Title: Effect of machining environment on machinability of Nimonic 263 during end milling with uncoated carbide tool

Authors: Bikramjit Podder, S. Paul

Addresses: Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad 500058, Andhra Pradesh, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India

Abstract: Microcrystalline straight grade carbide inserts have been used for end milling of Nimonic 263 under different machining environments, viz. conventional wet, cryogenic cooling with Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) and High Pressure (HP) cooling. Tool life, tool failure mode, chip morphology and surface finish generated during machining have been recorded and studied. Tool life improvement of as high as 275% was observed under HP cooling for certain parameter combinations compared to conventional wet. Machining under LN2 cooling produced worst results among all the three environments. This is attributed to the increased thermal fluctuation during machining under LN2 cooling. Chipping of cutting edge was found to be the most dominant failure mode for all the cases. Increase in Material Removal Rate (MRR) can be observed by superimposing iso-MRR curves on iso-tool life curves.

Keywords: Nimonic 263; end milling; tool life; conventional wet cooling; cryogenic cooling; high pressure cooling; chip morphology; surface finish; machinability; uncoated carbide tooling; carbide inserts; tool failure mode; material removal rate; MRR; nickel based superalloys.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2008.017628

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2008 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.104 - 119

Published online: 23 Mar 2008 *

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