Study of tool life, surface roughness and vibration in machining nodular cast iron with ceramic tool

This paper presents a study of tool life, surface finish and vibration while machining nodular cast iron using ceramic tool. A series of cutting tests have been carried out to verify the change in surface finish of the workpiece due to increasing tool wear. The tests have been done under various combinations of speed, feed and depth of cut. The effects of vibration on the flank wear both in the direction of main cutting force and radial cutting force have been investigated. The vibration was measured using two accelerometers attached to the tool holder and the parameters used to make the correlation with surface roughness were the amplitude and acceleration of the signals. The results show that the tool life of the alumina ceramic inserts is not satisfactory when machining nodular cast iron. In the speed range 364-685 m/min, maximum tool life achieved was only about 1.5 min. Surface finish was found to be almost constant with the progression of the flank wear under all cutting conditions. It has been observed that for the same flank wear, vibration during cutting decreases as the speed increases. At low depth of cut, vibration remains almost constant with the increase of flank wear. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.