Study on Cutting Force, Cutting Temperature and Machining Residual Stress in Precision Turning of Pure Iron with Different Grain Sizes

Abstract Pure iron is one of the difficult-to-machine materials due to its large chip deformation, adhesion, work-hardening, and built-up edges formation during machining. This leads to a large workpiece deformation and challenge to meet the required technical indicators. Therefore, under varying the grain size of pure iron, the influence of cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut on the cutting force, heat generation, and machining residual stresses were explored in the turning process to improve the machinability without compromising the mechanical properties of the material. The experimental findings have depicted that the influence of grain size on cutting force in the precision turning process is not apparent. However, the cutting temperature and residual stress of machining fine-grain iron were much smaller than the coarse grain at all levels of cutting parameters.