Dry and cryogenic milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel

Abstract

Nowadays the quality of machined surface has become the main problem due to the demand rate of life span, performance, and reliability of a machined product. The study of the component’s surface integrity is an important aspect of avoiding failure. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of milling parameters on cutting temperature and surface roughness of AISI 4340 with cutting speeds of 180- 220 m/min, feed rate of 0.1- 0.2 mm/tooth and depth of cuts of 0.3- 0.7 mm. The cutting temperature was simulated using Third Wave AdvantEdge v6. 4 software under dry conditions using uncoated carbide cutting tool. The average surface roughness was measured experimentally during the milling under the dry and cryogenic conditions using a portable surface-roughness measurement device. The analysis of variance was applied in order to determine the effects of the control factors for temperature. The results revealed that cutting speed is the most influential machining process parameter on cutting temperature in the end milling process. A significant 14-24 % average surface roughness decrement was observed in cryogenic machining compared to dry machining.

Full text

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
Received 25 June 2018; received in revised form 6 August 2018; accepted 20 November 2018.
To cite this article: Muhamad et al. (2019). Dry and cryogenic milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel. Jurnal Tribologi 21,
pp.1-12.
© 2019 Malaysian Tribology Society (MYTRIBOS). All rights reserved.
Dry and cryogenic milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel
Shalina Sheik Muhamad *, Jaharah A. Ghani, Afifah Juri, Che Hassan Che Haron
Faculty of Engineering and Build Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM
Bangi, Selangor, MALAYSIA.
*Corresponding author: P91996@siswa.ukm.edu.my
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Surface roughness
Alloy steel AISI 4340
Dry and cryogenic
Effect machining parameter
Nowadays the quality of machined surface has become the
main problem due to the demand rate of life span,
performance, and reliability of a machined product. The
study of the component’s surface integrity is an important
aspect of avoiding failure. The purpose of this research is
to investigate the effect of milling parameters on cutting
temperature and surface roughness of AISI 4340 with
cutting speeds of 180- 220 m/min, feed rate of 0.1- 0.2
mm/tooth and depth of cuts of 0.3- 0.7 mm. The cutting
temperature was simulated using Third Wave
AdvantEdge v6. 4 software under dry conditions using
uncoated carbide cutting tool. The average surface
roughness was measured
experimentally during the
milling under the dry and cryogenic conditions using a
portable surface-roughness measurement device. The
analysis of variance was applied in order to determine the
effects of the control factors for temperature. The results
revealed that cutting speed is the most influential
machining process parameter on cutting temperature in
the end milling process. A significant 14-24 % average
surface roughness decrement was observed in cryogenic
machining compared to dry machining.

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
2
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays manufacturing industries are increasingly growing and developing toward
producing products which possess high quality performance. This quality is connected to the
aspects of surface integrity, dimensional accuracy, burrs and other types of defects which occur
in the machining industry. Finite element method (FEM) is a very useful tool for machining
simulation purposes (Kilicaslan, 2009). Several studies have been conducted for machining
simulation globally. With the aid of finite element analysis, users can generate analysis results
much faster and can also present results which are reliable without conducting physical tests
(Lauro et al., 2015).
The AISI 4340 steel is mainly used for aircraft components, aerospace components such as
bushes, shafts, valves, unique screws, carnage vessels and components due to its resistance to
chemical action. In addition, it is also widely used in the automotive industry and in mechanical
engineering technology. Most of these products require a machine which is specific to the
manufacturing process (Sohrabpoor et al., 2015).
Cryogenic machining is the cooling method of cutting tool points and /or workpieces during
the material removal process. Coolant material used is normally nitrogen liquid (LN) with cooling
of up to -196°C (Umbrello et al., 2012). Pu et al., (2012) have been researching crystalline
magnesium alloys to improve their integrity. Researchers found that when performing cryogenic
machining, using a large radius edge tool leads to increased surface integrity in terms of better
surface finish (Pu et al., 2012). There was a study produced by Kumar (2013) where he found that
the application of specific cryogenic cutting conditions can produce better fractional fractures
during machining, with acceptable debris and with reduced debris. Consequently, when applying
specific cryogenic cutting conditions, more uniform and smaller fragments can be observed in the
formation of iron fragments produced after machining (Kumar, 2013).
There have been many types of problems in surface integrity which have been reported in
previous studies. Among the problems which have been reported are residual stress, white layer
and hardening layer work, and changes in microstructure. The surface integrity study covers
mechanical properties (residual stress, hardness), metallurgical effect (phase transformation,
microstructure and related properties disparities) and topological parameters (surface finish and
other topographic features of the surface) on the workpiece during processing (M'Saoubi et al.,
2008).
Typical ranges of the average surface roughness (Ra) values attainable in many traditional
machining operations under normal conditions and non-traditional processes are illustrated in
Figure 1. Higher or lower values of Ra may be obtained under various machining conditions, such
as rough, medium or finishing operations. From Figure 1, Ra parameter of 1.6-6.3 µm can be
produced in the milling process (Grzesik et al., 2010).

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
3
Figure 1: Typical ranges of surface finish from common machining processes (Grzesik et al.,
2010).
The results of research conducted by Das et al., (2015), has shown that feed rates had
significance on surface roughness while machining power was influenced by feed rate and cutting
depth. It is proven that when feed rate increases, the surface roughness (Ra) of the work will also
increase. In addition, it is also found that surface finishing improves with increase in cutting
speed, which can control build up edge (BUE) formation. Increase in cutting speed will increase
the surface roughness, which can be explained by the possibility of chatters formation due to
vibrations (Das et al., 2015).
Similar findings were reported by Stipkovic et al., (2016) during machining of hardened AISI
4140 alloy steel which focused on surface finishing of a machined surface. Also, it was found that
higher feed per tooth combined with higher cutting depth generated a worse surface finishing.
Based on these results, it can be stated that the finishing milling of hardened steel with CBN tool
without the presence of cutting fluid produced a surface finishing as good as by the grinding
process, with the advantage of being faster and being environmentally friendly by eliminating the
cutting fluid (Stipkovic et al., 2016).
Garcia et al., (2014) proved that cryogenic machining using LN is the best solution to
machinability problems of components manufactured using AISI 4150 steel since it reduces
machining problems of heating, leading to tool life improvement and better surface integrity of
turned components. The surface integrity includes higher surface hardness, lower residual
stresses and no white layers (Garcia et al., 2014).
Research has been conducted to investigate the influence of cutting parameters on cutting
temperatures and cutting forces. Motorcu et al., (2016), investigated the effects of the control
factors in the turning of AISI 4140 steel workpieces. It was found that cutting temperature
increases depending on the increase of the cutting speed and the decrease of the depth of cut and

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
4
the feed rate. The cutting speed is the most effective factor for the tool-chip interface temperature,
with a contribution of 86.57 % (Motorcu et al., 2016).
A study was reported by Hamidon et al., (2016), during their machining operation of AISI H13
for different shapes of pockets. It was shown that for cutting temperature, cutting speed has the
highest percentage of contribution, compared to feed rate and depth of cut. This is due to the
adiabatic effect at high cutting speed caused by the trapped heat in the shear deformation zone.
The heat cannot escape in the very short time during the process, causing highly localized
temperatures in the chip (Hamidon et al., 2016).
In this paper, the simulation of cutting temperatures during the milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel
was performed using various cutting parameters with Third Wave AdvantEdge v6. 4 software.
The average surface roughness Ra was measured experimentally using a portable surface-
roughness measurement device under dry and cryogenic conditions. The Taguchi design of the
experiment was selected to find the relationships between the control parameters. The cutting
speed (Vc), the feed rate (fz:) and the depth of cut (ap) were taken as control factors. This study
intends to compare the surface roughness of a cryogenic application to a dry environment in the
end milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel.
2.0 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The first phase of the experimental procedure was the finite element method (FEM) which was
conducted to determine whether the temperature generated was high enough for the grain
refinement and phase transformation at the machined surface of AISI 4340 steel. The
austenitising temperature for AISI 4340 is in between 774 °C – 810 °C. The analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was used to determine the percentage of contribution of individual cutting parameters
on temperature and force. After the screening of the FEM results, the significant factors were then
tested in experimental runs under two cutting conditions: dry and cryogenic in terms of surface
roughness.
2.1 Finite Element Simulation Setup
The commercial FEM software of Third Wave AdvantEdge (v6.4) was used to simulate the
milling process in two dimensions (2D). Third Wave AdvantEdge is based on an updated
Lagrangian formulation and employs an implicit integration scheme. The main machining
response which was examined in this paper was the cutting temperature. Figure 2 shows the
schematic model of orthogonal cutting condition. The cutting parameter for this study is shown
in Table 1. Nine sets of simulation combinations were generated using Taguchi design of
experiments, as shown in table 2.

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5
Figure 2: Simulation model (ThirdWaveSystems, 2015).
Table 1: Cutting parameters and their levels.
Cutting parameters
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Vc: Cutting speed
(m/min)
180
200
220
fz: Feed (mm/tooth)
0.10
0.15
0.20
ap: Depth of cut (mm)
0.3
0.5
0.7
Table 2: Design of experiment.
Experiment
Cutting speed,Vc
m/min
Feed , fz
mm/tooth
Depth of cut, ap
mm
1
180
0.10
0.3
2
180
0.15
0.5
3
180
0.20
0.7
4
200
0.10
0.5
5
200
0.15
0.7
6
200
0.20
0.3
7
220
0.10
0.7
8
220
0.15
0.3
9
220
0.20
0.5
The AISI 4340 used in the research was a high strength low alloy steel widely used in the
automotive and aerospace industries, mainly manufactured as heavy duty shafts, gears, axles,
spindles, couplings and pins, as well as some other parts. The operation was simulated using a
carbide insert of the DNMA432 type which had a nose angle of 55 deg, without the use of a coolant.
The experimental tests were carried out equivalent to the machining conditions used in the
simulation test and the details of the tests have been listed in Table 3. The chemical composition
of the AISI 4340 alloy steel has been tabulated in Table 4.

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
6
Table 3: Details of simulation test of AISI 4340 alloy steel.
Item
Description
Tool parameter
Cutter diameter (mm)
20
Cutting edge radius (mm)
0.8
Rake angle (degree)
10
Relief angle (degree)
11
Rake length (mm)
6.6
Relief length (mm)
10
Maximum tool element size (mm)
0.1
Minimum tool element size (mm)
0.02
Mesh grading
0.1
Tool material
Material
Carbide
Grade
K
Boundary condition
Initial temperature (deg. C)
20
Length of cut (mm)
20
Workpiece meshing
Suggested maximum element size (mm)
0.1
Suggested minimum element size (mm)
0.02
Cutting edge radius to det. min. elem. Size
0.6
Feed fraction to det. min. elem. Size
0.1
Workpiece properties
Ultimate tensile strength (MPa)
1300
Yield strength (MPa)
1200
Hardness (Bhn)
372
Table 4: Chemical compositions for AISI 4340 from AdvantEdge material library.
Element
C
Cr
Mn
Mo
Ni
P
S
Si
Weight (%)
0.405
0.8
0.7
0.25
1.875
0.035
0.040
0.275
2.2 Experimental Setup
An AISI 4340 rectangular 200 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm box was milled under two conditions
on a SPINNER CNC milling machine with a 15000 RPM maximum spindle speed. The experimental
tests were carried out using uncoated carbide inserts and the details of the tests have been listed
in Table 5. The machining test was carried out at the cutting speeds of 180 and 220 m/min. The
feed rate was varied at 0.10 and 0.15 mm/tooth and the depth of cut employed was 0.3 mm. The
parameters were chosen based on simulation results with the highest cutting temperature
generated and the lowest depth of cut.

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Table 5: Details of the experimental test of AISI 4340 alloy steel.
Item
Description
Cutting speed (m/min)
180 and 220
Feed rate (mm/tooth)
0.10 and 0.15
Depth of cut (mm)
0.3
Cutting fluid
Dry and cryogenic (LN)
For the cryogenic machining, a cylindrical liquid nitrogen (LN) tank was connected to a flexible
hose and a copper pipe was used as a nozzle pointing to the cutting zone. The distance between
the tip of the nozzle to the cutting point was fixed at 2 cm. The surface roughness was measured
using a Mitutotyo Surftest SJ-310 portable surface roughness tester. The arithmetic average
roughness value (Ra) in micrometer (µm) was taken at the beginning of the run of each
experimental test. The measurement was performed three times at three different locations and
the average value was calculated to represent the average value of surface roughness. Figure 3
shows a Mitutotyo Surftest SJ-310 portable surface roughness tester which was used on the
machined surfaces. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for analyzing the data obtained both
in the simulation and experimental work.
Figure 3: Placement of surface roughness tester on the workpiece’s surface.
3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Cutting Temperature
The isothermal contours of the temperature distributions for dry condition are shown in
Figure 4 (a) at Vc: 180 m/min, fz: 0.1 mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm and (b) Vc: 220 m/min, fz: 0.1
mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm. Based on the simulation results, the highest temperature constantly
occurs around the middle tool-chip contact area on the rake face, which can be associated with
the secondary deformation zone which has been identified as the main source of the temperature
rise on the cutting insert (Abukhshim et al., 2006). It is shown that for different machining
parameters, different chip shapes were formed. Table 6 shows the temperature simulation results.

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Figure 4 : Temperature distribution in dry milling of AISI 4340 using AdvantEdge simulation at
(a) Vc: 180 m/min, fz: 0.1 mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm (b) Vc: 220 m/min, fz: 0.1 mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm.
Table 6: Cutting temperature simulation results.
Experiment
Cutting
speed,Vc
m/min
Feed ,fz
mm/tooth
Depth of cut,
ap
mm
Cutting
temperature
(
0
C)
1
180
0.10
0.3
959.99
2
180
0.15
0.5
975.74
3
180
0.20
0.7
948.03
4
200
0.10
0.5
953.34
5
200
0.15
0.7
962.45
6
200
0.20
0.3
978.13
7
220
0.10
0.7
969.64
8
220
0.15
0.3
1010.93
9
220
0.20
0.5
982.21
Table 6 confirms that the highest temperature was generated at a cutting speed of 220 m/min,
a feed rate of 0.15 mm/tooth, and a depth of cut of 0.3 mm at 1010.93°C, while the lowest
temperature generated was at a cutting speed of 180 m/min, a feed rate of 0.2 mm/ tooth, and a
depth of cut of 0.7 mm at 948.033°C. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to
determine the contribution of individual cutting parameters on temperature. The percentage of
the parameters were as shown in table 7.
The ANOVA analysis from Table 7 shows that the cutting speed contributes 43.55 %, followed
by the depth of cut at 28.08%, and the feed rate 26.25% of the temperature generated. Therefore,
the cutting speed has the most significant effect on the temperature generated, which agrees with
Das & Nayak (2012).
(a)
(b)

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Table 7: ANOVA-temperature.
Parameter
DF
Seq SS Contribution Adj MS F-Value
P-
Value
Vc: Cutting
speed
(m/min)
2
1231.71
43.55%
615.85
20.51
0.046
fz: Feed
(mm/tooth)
2
794.14
28.08%
397.07
13.23
0.070
ap: Depth
of cut (mm)
2
742.58
26.25%
371.29
12.37
0.075
Error
2
60.04
2.12%
30.02
Total
8
2828.46
100.00%
3.2 Surface Roughness
The experimental results have been presented in Table 8. The average surface roughness value
obtained was within the range of semi finishing in milling as in Figure 1. The feed rate had the
highest influence on surface roughness. When feed rate increased from 0.1 mm/tooth to 0.15
mm/tooth, surface roughness value increased. Therefore, the feed rate has the most significant
effect on the surface roughness, which is supported by Othman et al., (2018) , where they claimed
that the surface roughness value increases with increased feed rate.
Table 8: Experimental results.
Run
Process parameters
Experimental results
Cutting
speed,
Vc
m/min
Feed,
fz mm/tooth
Depth
of cut,
ap
mm
Dry
µm
Cryogenic
(LN)
µm
(a)
180
0.10
0.3
0.34
0.256
(b)
220
0.15
0.3
0.35
0.300
These results are in agreement with Equation 1 (Grzesik et al., 2010) where high feed rates
will produce a rougher machined surface. On the other hand, low feed rate will improve the
machined surface finish when cutting while using the same value of tool nose radius.
Ra=
r-r2-
2
2
Where r is nose radius and ft is a feed per tooth.
(1)

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10
Figure 5: Average surface roughness in dry and cryogenic milling of AISI 4340 at (a) Vc: 180
m/min, fz: 0.1 mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm (b) Vc: 220 m/min, fz: 0.15 mm/tooth, ap: 0.3 mm.
From Figure 5 (a) and (b), the Ra measurements obtained in machining with cryogenic coolant
were found to be largely and consistently superior to those obtained in dry machining. The
average roughness of the cryogenic machined surface improved by about 14 % and 24 %
compared to the dry milling. This might be due to the application of LN which reduces the
coefficient of friction at the interfaces, which leads to better surface roughness (Natasha et al.,
2014). Previous researchers (Pusavec et al., 2011) have also proven that cooling conditions play
an important role in machining of Inconel 718. This is proven by a significant decrement in the
value of surface roughness as shown in Figure 6.
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
Average surface roughness, Ra (µm)
Dry
Cryo
(b)
(a)
14 %
improvement
24 %
improvement

Jurnal Tribologi 21 (2019) 1-12
11
Figure 6: Machined surface roughness for different cooling/lubrication conditions (carbide
cutting tool, vc =60m/min, f= 0.05 mm/rev, and ap = 0.63mm)(Pusavec et al., 2011).
4.0 CONCLUSIONS
The effect of machining parameters on cutting temperature, and a comparison of surface
roughness in dry and cryogenic cooling cutting conditions for the milling of AISI 4340 alloy steel
were carried out. Third Wave AdvantEdge commercial software was used to simulate the cutting
temperature distribution contours of dry condition milling process in two dimensions (2D).
Average surface roughness for both cryogenic and dry cutting conditions were compared
experimentally. The following can be concluded:
(a) Cutting speed is the most influential machining process parameter for the temperature
generated during machining.
(b) The surface roughness increases with increase in feed rate. On the other hand, depth of
cut has less effect on surface roughness.
(c) The application of LN in cryogenic machining had effectively reduced the average surface
roughness.
(d) A 14-24 % average surface roughness decrement in the cryogenic machining, compared
to dry milling was observed in the experimental tests.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project is supported by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Research Grant.
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