Experimental Analysis of Hot Machining Parameters in Surface Finishing of Crankshaft

Hot machining is considered one of the new techniques in the machining of hardened steels to improve their machinability and surface finish. These materials are difficult to be machined whether using conventional or unconventional methods and also facing constraints (like high cutting tool wear, low material removal rate, low surface quality etc.) which lead to high costs and decrease productivity. Hot machining is a suitable process for machining hardened steels which is characterized by having high thermal capabilities. Therefore, one of the variable and available heating techniques which can be used to preheat the cutting zone of the work piece is by increasing the operating temperature, which helps to soften such zones and making the machining operation easier due to decrease its hardness and strength. This increases the tool life, material removal rate and surface finishing quality. This work includes hot machining of a crankshaft of internal combustion engine on conventional Lathe Machine heated by Torch flame fixed on a fixture which was designed and fabricated for this purpose. The main objective of the present work is to study experimentally the influence of surface temperature and machining parameters on the surface quality of the crankshaft after hot machining.