentioned in these notes

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Cutting Fluids Machinability Tool Wear Types of Cutting Materials Economics of Machining

Cutting Fluids
The basic purposes of cutting fluid application are: Cooling of the job and the tool to reduce the detrimental effects of cutting temperature on the job and the tool Lubrication at the chiptool interface and the tool flanks to reduce cutting forces and friction and thus the amount of heat generation. Cleaning the machining zone by washing away the chip particles and debris which, if present, spoils the finished surface and accelerates damage of the cutting edges Protection of the nascent finished surface a thin layer of the cutting fluid sticks to the machined surface and thus prevents its harmful contamination by the gases like SO , O ,
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H S, N O present in the atmosphere.

2 x y

However, the main aim of application of cutting fluid is to improve machinability through reduction of cutting forces and temperature, improvement by surface integrity and enhancement of tool life.

Essential properties of cutting fluids

To enable the cutting fluid fulfill its functional requirements without harming the Machine Fixture Tool Work (M-F-T-W) system and the operators, the cutting fluid should possess the following properties: For cooling : o high specific heat, thermal conductivity and film coefficient for heat transfer o spreading and wetting ability For lubrication : o high lubricity without gumming and foaming o wetting and spreading o high film boiling point o friction reduction at extreme pressure (EP) and temperature Chemical stability, non-corrosive to the materials of the M-F-T-W system less volatile and high flash point high resistance to bacterial growth

odorless and also preferably colorless non-toxic in both liquid and gaseous stage Easily available and low cost.

Principles of Cutting Fluid Action

The chip-tool contact zone is usually comprised of two parts; plastic or bulk contact zone and elastic contact zone as indicated in figure below.

The cutting fluid cannot penetrate or reach the plastic contact zone but enters in the elastic contact zone by capillary effect. With the increase in cutting velocity, the fraction of plastic contact zone gradually increases and covers almost the entire chip-tool contact. Therefore, at high speed machining, the cutting fluid becomes unable to lubricate and cools the tool and the job only by bulk external cooling The chemicals like chloride, phosphate or sulphide present in the cutting fluid chemically reacts with the work material at the chip under surface under high pressure and temperature and forms a thin layer of the reaction product. The low shear strength of that reaction layer helps in reducing friction. To form such solid lubricating layer under high pressure and temperature some extreme pressure additive (EPA) is deliberately added in reasonable amount in the mineral oil or soluble oil. For extreme pressure, chloride, phosphate or sulphide type EPA is used depending upon the
o o o o o

working temperature, i.e. moderate (200 C ~ 350 C), high (350 C ~ 500 C) and very high (500 C ~
o

800 C) respectively.

Types of Cutting Fluids and their application

Generally, cutting fluids are employed in liquid form but occasionally also employed in gaseous form. Only for lubricating purpose, often solid lubricants are also employed in machining and grinding. The cutting fluids, which are commonly used, are: Air blast or compressed air only. Machining of some materials like grey cast iron become inconvenient or difficult if any cutting fluid is employed in liquid form. In such case only air blast is recommended for cooling and cleaning Water For its good wetting and spreading properties and very high specific heat, water is considered as the best coolant and hence employed where cooling is most urgent. Soluble oil Water acts as the best coolant but does not lubricate. Besides, use of only water may impair the machine-fixture-tool-work system by rusting So oil containing some emulsifying agent and additive like EPA, together called cutting compound, is mixed with water in a suitable ratio ( 1 ~ 2 in 20 ~ 50). This milk like white emulsion, called soluble oil, is very common and widely used in machining and grinding. Cutting oils Cutting oils are generally compounds of mineral oil to which are added desired type and amount of vegetable, animal or marine oils for improving spreading, wetting and lubricating properties. As and when required some EP additive is also mixed to reduce friction, adhesion and BUE formation in heavy cuts. Chemical fluids These are occasionally used fluids which are water based where some organic and or inorganic materials are dissolved in water to enable desired cutting fluid action. There are two types of such cutting fluid; o Chemically inactive type high cooling, anti-rusting and wetting but less lubricating o Active (surface) type moderate cooling and lubricating. Solid or semi-solid lubricant Paste, waxes, soaps, graphite, Moly-disulphide (MoS ) may also often be used, either
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applied directly to the workpiece or as an impregnant in the tool to reduce friction and thus cutting forces, temperature and tool wear. Cryogenic cutting fluid Extremely cold (cryogenic) fluids (often in the form of gases) like liquid CO or N are used in
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some special cases for effective cooling without creating much environmental pollution and health hazards.

Selection of Cutting Fluid

The benefit of application of cutting fluid largely depends upon proper selection of the type of the cutting fluid depending upon the work material, tool material and the machining condition. As for example, for high speed machining of not-difficult-to-machine materials greater cooling type fluids are preferred and for low speed machining of both conventional and difficult-to-machine materials greater lubricating type fluid is preferred. Selection of cutting fluids for machining some common engineering materials and operations are presented as follows: Grey cast iron: o Generally dry for its self-lubricating property o Air blast for cooling and flushing chips o Soluble oil for cooling and flushing chips in high speed machining and grinding Steels: o If machined by HSS tools, sol. Oil (1: 20 ~30) For low carbon and alloy steels and neat oil with EPA for heavy cuts o If machined by carbide tools thinner sol. Oil for low strength steel, thicker sol. Oil ( 1:10 ~ 20) for stronger steels and straight sulphurised oil for heavy and low speed cuts and EP cutting oil for high alloy steel. o Often steels are machined dry by carbide tools for preventing thermal shocks. Aluminum and its alloys: o Preferably machined dry o Light but oily soluble oil o Straight neat oil or kerosene oil for stringent cuts. Copper and its alloys : o Water based fluids are generally used o Oil with or without inactive EPA for tougher grades of Cu-alloy. Stainless steels and Heat resistant alloys: o High performance soluble oil or neat oil with high concentration with chlorinated EP additive. The brittle ceramics and cermets (Ceramic Metal composite) should be used either under dry condition or light neat oil in case of fine finishing. Grinding at high speed needs cooling (1: 50 ~ 100) soluble oil. For finish grinding of metals and alloys low viscosity neat oil is also used.

Method of application of Cutting Fluids

The effectiveness and expense of cutting fluid application significantly depend also on how it is applied in respect of flow rate and direction of application. In machining, depending upon the requirement and facilities available, cutting fluids are generally employed in the following ways (flow): Drop-by-drop under gravity Flood under gravity In the form of liquid jet(s) Mist (atomized oil) with compressed air Z-Z method centrifugal through the grinding wheels (pores) The direction of application also significantly governs the effectiveness of the cutting fluid in respect of reaching at or near the chip-tool and work-tool interfaces. Depending upon the requirement and accessibility the cutting fluid is applied from top or side(s). In operations like deep hole drilling the pressurized fluid is often sent through the axial or inner spiral hole(s) of the drill. For effective cooling and lubrication in high speed machining of ductile metals having wide and plastic chip-tool contact, cutting fluid may be pushed at high pressure to the chip-tool interface through hole(s) in the cutting tool.

Machinability
Machinability can be defined as ability of being machined and more reasonably as ease of machining. Such ease of machining or machinability characteristics of any tool-work pair is to be judged by: magnitude of the cutting forces tool wear or tool life surface finish magnitude of cutting temperature chip forms Machinability will be considered desirably high when cutting forces, temperature, surface roughness and tool wear are less, tool life is long and chips are ideally uniform and short enabling short chip-tool contact length and less friction.

Tool Wear
For the purpose of controlling tool wear one must understand the various mechanisms of wear that the cutting tool undergoes under different conditions. The common mechanisms of cutting tool wear are: i. Mechanical wear a. Thermally insensitive type; like abrasion, chipping and delamination b. Thermally sensitive type; like adhesion, fracturing, flaking etc. ii. Thermochemical wear a. macro-diffusion by mass dissolution b. micro-diffusion by atomic migration iii. Chemical wear iv. Galvanic wear During abrasion the hard particles gets embedded in the surface of a part which slides over a second surface, then these particles make grooves in the second surface. This makes the tool rough and subsequently increases tool temperature, decreased tool hardness and further accelerates abrasion wear. During adhesion, when two surfaces are bought in contact the surfaces get bonded to each other. Then further force is required to break these bonds and some material of the first surface is bonded to the second surface which results in increased tool wear. In diffusion wear the material from the tool at its rubbing surfaces, particularly at the rake surface gradually diffuses into the flowing chips either in bulk or atom by atom when the tool material has chemical affinity or solid solubility towards the work material. The rate of such tool wear, increases with the increase in temperature at the cutting zone. Diffusion wear becomes predominant when the cutting temperature becomes very high due to high cutting velocity and high strength of the work material. Chemical wear, leading to damages like grooving wear may occur if the tool material is not enough chemically stable against the work material and/or the atmospheric gases. Galvanic wear, based on electrochemical dissolution, seldom occurs when both the work tool materials are electrically conductive, cutting zone temperature is high and the cutting fluid acts as an electrolyte.

Types of Cutting Tool Materials

1. High Speed Steel (HSS) The basic composition of HSS is 18% W, 4% Cr, 1% V, 0.7% C and rest Fe. Such HSS tool could machine (turn) mild steel jobs at speed only up to 20 ~ 30 m/min. However, HSS is still used as cutting tool material where: the tool geometry and mechanics of chip formation are complex, such as helical twist drills, reamers, gear shaping cutters, hobs, form tools, broaches etc. brittle tools like carbides, ceramics etc. are not suitable under shock loading the small scale industries cannot afford costlier tools The old or low powered small machine tools cannot accept high speed and feed. The tool is to be used number of times by re-sharpening. With time the effectiveness and efficiency of HSS (tools) and their application range were gradually enhanced by improving its properties and surface condition through: Refinement of microstructure Addition of large amount of cobalt and Vanadium to increase hot hardness and wear resistance respectively Manufacture by powder metallurgical process Surface coating with heat and wear resistive materials like TiC, TiN, etc. by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) or Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Stellite This is a cast alloy of Co (40 to 50%), Cr (27 to 32%), W (14 to 19%) and C (2%). Stellite is quite tough and more heat and wear resistive than the basic HSS (18 4 1) But such stellite as cutting tool material became obsolete for its poor grindability and especially after the arrival of cemented carbides. Sintered Tungsten carbides The advent of sintered carbides made another breakthrough in the history of cutting tool materials. Straight or single carbide - First the straight or single carbide tools or inserts were powder metallurgically produced by mixing, compacting and sintering 90 to 95% WC powder with cobalt. The hot, hard and wear resistant WC grains are held by the binder Co which provides the necessary strength and toughness. Such tools are suitable for machining grey cast iron, brass, bronze etc. which produce short discontinuous chips and at cutting velocities two to three times of that possible for HSS tools. Composite carbides - The single carbide is not suitable for machining steels because of rapid growth of wear, particularly crater wear, by diffusion of Co and carbon from the tool to the chip under the high stress and temperature bulk (plastic) contact between the continuous chip and the tool surfaces. For machining steels successfully, another type called composite carbide have been developed by adding (8 to 20%) a gamma phase to WC and Co mix. The gamma phase is a mix of TiC, TiN, TaC, NiC etc. which are more diffusion resistant than WC due to their more stability and less wettability by steel. Mixed carbides - Titanium carbide (TiC) is not only more stable but also much harder than WC. So for machining ferritic steels causing intensive diffusion and adhesion wear a large

quantity (5 to 25%) of TiC is added with WC and Co to produce another grade called Mixed carbide. But increase in TiC content reduces the toughness of the tools. Therefore, for finishing with light cut but high speed, the harder grades containing up to 25% TiC are used and for heavy roughing work at lower speeds lesser amount (5 to 10%) of TiC is suitable. Plain ceramics Inherently high compressive strength, chemical stability and hot hardness of the ceramics led to powder metallurgical production of indexable ceramic tool inserts since 1950. Basically three types of ceramic tool bits are available in the market: Plain alumina with traces of additives these white or pink sintered inserts are cold pressed and are used mainly for machining cast iron and similar materials at speeds 200 to 250 m/min Alumina; with or without additives hot pressed, black colour, hard and strong used for machining steels and cast iron at V = 150 to 250 m/min
C

Carbide ceramic (Al O + 30% TiC) cold or hot pressed, black colour, quite strong and
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enough tough used for machining hard cast irons and plain and alloy steels at 150 to 200 m/min. However, the use of those brittle plain ceramic tools, until their strength and toughness could be substantially improved since 1970, gradually decreased for being restricted to uninterrupted machining of soft cast irons and steels only relatively high cutting velocity but only in a narrow range (200 ~ 300 m/min) requiring very rigid machine tools Advent of coated carbide capable of machining cast iron and steels at high velocity made the then ceramics almost obsolete. Advanced Tool Materials a) Coated Carbides b) Cermets c) Coronite d) High Performance Ceramics (HPC) e) Nitride Based Ceramic Tools f) Cubic Boron Nitride Diamond Tools Single stone, natural or synthetic, diamond crystals are used as tips/edge of cutting tools. Owing to the extreme hardness and sharp edges, natural single crystal is used for many applications, particularly where high accuracy and precision are required. Their important uses are: Single point cutting tool tips and small drills for high speed machining of non-ferrous metals, ceramics, plastics, composites, etc. and effective machining of difficult-to-machine materials Drill bits for mining, oil exploration, etc. Tool for cutting and drilling in glasses, stones, ceramics, FRPs etc. Wire drawing and extrusion dies Super-abrasive wheels for critical grinding.

Limited supply, increasing demand, high cost and easy cleavage of natural diamond demanded a more reliable source of diamond. It led to the invention and manufacture of artificial diamond grits by ultra-high temperature and pressure synthesis process, which enables large scale manufacture of diamond with some control over size, shape and friability of the diamond grits as desired for various applications. Applications of Diamond in tools: a) Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) Tools b) Diamond Coated Carbide Tools