Investigation of milling strategies effect on microhardness of a typical curved surface

Employing of complex surfaces in different industries such as aerospace and die and mold is increasing. For milling of such surfaces, considering factors such as strategies and machining parameters which affect the machinability is necessary. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of different strategies and machining parameters on microhardness of a typical curved surface (convex) of stainless steel 1.4903. The cutting tool used in this study was ball nose end mill coated TiN and the strategies employed were Raster, 3D-offset, Spiral and radial. Design of experiments was done using Taguchi method. The input parameters were cutting speed, feed rate and step over. After conducting experiments, surface layers hardness of milled samples were measured. The results showed that various tool paths have different influence on microhardness of milled surfaces. Regardless of cutting condition, surface hardness after machining in all strategies was more than the primary hardness of the workpiece material. Spiral strategy provided the most hardness and radial strategy the least hardness. In addition, increasing the feed rate, cutting speed and step over, rised surface hardness and step over had least influence on hardness. The most hardness magnitude was reported in cutting speed of 180 m/min, feed rate of 0.18 mm/tooth and step over of 0.7 mm which shows 56 % of increase.