Burr formation in face milling of cast iron with different milling cutter systems

Abstract

Two face milling cutter systems, both with PCBN (polycrystalline cubic boron nitride) tools, were used to study burr formation in high-speed machining of grey cast iron under various cutting conditions. Surface roughness parameters Ra and Ri, tool life (based on flank wear, VBmax) and burr formation (length of the burr, h) were recorded and used for comparing machining performance. The best performance in terms of tool life and surface roughness was obtained with the milling cutter system consisting of 24 teeth and 24 square wiper inserts. Machining with this cutter configuration produced acceptable surface roughness values, well below the rejection criterion, after machining a batch of 3000 motor blocks in addition to achieving a significant reduction in the burr length.