Improvement of Chip Breaking in Machining Low Carbon Steel by Cryogenically Precooling the Workpiece

Ductile materials such as AISI1008 low carbon steel characteristically exhibit poor chip breaking in conventional machining practices. This paper presents an environmentally clean cryogenic machining process which improves the breakability of AISI1008 chips by lowering the chip temperature to its embrittlement temperature. In this study, the brittle-ductile transition temperature of AISI1008 was experimentally determined to be between -60°C and -120°C. The discussion is focused on whether the chip can reach the embrittlement temperature before it hits an obstacle. A finite element simulation predicted the chip temperatures under various cutting conditions. Liquid nitrogen (LN2) was used to prechill the workpiece cryogenically. The results from the cutting tests indicate a significant improvement in chip breakability for different feeds and speeds by using this cooling technique. However, the effectiveness of cryogenetically prechilling the workpiece was found to be heavily dependent on cutting speed.

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