Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Bio-inspired Textured Turning Tool for Sustainable Machining of Difficult to Machine Materials
Technology Category/Market
Technology: Cutting Tools;
Industry: Material Industry;
Applications: Sustainable turning tools, Stainless steel work piece,
Market: The global turning tools market size was valued at $5.3 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $12.1 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 8.3% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2031.
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Targeted Industries
Watermarking IP design,
Electronic circuits
Problem Statement
- In the present era, the material industries, several new engineering materials are coming in the market and machining these materials, it is very difficult to generate of higher cutting forces resulting in higher tool wear & poor surface finish.
- There are different machining operations performed on stainless steel, but faced problems like higher cutting forces causing poor tool life and poor surface finish of the work material.
- Therefore, there is a requirement to address above issues using sustainable technique by improving the tribological properties at the tool-workpiece interfaces.
Technology
- Present Patent describes about bio-inspired micro-crescent textures mimicked from the peristome of the nepenthes alata pitcher plant & micro textures generated on the rake surface and flank surface of the carbide tool for reducing the cutting forces by decreasing the friction between the interfaces of tool & workpiece.
- Said bio-inspired micro-crescent textured tool is utilized for the sustainable machining of difficult to machine materials such as martensitic AISI 420 steels.
- The micro-textures help in reducing the friction between the tool workpiece interfaces by acting as reservoir of air resulting in better heat transfer between them.
- It also helps in greener machining as it doesn’t utilize any cutting fluids during the dry machining operation.
- The illustration of claimed invention is shown in figures.
- FIG.1: Illustrates SEM micrographs of rake surface and flank surface of conventional and different geometrical textured tools (i), (v) conventional tool, (ii), (vi) micro-crescent tool, (iii), (vii) 10 micro-dimple tool, (iv), (viii) micro-groove tool.
- FIG.2 illustrates the SEM image and its corresponding EDS analysis of the conventional tool and bio-inspired micro-crescent textured tool’s flank surface. Figure A shows: 1- Flank surface; 2- Conventional tool; 3- Chipping; 4- Built up edge; 5- Abrasion, 6- Plastic deformation. Figure B shows: 1- Flank surface; 2- Micro-groove textured tool; 3- Built up edge, 4-Notch wear; 5- Abrasion. Figure C shows: 1- Flank surface; 2- Micro-dimple textured tool; 3- Abrasion; 4- Chipping. Figure D shows: 1- Flank surface; 2 – Micro-crescent textured tool; 3- Abrasion; 4- Notch wear; 5- Clean cutting edge.
Key Features/Value Proposition
Technical Perspective:
- The micro-crescent textured tool exhibit lower residual stress generation of 390.2 MPa & 315.6 MPa in cutting and feed direction.
- The bio-inspired micro-crescent textured turning tool exhibit lower average flank wear & tool-chip contact area of 34 µm & 4.3 E+05 µm2.
Industrial Perspective:
- The micro-crescent textured tool exhibit lower tangential & feed force of 61N & 19N.
- The micro-crescent textured tool showed a reduction of 19.04% in tangential force & 28.91 % in the feed force.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
Research Lab
Prof. Somashekhar S Hiremath
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF Ref. 2335;
- IN Patent No: 422058 (Granted)
Technology Readiness Level
TRL- 3
Proof of Concept ready & validated.