Cryogenic treatment of cutting tool material has been reported improving properties of the materials, resulting improved performance. Tungsten carbide is most accepted and widespread cutting tool material in the industry. Cryogenically treatment of tungsten carbide has shown favorable results. However, still much is unknown about the treatment for improvement in properties of the materials, to make the process identical to the existing conventional heat-treatment process in implementation. Importance of tempering during cryogenic treatment has also been reported, however hardly we find any documentation regarding the effect of the number of tempering cycles during cryogenic treatment. This work is based upon to know the effect of the number of tempering cycles during cryogenic treatment of tungsten carbide tool material. Comparison study was done for untreated and cryogenically treated tungsten carbide inserts following variable number of tempering cycles during the treatment, in turning process. The performance was evaluated in terms of tool wear, power consumption and surface roughness achieved. Cryogenically treated inserts have shown favorable results. At low cutting conditions, performance was better and has not got affected by the number of tempering cycles whereas the number of tempering cycles during cryogenic treatment does effects at high cutting conditions, and two or three tempering cycles has shown better results.
Machinability Analysis and Optimization of Wire-EDM Textured Conventional Tungsten Carbide Inserts in Machining of 17–4 PH Stainless Steel
