Investigation and Optimization of the Effects of Application of Ultrasonic Sound Frequencies during Turning Operation of Steel on Machinability Responses

Abstract

Turning is one of the most common and popular process in industry for manufacturing metallic products. The two single most important output parameters that define the product quality are surface roughness and tool wear. So it is of primary concern to reduce tool wear and surface roughness of the product in any machining process. Different studies have been carried out to determine the tool wear and surface roughness of the product and their subsequent improvements. Different techniques have been adopted to replace the traditional turning process in an attempt to minimize the tool wear and the surface roughness of the finished product. In this research, a new novel technique has been proposed and adopted with an aim to reduce tool wear and surface roughness of the product. External ultrasonic sound waves were applied during the turning process of mild steel in an attempt to reduce the cutting tool vibration thereby leading to improvements in both surface quality and tool life. Detailed experimentations were carried out to study the effect of external ultrasonic sound wave on tool life of inserts, surface roughness and cutting tool vibration. Experiments were carried out under different ultrasonic frequencies to determine the effective frequency range which optimizes the above parameters to the best degree possible. The goal was to achieve improved machinability and analyze the extent of improvement obtained in the above mentioned machinability factors and the interrelation among them by the application of ultrasonic sound wave. The experimental results showed improvements in all the above machinability factors. In addition to these, the effect of orientation of the application of the ultrasonic sound waves and the amplitude of the waves were studied in detail. Cutting tool vibration and chip morphology were also studied to support the theory suggested.