Selection of cutting insert for longitudinal turning of unalloyed steel using robust decision making

Abstract

Cutting tool is a very important element of machining production system. It is primarily responsible for material removal in the form of chips, but also significantly affects multiple machinability characteristics, surface finish, attainable dimensional accuracy, productivity and costs. As for a given machining operation there is a number of alternative cutting tools and inserts from many manufacturers, each characterized by a unique set of characteristics, the selection of a particular cutting tool can be very complex task, yet solvable within the framework of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methodology. This study is focused on the development of an MCDM model for selection of the most suitable cutting insert for medium machining of unalloyed structural steel. The model was developed by available information, catalogues of cutting tool manufacturers and machining estimations, and consisted of fourteen alternative cutting inserts from eight well-known cutting tool manufacturers and seven criteria. Initially, the assessment and ranking of alternative cutting inserts was derived by the six multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods, however, due to ranking inconsistency, the application of the robust decision making rule was adopted for solving the cutting insert MCDM problem.