An Experimental Investigation on the Machinability of Al2O3 in Vibration-Assisted Turning Using PCD Tool

The machinability of Al2O3 is investigated in this paper in terms of the surface quality, cutting forces, and tool wear. A bending mode vibration tool with a poly crystal diamond (PCD) insert is designed and manufactured for the turning experiments. The cutting forces in different cutting speeds and feed rates are measured both in vibration-assisted turning (VAT) and conventional machining conditions. Also the machined surface quality in different cutting conditions is reported and compared with that in conventional turning. The tool wear is also compared in VAT and conventional machining. The results showed that the cutting forces are decreased and the surface roughness is excelled. However, the tool wear rate in VAT is more than that in the conventional turning condition. Higher feed rates and cutting speeds resulted in higher cutting forces in both conventional and VAT. Also the results showed that by increasing the feed rate, the surface quality decreases. The increase in the cutting speed results in different trend of surface roughness change in VAT and conventional machining.