Investigation into the Relationship between Tool-Wear and Cutting Environments when Turning En32 Steel

Abstract

New environmental legislation is forcing companies to realign their use of metalworking fluids in favour of non-polluting cutting environments that will return acceptable tool wear rates and reduced costs. Studies have been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of various environments on tool wear, in order to either reduce or even eliminate totally, the dependency on flood coolants. Industrially reproducible cutting tests were devised, where an EN32 case hardening steel material was turned in a range of different cutting environments and tool life measured. Low oxygen gaseous environments were compared with conventional cutting environments and a 55 per cent flank wear reduction has been recorded using uncoated tooling. (Emerald Group Publishing Limited)