IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 3 | Issue 11 | May 2017

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Experimental Investigation, Analysis and

Optimization of Turning EN 41 Steel
Vineesh Raja Samuel
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Saranathan College of Engineering Saranathan College of Engineering

Abstract
This Experimental study mainly focus on the Optimization of the cutting parameters on MRR of EN 41 alloy steel with carbide
tool. The input parameters like cutting speed, Depth of Cut (DOC), feed rate and coolant flow rate are influencing in Material
Removal Rate (MRR) using Taguchi method. The contribution and significant parameter are determined by using the Taguchi
Design of Experiments (DOE) method. A number of turning experiments were conducted using the L9 orthogonal array on a CNC
machine. In this paper analysis is based on Taguchi method of optimization and experimental design and further analysis is carried
out with the help of statistical software MINITAB-17.
Keywords: Optimization, Carbide Tool, Turning Experiments, Depth of Cut, Material Removal Rate, MINI TAB-17
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION

Machining process form the foundation of the manufacturing industry and are required to shape a work piece by removing
unwanted material. Machining process were performed by using variety of cutting tools in order to accurately obtain the product
of required dimensions and also good surface finish .The whole machining process which includes many processes such as drilling,
milling, grinding, etc. Turning could be defined as one of the most basic metal removal machining process. Machining parameters
such as number of passes, depth of cut for each pass, feed rate, cutting speed influence the production cost, tool lives, and machining
quality to a great extent. The proper selection of cutting parameters can obtain a minimum cost.
EN41 is a high carbon Alloy steel which have a high degree of hardness with the wear resistance with Toughness and ductility.
It is used industries for different applications. Turning is the one of the most important method for cutting, especially for the
finished machined parts. The quality of the surface depends upon the machining parameters such as Spindle speed, Feed Rate,
Depth of Cut and also Coolant Flow Rate. Hence, it is significant to achieve a product within the tolerance limit and good increasing
MRR. When Maximizing the production are the major criteria’s of the Machining Process, the productivity of the metal cutting
operation influences on properties such as wear resistance and fatigue strength. EN41 is very well known in the field of
manufacturing. EN-41 steel is selected for machinability studies, because it is widely used in the automotive industry for the
production of axle shaft, roller bearings, ball bearings, Crankshaft etc. The experimental parameters chosen are: three different
cutting speeds, feed rates and depth of cut. Metal Removal Rate (MRR) were chosen as criteria for performance.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Manufacturing industries are needed to improve the quality of the product with minimum cost. The most of the components are
produced by machining process .So, the machining process are attracted by many researchers.
S.S Acharya et al (2014) reviewed on the dissertation work of an investigation of turning process parameters on hard EN31
material, for optimization of Material Removal Rate, machining time in wet and minimum quantity of lubrication system .The
experiments also deals with the relation between chip formation and control variables with chip thickness from which the effect
on insert wear quality of product. The design of experiment and optimization of the material removal rate, machining time by using
the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and the Central Composite design method (CCD) for total experimental design work
and also its analysis for the optimization of Turning process parameters.
B R Dabhi et al (2016) reported about the tool life. The life of tool can be increased by proper selection of machining parameters,
geometry parameters and Process parameters. The Design of Experiments used to investigate the effect of the main turning
parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate and Depth of cut for tool life. A tool which is selected as carbide tool and empirical
equation is calculated for major parameters. The effect of these parameters on the surface Roughness has to be investigated by
using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) .Thus by Analyzing the experimental and theoretically optimization of process
parameters has been carried out.
S N Naik et al (2014) presents that the experimental results which were obtained after the selection of cutting parameters to
ensure maximum MRR, and also less power consumption on a CNC machine. Taguchi Optimization methodology has been applied
to optimize the turning of SS316 material. The Turning parameters such as Cutting speed (rpm), feed rate (mm/rev), Depth of Cut
in (mm) are determined. The analysis results shows that Ceramic carbide & CBN tools are significant factor for MRR is depth of

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 Experimental Investigation, Analysis and Optimization of Turning EN 41 Steel
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cut .For surface Roughness, Feed rate is the most important factor .For Consumption of power, the cutting of the tool material is
significant factor and for CBN tools.
Amarjit Singh et al(2014) reviews experimental and analytical results of an investigation of the three major process parameters
such as cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut, that affects the surface finish of the turned parts in a dry turning. A two-level,
three-parameter experiment was planned by using design of experiment methodology. The work materials which were selected are
Aluminum (AISI 6061), mild steel (AISI 1030), and also alloy steel (AISI 4340).The results which were analyzed by applying
three methods—traditional analysis, Pareto ANOVA, and the Taguchi method.
Kamaljit Singh et al (2013) investigated the Material Removal Rate (MRR), and also the micro hardness of OHNS steel by using
EDM machine was studied. The input parameters which were taken are peak current, pulse on time, voltage gap and flushing
pressure which were used for experimental work. Mean effect plot and S/N ratio graphs were used to optimize the machining
parameters of the EDM on OHNS steel by using Taguchi’s method. Surface Roughness were investigated by L9 orthogonal array
using the Taguchi’s Design of Experiments .The different cutting parameters of the OHNS and also turning parameters were
optimized by using S/N ratio and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method.

III. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

The equipment’s used in this work are CNC machine, Stop watch, Digital vernier caliper and weighing machine. Taugchi’s
orthogonal array technique is followed. According to Taguchi’s method, L9 orthogonal array is used for conducting the
experiments with four control factors cutting speed, Feed Rate, Depth of cut and coolant flow rate .An L9 orthogonal which is the
combinations of Nine Experiments which were for conducted the carbide tool material. The chemical composition of Work piece
material EN 41B Alloy Steel is in below table 1.
Table - 1
Chemical composition of En 41B Alloy Steel
C Mn Si S P Cr Ni Mo
0.35-0.45 0.60 max 0.10-.45 0.04 0.04 1.50-1.80 0.40 Max 0.10 -0.25
Turning is carried on a CNC lathe. The cutting parameters namely speed, feed, depth of cut and Coolant Flow Rate need to be
determined in this turning operation. The turning operations are accomplished using a carbide cutting tool. Proper selection of
Material for cutting parameters and tool can produce Maximum Material Removal Rate (MRR). Hence, design of experiments by
Taguchi method on cutting parameters was adopted to study the MRR. The experiment was conducted for dry turning operation
of EN 41-B alloy steel with carbide tool. The turning operation is carried for a length of 50mm in a CNC lathe. The four parameters
such as spindle speed, Feed rate and depth of cut and Coolant flow Rate are selected and experimental conditions are given in the
table below
Table - 2
Levels and Ranges of input parameter
Level 1 2 3
Spindle speed (Rpm) 800 1000 120
Feed rate (mm/rev) 0.2 0.3 0.4
Depth of cut (mm) 0.5 1 1.5
Coolant flow rate (lit/s) 0.0233 0.0417 0.25

Fig. 1: CNC Lathe SINUMERIK (802D)

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio has been determined. From the evaluation of S/N ratio, the significance of each parameter can be
determined and also influencing parameters also identified. The effect of process parameters are identified for turning process. The

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 Experimental Investigation, Analysis and Optimization of Turning EN 41 Steel
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table 4 describes the response table for signal to noise ratio for MRR. The signal which represents desirable value and noise
represents undesirable value in Taguchi method .Process parameters with highest S/N ratio which will always give the best quality
with minimum variance. The S/N ratio is calculated for each parameter by finding average value of S/N ratio at the corresponding
level.
From the table 4, the Feed rate is a influencing parameter (Rank 1) for maximum MRR of EN 41 Steel rods And four levels of
signal to noise ratio and their relative speed, Feed, depth of cut and coolant flow rate are taken from the Fig 2. From the table 3, it
is understood that maximum Material removal rate is possible when spindle speed, feed, depth of cut and coolant flow rate are
maximum. Fig 2 shows the Main effect plot for S/N ratio. The level for a factor with the highest S/N ratio was the optimal level
for response measured .From the plot, it is observed that the maximum MRR was at higher S/N value in the response graph. The
optimal cutting parameters are 1200 rpm spindle speed, 0.4mm/rev feed rate 0.5mm depth of cut and 0.0233 lit/s coolant flow
rate. From S/N ratio graph, it is observed that for MRR, The feed rate has the greatest influence followed by Spindle Speed.
The MRR is calculated by using
MRR = (Wb- Wa)/Tm
Where,
Wb=weight before machining
Wa= weight after machining
Tm= Time taken for machining
Table - 3
Effect of Machining Parameters on MRR
Spindle speed Depth of cut Feed Rate Weight before Weight After machining Machining MRR
S. No
(rpm) (mm) (mm) Machining (g) (g) Time (s) (g/s)
1 800 0.5 0.2 0.467 0.437 58 0.031
2 800 1 0.3 0.468 0.419 59 0.049
3 800 1.5 0.4 0.464 0.409 59 0.055
4 1000 1 0.2 0.472 0.449 55 0.025
5 1000 1.5 0.3 0.466 0.425 53 0.046
6 1000 0.5 0.4 0.469 0.410 55 0.064
7 1200 1.5 0.2 0.470 0.448 44 0.03
8 1200 0.5 0.3 0.463 0.421 44 0.057
9 1200 1 0.4 0.465 0.413 43 0.072
Table - 4
Response table for Signal to Noise ratio for MRR
Level Spindle Speed (rpm) Feed Rate (mm/rev) Depth of cut (mm) Coolant Flow Rate (Lit/s)
1. -27.19 -30.89 -26.31 -26.59
2. -27.55 -25.94 -27.03 -26.84
3. -26.06 -23.97 -27.47 -27.37
Delta 1.49 6.92 1.15 0.78
Rank 2 1 3 4

Fig. 2: Main Effects Plot for S/N Ratios

V. CONCLUSION

The following are conclusions drawn based on the experimental investigation conducted on turning EN 41-B alloy steel with
carbide cutting tool at four parameters by employing Taguchi technique to determine the optimal level of process parameters. The
present work shows the use of Taguchi method to find out the optimal machining parameter .By using Taguchi method, we

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 Experimental Investigation, Analysis and Optimization of Turning EN 41 Steel
(IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 11 / 010)

determine the S/N ratio for all experimental tests. Machining Parameters such as Cutting speed, Feed rate, depth of cut and Coolant
Flow Rate were optimized to meet the required Objective.
 Taguchi’s robust orthogonal array design method is used to analyze the Material Removal Rate.
 It is found that Taguchi method is simplified and effective method in the optimizaton for the machining Parameters.
 The Experimental Results shows that the major parameters (spindle speed,Feed Rate,Depth of cut and coolant Flow rate)
which is considered affects the Material Removal rate (MRR) of a EN 41-B alloy steel material.

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