TECHNICAL PAPER TP 2793 The Effect on the Cemented Carbide Cutting Tool of Austempering Process Arif Gok • Kadir Gok Received: 3 September 2013 / Accepted: 2 January 2014 Ó Indian Institute of Metals 2014 Abstract Austempered ductile irons (ADI) have been developed for an increasing number of the engineering applications such as crankshaft, gears, and other mechanic equipments because of its combination of strength and toughness. Therefore, austempering process has important effects on the mechanical properties of ADI. In this study, we have investigated the effect of austempering process on the cutting tool stresses. The cutting forces (main cutting force, feed force and thrust force) obtained from experi- mental studies have been applied to rake face, main cutting edge, auxiliary cutting edge on the cutting tool, and then the stresses (von-Mises, shear stress, normal stresses in the X, Y and Z directions) occurred on the cutting tool has been analyzed based on finite element method using ANSYS Workbench commercial software. It is also observed that analytical process of Frocht for the stresses on cutting tool tip. The results obtained show that the austempering process is the significant factor affecting cutting tool stresses. Keywords Cutting force  Finite element method (FEM)  Austempered ductile iron 1 Introduction Nodular graphite cast irons (DI) are materials which have wide usage area in the production of many mechanic and automotive parts as gear, cam and camshaft. Metal cutting manufacturing methods are mostly used in the finish machining processes of nodular graphite cast. That’s why, optimum cutting parameters and suitable cutting tool are previously determined for maximum tool life and mini- mum production cost in the machining of nodular graphite cast iron materials [1, 2]. The austempering process is applied to DI materials for its enhancing mechanical properties. The microstructure of DI (perlitic or ferritic) has an important effect on the mechanical properties obtained after the austempering process. A ductile iron having a perlitic structure has higher strength when the austemper- ing process was made at lower temperatures. Therefore, the cutting forces increase while the surface roughness values decrease. In other words the austempering process results in a better surface quality during cutting [3, 4]. Metal cutting operations can be done with experimental, analytical and finite element methods (FEMs). Experimental methods have a limited structure in terms of both cost and time. During the metal cutting, examinations such as states cutting tool stresses, cutting forces, cutting tool wear, between cutting tool and workpiece temperature are both difficult and costly. FEM can predict all these states, so by selecting correct cutting parameters and appropriate material can provide a good face quality and the longer cutting tool wear. FEM which is used to determine experimental data in advance provides a great facility Cutting analyses are used for the investigation of optimum cutting conditions in machining. There are various studies which related to cutting analysis in the literature and in these studies there are cases that restrict the use of FEM. Due to the fact that metal cutting operation are performed in high temperature and high strain rates, mechanical properties of workpiece material is exactly known. Therefore flow stress curves of materials have been used in the cutting analysis. But today, all of the material flow A. Gok (&) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Amasya University, Amasya, Turkey e-mail: arifgok8@hotmail.com K. Gok Technical Science College, Dumlupınar University, Kutahya, Turkey 123 Trans Indian Inst Met DOI 10.1007/s12666-014-0389-4