PERFORMANCE AND OPTIMIZATION OF 304 L STAINLESS STEEL IN RADIAL DRILLING MACHINE

The challenge of modern machining industries is focused mainly on the achievement of high quality, in terms of work piece dimensional accuracy, surface finish, high production rate, lubrication medium, vibration of tool, less wear on the cutting tools, economy of machining in terms of cost saving and increase the performance of the product with reduced environmental impact. In metal cutting industries, surface roughness (SR) of a product is very crucial in determining the quality. Good SR not only assures quality, but also reduces manufacturing cost. In machining operation, the quality of SR is an important requirement for many turned work pieces. In Drilling operation, there are many parameters such as cutting speed, depth of cut, point angle, vibration of tool and feed rate that have great impact on the SR. The quality of the drilled part is greatly influenced by the cutting conditions, tool geometry, tool material, machining process, chip formation, work piece material, tool wear, and vibration during cutting, etc. Thus in material removal processes, improper selection of cutting conditions will result in rough surfaces. Moreover, it is necessary to optimize the cutting parameters to obtain an extended tool life and better productivity, which are influenced by cutting force. Hence in this work, experimental works were conducted on 304 L Stainless Steel for optimal setting of drilling parameters such as cutting speed, feed, lubricating medium and point angle with the objective of minimization of surface roughness, cutting force, vibration of tool, tool wear, tool temperature and torque. The selected drill was TiN coated HSS twist drill grade. The drilling process carried out as dry machining.