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Productivity in the manufacture of aircrafts components, especially engine components, must increase along with more sustainable conditions. Regarding machining, a solution is proposed to increase the cutting speed, but engines are made with very difficult-to-cut alloys. In this work, a comparison between two cutting tool materials, namely (a) cemented carbide and (b) SiAlON ceramics, for milling rough operations in Inconel® 718 in aged condition was carried out. Furthermore, both the influence of coatings in cemented carbide milling tools and the cutting speed in the ceramic tools were analysed. All tools were tested until the end of their useful life. The cost performance ratio was used to compare the productivity of the tested tools. Despite the results showing higher durability of the coated carbide tool, the ceramic tools presented a better behavior in terms of productivity at higher speed. Therefore, ceramic tools should be used for higher productivity demands, while coated carbide tools for low speed-high volume material removal.

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Austempered ductile iron castings (ADI) are characterized by the high strength and resistance to fatigue, impact, and wear. ADI mechanical properties are obtained by performing a heat treatment on ductile iron casting. Thus, the so-called ausferrite microstructure is achieved. However, heat treatment significantly affects ductile casting machinability. A precise determination of ADI microstructure, on the one hand, and to choose correct machining process parameters and tool wear control on the other, are essential to optimize cutting processes and for the introduction of ceramic inserts. Ceramics are an alternative to carbide tools. In this paper, ceramic tools for the dry turning of ADI castings are studied. Thus, different technical ceramics were analyzed, identifying the dominant wear mechanism and evolution. Tool wear rate magnitude was determined indirectly by the variation of cutting force along machining time. Finally, different tests helped to study ceramics wear sensitivity with respect to cutting parameters. Mixed ceramics of Al2O3 with TiC showed the best performance, followed by SiAlON ones.

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Machining processes on heat-resistant superalloys—i.e., turbine cases, rings, or shafts—are challenging tasks. The high-added value of such parts makes cycle times be longer than expected. Recently, high-feed turning technique has attracted the attention of practitioners due to its high material removal rate capability. PrimeTurning™ tool unifies the concepts of high-feed and multidirectional turning using multiple active cutting edges. It should be capable of reducing machine downtimes in that kind of parts. However, to avoid early tool replacement and rejects on high added value parts, a deeper knowledge on the high-feed turning process is necessary. Here, inserts specifically designed for high-feed turning in heat resistant Inconel 718© alloy were tested using three cutting-edge angles. The results showed that when chip thickness is more relevant, a cutting-edge angle of 30° reduces the likelihood of notches. Even if force components are high, surface roughness is improved and the risk of fractures is minimized, together with a high evacuation volume. On the other hand, increasing the cutting-edge angle (45° and 60°) without compensating the feed rate, tends to produce tool fractures due to chip overload. Besides, experimental tests showed that long tool-to-workpiece contact times, tend to shorten tool life, due to excessive heat accumulation and poor chip control.

Manufacturing improvements in terms of manufacturing-chain costs and times reduction are becoming a real need in the industry, especially for roughing operations. To satisfy these industrial requirements, more efficient machining processes have been developed, such as High Efficiency Milling (HEM). According to the above mentioned direction, trochoidal milling appears as an efficient method for roughing operations of full slots. This work presents an analysis in terms of production time between conventional, plunge and trochoidal milling to determine which process configuration is more productive.

Manufacturing improvements are becoming a real need in industry. In order to satisfy these industrial requirements, they should be targeted in two different directions: new manufacturing processes and surface optimization through algorithms. On the one hand, Super Abrasive Machining (SAM) is presented as a new manufacturing process combining benefits from milling and grinding technologies. On the other hand, there is a tendency to manufacture non developable surfaces by flank milling and to achieve final dimensional and roughness requirements, by calculating mathematically-optimized tool trajectories. This work presents a design and manufacturing of a free form tool to be used for the manufacturing of a complex surface through Flank SAM (FSAM). Based on the tool requirements, it will cover the following stages: tool geometry design, tool core manufacturing, and electroplating for final abrasive tool generation.