Analysis of Tool Life during Turning Operation by Determining Optimal Process Parameters

In any metal cutting operation the features of tools, input work materials, machine parameter settings will influence the process efficiency and output quality characteristics. A significant improvement in process efficiency may be obtained by process parameter optimization that identifies and determines the regions of critical process control factors leading to desired outputs or responses with acceptable variations ensuring a lower cost of manufacturing. For turning process, the cutting conditions i.e. Speed, Feed and Depth of cut plays an important role in the efficient use of a machine tool.In order to determine the optimum cutting conditions, one has to estimate the tool life and cutting forces with a reasonable degree of accuracy since many of the constraints those are applying on a process are influenced by these parameters. For a practical machining situation, since no adequate machining theory is available to predict the tool life and cutting forces, one is compelled to rely on empirical equations to predict these parameters. However, these empirical equations involve a number of constants which are not readily available. Hence this Paper proposes an alternative approach to determine the optimal process parameters used to predict cutting forces, tool life and surface finish