Wear Mechanism of CBN Inserts During Machining of Bimetal Aluminum-grey Cast Iron Engine Block

In this study, the wear mechanism of CBN inserts while face milling of aluminum-grey cast iron engine block was investigated by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was shown that the thermal cracking constitutes the main wear mechanism. The Finite Element Method (FEM) was utilized to simulate the face milling under the operational condition. The flow stress properties of the aluminum-silicon alloy and grey cast iron were determined by means of inverse methodology and the milling operation was modeled separately for each material to obtain the thermally and mechanically induced stresses on the tool edge. The methodology presented in this paper can be used to find the optimum cutting condition as well as tool geometry to reduce tool wear rate.