Characterisation and Modelling of the Machinability of Ferritic-pearlitic Steels in Drilling Operations

The machinability of work materials strongly affects the chip formation mechanics, tool wear behaviour and the process performance. Therefore, the characterisation and modelling of the machinability are a very important issues. This paper deals with experimental and simulative investigations on the machinability of ferritic-pearlitic steels with different microstructures by twist drilling. The machinability of the investigated steels is evaluated and classified by means of the weighted point evaluation method. To predict four aspects of the machinability (thermo-mechanical load, feed force, cutting torque, and chip form), a 3D FE computation model is developed and successfully validated.