Influence of tool structure on turning performance of compacted graphite iron

Compacted graphite iron has been used more and more in industry because of its excellent mechanical properties, especially in the automobile industry to manufacture high performance and light weight diesel engine. However, the excellent mechanical properties of compacted graphite iron cause the tool life greatly shortened. In this research, the influence of tool structure on tool life is studied by simulation and experiment. Firstly, turning simulations for tools with different rake angles, clearance angles, and cutting edge radius were performed by the software Deform. Then orthogonal simulation was used to optimize the tool parameters. In addition, according to the tool parameters obtained in the simulation, a batch of tools with rake angles of 13°, 15°, and 19° were prepared, and their performances in turning compacted graphite cast iron were studied. The experiment results show that the life of the tool with 19° rake angle was 11.73% and 16.94% higher than that of the tool with 13° rake angle and 15° rake angle, respectively. And it has the minimum cutting force and lower wear value of the flank face. Our research is especially aimed at compacted graphite iron, which might have some function in improving the processing efficiency of compacted graphite iron.