Cutting performance of diamond tools during ultra-precision turning of electroless-nickel plated die materials

This study is an attempt (a) to observe the wear characteristic of diamond tool with 200 km cutting distance and to study the effects of wear on the surface roughness and cutting forces and (b) to optimize various cutting parameters such as depth of cut, feed rate, spindle speed and phosphorus content. The experimental results showed that tool wear was not so significant although some defects on rake face were observed after cutting 15.6 km. Further cutting showed that the surface roughness increases with cutting distance, and that the cutting forces were larger than thrust force at the beginning of cutting, but after cutting 130 km, thrust force became larger and increased rapidly. It was also observed that forces increase with the increase of depth of cut, spindle speed and feed rate, and decrease with the increase of phosphorus content of the plating. Depth of cut has no significant effect on surface roughness, while it increases with increase of feed rate and decreases with the increase of percentage of phosphorus content in the workpieces. In case of spindle speed, surface roughness decreases with the increase of spindle speed up to a certain value and then starts to increase with the increase of spindle speed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.