Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2007) 32: 638643 DOI 10.

1007/s00170-005-0379-0

ORIGINA L ARTI CLE

A. Y. L. Yong . K. H. W. Seah . M. Rahman

Performance of cryogenically treated tungsten carbide tools in milling operations

Received: 21 June 2005 / Accepted: 24 October 2005 / Published online: 18 March 2006 # Springer-Verlag London Limited 2006

Abstract This paper describes a study on the effects of cryogenic treatment of tungsten carbide. Cryogenic treatment has been acknowledged by some as a means of extending the tool life of many cutting tool materials, but little is known about the mechanism behind it. Thus far, the only few detailed studies conducted pertain to the cryogenic treatment of tool steels. However, tungsten carbide cutting tools are now in common use in industry. This paper primarily reports and analyses the differences in tool performance between cryogenically treated and untreated tungsten carbide tool inserts during the highspeed milling of medium carbon steel. In addition to dry cutting, machining with coolant was also tested. From the results, it can be seen that cryogenically treated tools exhibit better tool wear resistance than untreated ones. Also, it is evident that the application of coolant during cutting helps to reduce tool wear experienced by the cryogenically treated tools even further. In addition, cryogenically treated tools are found to perform best under a particular set of cutting conditions. Keywords Cryogenic treatment . Tungsten carbide . Wear . Milling . Coolant

1 Introduction
The technology of cutting tools and inserts has been rapidly evolving. From tools and inserts made of ferrous metals in earlier days, todays industries employ tools made from various materials, such as sintered silicon nitride, ceramics and cubic boron nitride (CBN). In recent years, instead of new tooling materials being introduced, secondary processes to improve tool lives are being explored, such as the heat treatment of tool inserts and the employment of
A. Y. L. Yong (*) . K. H. W. Seah . M. Rahman Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: engp1846@nus.edu.sg

surface coatings on tool inserts. Yet another relatively new process is the cryogenic treatment of tool inserts. Cryogenic treatment refers to the treatment of materials at very low temperatures, generally around 183C. The temperature is much lower than that of cold treatment, where temperatures are only around 96C. The notable effects of cryogenic treatment include changes in the mechanical properties and in the crystal structures of materials. In the last 30 years or so, there has been an increasing interest in the effects of cryogenic treatment on the properties of metals. However, a large part of the research conducted has been limited to the effects of cryogenic treatment on ferrous metals. Barron [1] performed abrasive wear tests on a wide variety of steels, and concluded that metals which can exhibit retained austenite at room temperature can have their wear resistance significantly increased by subjecting them to cryogenic treatment. Collins [2] explains in detail the process of austenite to martensite transformation, and also explains how the cryogenic treatment process can be used in combination with austenitising treatment to achieve either an increase in hardness or an increase in wear resistance for tool steels. Other works [3, 4] have been able to show that both the hardness and wear resistance of tool steels can be improved simultaneously through cryogenic treatment. Huang et al. [5] performed a microstructural analysis of cryogenically treated M2 tool steel and found that the treatment increased the carbide population and volume fraction in the martensite matrix, as well as making the carbide distribution more homogeneous, resulting in the effect of improved wear resistance. Research efforts on the effects of cryogenic treatment on non-ferrous materials remain relatively few and far between. It should be noted that there is no martensite phase in tungsten carbide, as such, any improvement in tool life or wear resistance would be due to other mechanisms. Developments in cutting tool technology have brought about many different types of materials used to manufacture cutting tools and indexable inserts. These include tool steels, diamonds, engineering ceramics and, more recently, coatings on cutting tools. After researching on ceramic

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1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 Machining Time (minutes) Non-treated Inserts (Dry) Non-treated Inserts (Coolant) Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry) Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant)
Flank Wear (mm) 0.8 1.2

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Fig. 3 Flank wear against machining time at v=392.7 m/min

Fig. 1 Flank wear against machining time at v=294.5 m/min

cutting tool inserts, Quek [6] concluded that cryogenically treated tool inserts exhibited better wear characteristics than untreated ones at low turning speeds and feeds. Some research on the effects of cryogenic treatment on tungsten carbide has been carried out, but the research had been concentrated on uninterrupted cutting processes, such as turning operations. A recent study by Seah et al. [7] found that cryogenic treatment improved the wear resistance and overall tool lives of tungsten carbide tool inserts in turning.
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Much less research has been performed on interrupted cutting processes, such as milling. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate any improvements in cryogenically treated tungsten carbide tools in the face milling of medium carbon steel. While similar work to evaluate the performance of such inserts has been done before, they have mostly dealt with uninterrupted cutting processes, such as turning.

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0.0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Machining Time (minutes) Non-treated Inserts (Dry) Non-treated Inserts (Coolant) Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry) Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant)

Fig. 2 Flank wear against machining time at v=343.6 m/min

Fig. 4 Flank wear against machining time at v=490.9 m/min

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2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 Flank Wear (mm) 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 Machining Time (minutes) Non-treated Inserts (Dry) Non-treated Inserts (Coolant) Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry) Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant)

Gradual raising of temperature back to room temperature at a rate of 0.5F per min

2.2 Face milling of ASSAB 760 medium carbon steel The objective of the machining test is to study the trends on the wear and tool life of cryogenically treated and untreated tungsten carbide inserts. Studies so far have shown that the cutting speed is the most dominant factor influencing tool life, followed by feed and depth of cut, in that order [8, 9]. Hence, only the cutting speed was varied in the experiments, by adjusting the spindle speed during the machining tests. This is to observe any noticeable trends on tool wear at different cutting speeds. Other variables, such as feed per tooth and depth of cut, were kept constant. The cutting conditions are summarised as follows: Feed rate: 0.15 mm/tooth Depth of cut: 0.1 mm Number of inserts used for each cut: 1 Cutting speeds: 294.5, 343.6, 392.7, 409.9, 540.0, 589.0 m/min

Fig. 5 Flank wear against machining time at v=540.0 m/min

2 Experimental procedure
2.1 Cryogenic treatment of tungsten carbide inserts Square milling inserts purchased from Sumitomo Corporation, Japan, were sent to PT Metalworks in Indonesia for cryogenic treatment. The details of the cryogenic treatment are as follows: Gradual lowering of temperature from room temperature to 300F, at a rate of about 0.5F per min Holding the temperature at 300F for 24 h
1.8 1.6 1.4 Flank Wear (mm) 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 Machining Time (minutes) Non-treated Inserts (Dry) Non-treated Inserts (Coolant) Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry) Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant)

For each cutting speed, there was one run with coolant and another without coolant. Oil-based coolant was used and was directed towards the cutting edge such that the toolchip interface and the surrounding areas were flooded with coolant. The insert used was a Sumitomo tungsten carbide milling insert (SPCH 42R, grade G10E), mounted on a Sumitomo DPG4125R tool holder, which can hold six inserts. Only one cutting edge was used in each test. The dimensions of each workpiece are 455 mm75 mm100 mm (lengthwidthheight), in accordance with ISO standards for tool life testing in face milling [10]. Machining tests are carried out to determine the tool life of the cutting inserts in accordance with ISO standards [10]. Tool life can be defined as the total cutting time required to reach a specified tool-life criterion, which is a predetermined value of deterioration of a specific tool or the occurrence of a specified failure phenomenon. The criteria used in this research for measuring tool life are as follows: 0.5 mm maximum permissible flank wear (Vb) for useful tool life Occurrence of catastrophic failure of the cutting edge

Table 1 Tool lives for Vb=0.5 mm Cutting speed Tool life (min) (m/min) Untreated Cryo(dry) treated (dry) 294.5 343.6 392.7 490.9 540.0 589.0 19.57 11.71 9.02 3.85 2.79 2.13 20.54 13.20 11.63 4.43 3.06 2.33 Untreated (coolant) Cryo-treated (coolant)

Fig. 6 Flank wear against machining time at v=589.0 m/min

19.96 11.91 9.15 4.00 2.90 2.24

21.12 13.69 12.68 4.73 3.22 2.41

641 Table 2 Comparison between untreated and cryo-treated inserts in dry machining (Vb=0.5 mm) Cutting speed (m/min) 294.5 343.6 392.7 490.9 540.0 589.0 Tool life (min) Untreated (dry) 19.57 11.71 9.02 3.85 2.79 2.13 Cryo-treated (dry) 20.54 13.20 11.63 4.43 3.06 2.33 Percentage change (%)

+5.0 +12.7 +28.9 +15.1 +9.7 +9.4

Face milling was carried out on a vertical milling machine (Shizuoka NC Mill VHR-GN) and flank wear of the cutting inserts was measured using a Mitutoyo Toolmakers microscope. The readings for inserts that encountered premature catastrophic failure were rejected and a minimum of two sets of readings for each cutting condition were taken and averaged to minimize errors. In addition, a Mitutoyo tool setter was used to ensure that the depth of cut was accurate, as the small depth of cut used in the experiments could introduce possibilities of error.

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Analysis of tool wear with respect to time The flank wear values of the inserts were measured at fixed intervals, i.e. after every two passes over the workpiece. The graphs in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 show the relative wear resistance at different cutting speeds. As reflected in the graphs for cutting speeds of 294.5 m/min and 343.6 m/min (Figs. 1 and 2, respectively), cryogenic treatment caused the wear resistance of the inserts to improve, as shown by the lower flank wear values at any given point in time. Figure 3 shows that, for dry cutting operations (i.e. without coolant), at a cutting speed of 392.7 m/min, the flank wear values of the cryogenically treated inserts were initially lower than that of the untreated inserts, but subsequently had higher flank wear values over the
Table 3 Comparison between untreated and cryo-treated inserts in machining with coolant (Vb=0.5 mm) Cutting speed (m/min) Tool life (min) Untreated (coolant) 19.96 11.91 9.15 4.00 2.90 2.24 Cryo-treated (coolant) 21.12 13.69 12.68 4.73 3.22 2.41 Percentage change (%)

untreated ones after approximately 14.5 min of machining. In addition, at higher cutting speeds of 490.9 m/min and above (Figs. 4, 5 and 6), there was no perceptible improvement in the wear resistance of cryogenically treated inserts over the untreated ones. In fact, as the machining time increased for the higher speeds in this study, the flank wear development of the treated inserts approached that of the untreated ones (Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6). For the case of machining with coolant, the flank wear development of the untreated inserts was approximately the same as that for the untreated inserts in dry cutting, as reflected in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. However, the cryogenically treated inserts in use with coolant showed slower flank wear development in comparison to the cryogenically treated inserts in dry cutting. This suggests that possible higher toolchip interface temperatures during dry machining might have an adverse effect on the performance of cryogenically treated inserts and the usage of coolant helps to restrict flank wear by keeping the temperature down. Some research results have shown that the application of coolant can be detrimental to tool wear resistance [11], due to the pronounced temperature differences caused by the application of coolant, which, in turn, accelerates cracking and, hence, failure of the tool. However, this is usually more pronounced at rough cutting conditions. In this study, it could be possible that the improved tool wear resistance from the application of coolant arose from the fact that the
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294.5 343.6 392.7 490.9 540.0 589.0

+5.8 +14.9 +38.6 +18.3 +11.0 +7.6

Log of Cutting Speed Non-treated Inserts (Dry) Non-treated Inserts (Coolant) Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry) Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant) Linear (Non-treated Inserts (Dry)) Linear (Non-treated Inserts (Coolant)) Linear (Cryo-treated Inserts (Dry)) Linear (Cryo-treated Inserts (Coolant))

Fig. 7 Tool life of cutting inserts vs. speed

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cutting conditions used are rather mild. In recent years, another method of cooling, called cryogenic cooling, has been researched and results have shown that this method provides for reduced tool wear and improved tool life, as compared to conventional flood cooling [12]. As such, it might be possible to observe even further reductions in tool wear for the conditions used in this study by applying the method of cryogenic cooling. In addition, lesser machine vibration and noise were observed at all cutting speeds using the cryogenically treated inserts, though this could not be verified quantitatively. The occurrence of tool chipping was notably lesser when machining with the cryogenically treated inserts but, due to the nature of the experiment, the onset of chipping could not be exactly identified. 3.2 Analysis of tool life with respect to cutting speed Based on ISO standards, a maximum of 0.5 mm of uniform flank wear (Vb) is permitted for useful tool life [10]. The tool lives were read off from the graphs of flank wear against time at each cutting speed (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) and tabulated in Table 1. From the table, it can be seen that the cryogenically treated inserts demonstrated longer tool lives than untreated ones and, hence, better wear resistance during dry cutting conditions. In the case of machining with coolant, higher tool lives for cryogenically treated inserts were obtained also, when compared to dry machining using similar inserts. An interesting observation was that the tool lives of untreated inserts show little improvement when machining with coolant compared to dry cutting. Other researchers have also noted this observation in their studies of tool wear in machining [13, 14]. The percentage improvements of the treated inserts in both dry and wet machining are tabulated in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. It can be seen that the cryogenically treated inserts, when in use with coolant, yielded better tool lives compared to dry machining, especially at a cutting speed of 394.7 m/min. It is appropriate to mention here that, although most tool life tests employ a minimal number of inserts to save on material costs, there are some limitations to the validity of the data obtained. Richetti et al. noted that, as the number of inserts used in a milling cutter is reduced, the tool life is increased when the feed per tooth is maintained [9]. As such, the results obtained in this study should not be taken as an accurate study of tool life. Rather, the purpose is to establish trends for comparing the performance between the cryogenically treated inserts and untreated ones. Plotting double logarithmic values of tool lives and the corresponding cutting speeds showed some trends, as shown in Fig. 7. As seen in the graph, the tool lives of untreated inserts showed little deviation when subjected to dry and wet machining. As a whole, cryogenically treated

inserts experienced longer tool lives than the untreated inserts. The treated inserts performed marginally better during machining with coolant. An interesting observation was that, during machining at a speed of 392.7 m/min, for both dry and wet cutting conditions, the cryogenically treated inserts performed exceptionally well, exhibiting an increase of 28.9% and 38.6%, respectively, in tool life over the untreated inserts. Thus, it can be inferred that cryogenically treated inserts might be more suited for a particular set of cutting conditions.

4 Conclusions
From this study, it has been noted that the cryogenic treatment of tungsten carbide inserts improves tool life performance to a certain extent. This is largely dependent on the machining conditions and the length of machining time. Generally, longer machining times diminish any beneficial effect of tool life that cryogenic treatment brings about. High toolchip interface temperatures have an adverse effect on the performance of cryogenically treated inserts. The cryogenically treated inserts performed better during wet machining, while untreated ones fared not much better than during dry machining. This suggests that lowering toolchip interface temperatures might be beneficial to the performance of cryogenically treated tungsten carbide inserts.

References
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643 11. Palmai Z (1987) Cutting temperature in intermittent cutting. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 27(2):261274 12. Dhar NR, Paul S, Chattopadhyay MB (2001) Beneficial effects of cryogenic cooling over dry and wet machining on tool wear and surface finish in turning AISI 1060 Steel. J Mater Process Technol 166(1):4448 13. Vieira JM, Machado AR, Ezugwu EO (2001) Performance of cutting fluids during face milling of steels. J Mater Process Technol 116(2):244251 14. Sales WF, Deniz AE, Machado AR (2001) Application of cutting fluids in machining process. J Brazil Soc Mech Sci 23 (2):227240