Investigations of surface quality and energy consumption associated with costs and material removal rate during face milling of AISI 1045 steel

Machining of AISI 1045 steel is prominent in several industries due to their good machining characteristics. In this study, the optimum conditions of fly (face) milling of parts made of AISI 1045 steel was analyzed. The generated surface quality, the cost of the cutting tool components, the energy consumption, the wearing of the cutting tool, and material removal rate are the main parameters in this study. Several cutting experiments over different cutting lengths have been conducted and analyzed statistically to determine the optimum targeted cutting conditions. A multilayer regression analysis was conducted on obtained experimental results and inducing non-linear mathematical equations with high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.98). The influence of feed per tooth (fz), cutting speed (vc), flank wear (VB) to surface roughness (Rz), cutting power (Pc), material removal rate (MRR), sliding distance (ls), and the tool life (T/) has been considered. The overall results, estimated through Grey relational analysis (GRA), revealed that the optimum fly milling performance for a fast manufacturing (case 1) are obtained for feed per tooth fz = 0.25 mm/tooth, cutting speed vc = 392.6 m/min, and machined length l = 5 mm. While the optimum parameters for resource (tools) conservation (case 2) are feed per tooth fz = 0.125 mm/tooth, cutting speed vc = 392.6 m/min, and machined length l = 5 mm.