The influence of depth of cut on the machinability of an alloyed austempered ductile iron

The volume fraction of high carbon austenite present in the microstructure of austempered ductile iron (ADI) is one of the important factors that influence the mechanical and physical properties of the alloy. Formation of martensite by TRIP (transformation induced plasticity) mechanism during the machining operation in which a large amount of stress is applied to the microstructure results in a decrease in machinability of austempered ductile iron which has affected the expansion of ADI in industry. In this article, the effect of depth of cut as a machining variable is assessed in an alloyed austempered ductile iron containing Cu, Ni and Mo. The measurements of mechanical properties including impact energy, tensile strength, hardness and microhardness along the cross-section of samples are reported for samples austenitized at 870 °C followed by austempering at 375, 340 and 300 °C. Results indicate that contrary to the behavior of many alloys, in austempered ductile iron, reducing the depth of cut will not improve the machinability. In the case of studied composition, cutting with depths of 0.5 and 0.1 mm had the best and worst results, respectively.