International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 50 (2010) 11151118

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International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmactool

Short Communication

Experimental study on machinability improvement of hardened tool steel

using two dimensional vibration-assisted micro-end-milling
Hui Ding a,n, Rasidi Ibrahim b, Kai Cheng b, Shi-Jin Chen a
a
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
b
School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK

a r t i c l e in fo abstract

Article history: High strength, low thermal conductivity and high work hardening tendency of tool steel are the main
Received 6 August 2010 factors that make its machinability difcult. In this paper, two dimensional vibration-assisted micro-end-
Received in revised form milling (2-D VAMEM) is applied to machine the hardened tool steel (HRC 55 and HRC 58) in order to
23 August 2010
improve its machinability. The experiments are carried out to study the effects of vibration parameters on
Accepted 25 August 2010
the surface roughness and the tool wear. It is found that 2-D VAMEM can improve the surface roughness
Available online 15 September 2010
and reduce the tool wear compared to traditional micro-end-milling, and larger amplitude and higher
Keywords: frequency are useful for the surface roughness improvement and the tool wear reduction. Therefore, 2-D
Micro-end-milling VAMEM is an effective method to milling of hardened tool steel and can be applied in the manufacture of
Vibration-assisted machining
moulds and dies with improved machining efciency, surface quality and tool life.
Surface roughness
& 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tool wear
Machinability

1. Introduction component tolerance, surface quality, production time and costs.

Moulds and dies are increasingly demanded in different elds
like transportation, medical, electronic and communication
industries. The hardened tool steel is widely used in the
fabrication of moulds and dies due to its admirable performance.
Therefore, the machining of hardened tool steel is more and more
exigent and competitive. Electro discharge machining (EDM) and
grinding processes are mainly used to manufacture the moulds
since the machinability of hardened tool steel is bad. However,
the material removal rate of EDM is relatively low and grinding
may result in grinding burns. Furthermore, the drawbacks above
result in a long throughput time and high manufacturing cost. In
addition, the moulds and dies usually contain various types of 3-D
freeform face at the cavity and core, which are difcult to machine
with EDM and grinding processes. Therefore, there is a need to
develop alternative technologies to overcome these drawbacks.
Micro-milling is one of the promising technologies.
With regard to micro-milling of difcult to cut hardened tool
steel, unpredictable tool life and premature failure of micro tools
is a major process constraint [13]. Furthermore, rapid deteriora-
tion of cutting edge radius was reported while machining
hardened steel [4]. Tool wear is critical since it inuences
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: + 86 0451 86412062.
E-mail address: dh_albert@126.com (H. Ding).
Li [5] investigated the effects of tool geometry, tool paths and
machining parameters on the tool wear and surface nish using
tungsten carbide tool to cut hardened tool steel, and optimized
the cutting conditions to improve machined surface quality and
extended the tool life to a certain extent.
Due to the development of coating technology, coated tool is
applied into the hardened steel machining. It has been proposed
that coating deposited on micro cutting tools would extend tool
life and improve cutting performance [6]. Recently published
results reported that CrTiAlN coated micro-end-mills provided
distinct advantages in terms of tool wear reduction and machined
surface quality improvement as compared to uncoated micro-
end-mills [7,8]. However, the immaturity and high cost of the
coated micro tool limit its applications.
Vibration-assisted machining was applied into micro-milling
to improve the cutting performance of micro-milling by Chern
and Chang [9]. They found that the vibration-assisted micro-
milling can improve the cutting conditions, which resulted in tool
wear reduction and machining accuracy improvement while
cutting aluminum alloy. In this paper, two dimensional vibra-
tion-assisted micro-end-milling (2-D VAMEM) is employed to
machining the hardened tool steel (HRC 55 and HRC 58). The
experiments are carried out to investigate the machinability
improvement of hardened tool steel using 2-D VAMEM by
studying the effects of vibration parameters on surface roughness
and tool wear. And the results of 2-D VAMEM are compared with
those of traditional micro-end-milling.

0890-6955/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2010.08.010
1116 H. Ding et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 50 (2010) 11151118
2. Experimental setup
Two dimensional vibration-assisted micro-end-milling process
is shown in Fig. 1(a). X axis is the feed direction, Y axis is the normal
direction and Z axis is the cutting depth direction. Micro-amplitude
vibrations in X and Y directions are produced from the workpiece
side, so no modication is needed on the milling machine.
The experiments are conducted on a precision milling machine
with a two dimensional vibrating platform, as shown in Fig. 1(b)
and (c). The vibrating platform is designed to actuate the
workpiece to vibrate in X and Y directions by employing
piezoelectric actuators as they have characteristics of good
positioning precision, fast response and relatively large driving
force. The vibrating platform can afford 0.55 mm vibration
amplitude and up to 3000 Hz vibration frequency.
In the experiment, the tool is a 2-ute at end mill having a
diameter of 1.0 mm, a helix angle of 301 and a tool edge radius of
3 mm. The material of the tool is carbide and it is coated with
titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN). The workpiece material is
hardened tool steel and the hardnesses are HRC 55 and HRC 58.
The machining parameters are presented in Table 1. The surface
roughness is measured with the Zygo 3-D surface proler (5000)
and the tool wear is observed using optical microscope.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Machined surface roughness
Fig. 2 shows two photos of machined surface, taken by the
Zygo 3D surface proler. Their milling qualities are very easy to
recognize. Without vibration in Fig. 2(a), large feed marks as well
as some scratches and irregularities appear on the machined
surface. When the chips could not be carried away effectively, the
highly hardened chips could easily damage the machined surface.
When 2-D VAMEM is applied in Fig. 2(b), the tool feed marks are
Fig. 1. 2-D VAMEM process model and experiment equipment.
leveled off and the machined surface becomes more smooth since
rapid vibrations occur on the plane. And the surface roughness Ra
with vibrations is 0.15 mm better than that without vibrations
(0.53 mm).
Fig. 3 presents the machined surface roughness Ra with
different amplitudes and frequencies. It can be seen that the
surface roughness of HRC 55 is smaller than that of HRC 58 when
the parameters are the same, and Ra decreases with the
increment of amplitude and frequency substantially. And the
machined surface roughness with vibrations is smaller than that
without vibrations (Ra of HRC 55 without vibrations is 0.53 mm
and that of HRC 58 without vibrations is 0.55 mm). Hence, 2-D
VAMEM can improve the machined surface roughness of
hardened tool steel compared with the traditional micro-end-
milling.
3.2. Tool wear
After machining, the micro tools are observed using optical
microscope. Fig. 4 shows the wear patterns on the micro cutting
tool for (a) without vibrations and (b) with vibrations. The photos
demonstrate chipping and ank wear modes. These modes
combine in modifying the effective cutting edge radius. Flank
wear is measured at the bottom face of the micro tool. The length
of ank wear without vibrations is 65 mm larger than that with
Table 1
Machining parameters.
Parameters Values
Spindle speed (rpm) 6000
Feed per tooth (mm/tooth) 0.5
Depth of cut (mm) 5
Frequency (Hz) 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000
Amplitude (mm) 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0
 H. Ding et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 50 (2010) 11151118 1117

Fig. 2. Machined surface photos: (a) without vibration and (b) with vibration.

Fig. 3. Surface roughness with different amplitudes and frequencies.

Fig. 4. Photos of tool wear: (a) without vibrations and (b) with vibrations.

vibrations (54 mm). The results show that the tool wear with two
dimensional vibrations can be reduced by approximately 520%
compared to that of traditional micro-end-milling. And larger
amplitude and higher frequency are useful for reducing the tool
wear.
3.3. Discussions
It is clear that the machined surface roughness can be
improved and the tool wear can be reduced using 2-D VAMEM
to machine the hardened tool steel. Fig. 5 shows two photos of
machined chips without and with vibrations. For no vibrations in
Fig. 5(a), much thicker chips can be found, suggesting that the
cutting force is larger. When two dimensional vibrations are
applied, chips of thinner and segmented shape can be seen in
Fig. 5(b). It is evident that cutting force is less in this case, leading
to a better machining accuracy. Furthermore, the reduced cutting
force becomes more stable and uniform during each revolution
when the chip-removal is easy. As a result, the machined surface
becomes more accurate and the tool wear is retarded.
In addition, 2-D VAMEM is an intermittent process. The tool
would be rapidly separated from the workpiece periodically,
providing more space for the cutting uid to go into the gap
between the tool and the workpiece. Then, the cutting uid would
take away the cutting heat and provide excellent chip-removal
condition, leading to a better machined surface and tool wear
reduction. And the non-contact time between the tool and the
workpiece can be increased with the increment of amplitude and
frequency according to the research of Ding et al. [10]. Therefore,
1118 H. Ding et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 50 (2010) 11151118
Fig. 5. Photos of chips: (a) without vibrations and (b) with vibrations.
larger amplitude and higher frequency can improve the machined
surface roughness and reduce the tool wear further.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, 2-D VAMEM is applied to machine the hardened
tool steel and the machinability improvement is investigated by
studying the effects of vibration parameters on the surface rough-
ness and tool wear. The preliminary research ndings include:
(1) The machined surface roughness of hardened tool steel (HRC
55 and HRC 58) can be improved using 2-D VAMEM compared
with that of traditional micro-end-milling. And the value of Ra
reduces with the increment of amplitude and frequency.
(2) 2-D VAMEM can reduce the tool wear by 520% compared
with that of traditional micro-end-milling while machining
the hardened tool steel (HRC 55 and HRC 58). And larger
amplitude and higher frequency are more helpful for reducing
the tool wear.
(3) 2-D VAMEM can improve the machinability of hardened tool
steel in terms of machined surface improvement and tool
wear reduction. Therefore, 2-D VAMEM is an effective method
to machine the hardened tool steel and can be applied in the
manufacture of moulds and dies.
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