Investigation and Statistical Analysis for Optimizing Surface Roughness, Cutting Forces, Temperature, and Productivity in Turning Grey Cast Iron

Abstract

This paper investigated the influence of cutting parameters, including feed rate, cutting speed, tool nose radius, and wet or dry cutting conditions, on the resultant force, cutting edge/workpiece temperature, and surface roughness when turning grey cast iron. Results showed that increasing the feed rate increased the resultant force, cutting temperature, and surface roughness. At the same time, increasing the cutting speed and nose radius increased the cutting temperature, which in turn reduced the resultant force. For practical applications, basic mathematical calculations based on the sole effect of each parameter on the output of the experiments were used to estimate the extent of percentage increase in cutting temperature due to increasing feed rate, cutting speed, and nose radius. Similarly, the same approach was used to estimate the effect of increasing feed rate, cutting speed, and nose radius on average surface roughness. Results showed that increasing the feed rate increases the cutting temperature by 5 to 11% depending on the nose radius and cutting speed. On the other hand, increasing the cutting speed was found to have limited effect on cutting temperature with small nose radius whereas this effect increases with increasing the nose radius reaching about 11%. Increasing the nose radius also increases the cutting temperature, depending mainly on cutting speed, reaching a maximum of 21% at higher cutting speeds. Results also showed that increasing the feed rate increased the average surface roughness considerably to about 120% at high cutting speeds and a large nose radius. On the other hand, increasing the cutting speed and nose radius reduced the surface roughness (i.e., improved surface quality) by a maximum of 29 and 23%, respectively. In order to study the combined effects of the cutting parameters on the three responses, namely, the resultant cutting force, cutting temperature, and surface roughness, full factorial design and ANOVA were used, where it was found to be in good agreement with mathematical calculations. Additionally, the desirability function optimization tool was used to minimize the measured responses whilst maximizing the material removal rate.