Near Ductile Regime Machining of Tungsten Carbide insert through Control of Cutting Speed Parameter While Using a Poly-Crystalline Diamond Tool

Grinding is an acceptable manufacturing process for processing tungsten carbide components but grinding a pocket for manufacture of a die & mold still remains as a daunting task despite of the developments on the cutting tools and machining systems. A study was attempted to understand the high speed machining behavior for tungsten carbide materials while using the Poly-crystalline diamond tools. An experimental set up with a comprehensive data acquisition system was developed to conduct the machining experiments. The literature review enabled to select the cutting conditions: depth of cut, feed rate and cutting speed. Bifano's equation was used to find the critical depth of cut for configuring the near-ductile regime machining conditions. The machining performance characteristics in terms of: cutting force, tangential force, friction ratio, shear angle, cutting ratio and shear strain are unveiled.