Investigation of machinability characteristics on C45 steel with cryogenically treated M2 HSS tool using statistical technique

The machining industries always eye on increasing hardness and reducing the friction at the cutting tool-workpiece interface to reduce flank wear, thereby enhancing the tool life. The present study investigates the effect of deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) on the behavior of M2 HSS tool in turning of C45 medium carbon steel. The tool is double tempered and is tested for hardness and flank wear. The power consumption is also analyzed in the process with a focus on green machining. While Taguchi's L27 orthogonal array (OA) is used to study the main interaction effect of all machining parameters, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and signal to noise (S/N) ratio are used for analysis of experimental outcomes. The study reveals that DCT has enhanced the hardness of HSS tool by 14.9%, while speed and feed were the dominating factors on the flank wear. Microstructure morphology using SEM is also discussed. © 2019 S. Kumar et al., published by EDP Sciences.