PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF CERAMICS IN MACHINING CAST IRON.

For machining cast iron, steel, some non-ferrous metals and nonmetallic materials tools with ceramic tips have permitted substantial increase in productivity. The higher cutting speeds used and the high wear resistance and correspondingly long service life of ceramics are the main reasons for this improvement. In some cases, moreover product quality is improved because a better surface is obtained. This gives significant improvement in productivity, for it eliminates secondary operations like grinding. The paper discusses the performance characteristics of white alumina inserts in machining centrifugally cast cylinder liners. The data includes surface finish variation studies and Scanning electron microscopic observations of flank wear, grooving wear and nose deformations.