Mirror surface machining of high-alloy steels by elliptical vibration cutting with single-crystalline diamond tools

Elliptical vibration cutting with single-crystalline diamond tools is applied to mirror surface machining of high-alloy steels such as cold work die steels and high-speed tool steels with a hardness of more than 60 HRC. Although practical mirror surface machining of hardened die steels such as Stavax (modified AISI 420) with a hardness of 53 HRC has been realized with the elliptical vibration cutting, lives of single-crystalline diamond tools are not sufficiently long in machining of some high-alloy steels, that may be caused by a large amount of alloy elements. In order to clarify the influence of the alloy elements on the diamond tool damage, the elliptical vibration cutting experiments are conducted on six kinds of high-alloy steels and four kinds of pure metals which are the same as the alloy elements. Mechanical properties of the alloy steels, i.e. difference in hardness between carbides and matrices, and the number of small carbides, are measured, and their influence on the micro-chippings are investigated. The chemical states of the alloy elements in high-alloy steels are analyzed using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) and an electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA), and their influence on the tool wear is discussed. Based on the investigation, a mirror surface machining of DC53, which has a high hardness of 62.2 HRC and the best machinability in the tested high-alloy steels, is demonstrated, and a mirror surface with a roughness of Rt 0.05 μm is obtained successfully.