Empirical study of dimensional and geometrical tolerances in helical milling of 4340 steel

The productivity of a part is assessed based on factors such as dimensional and geometrical tolerances. In fact, tolerance features are the most important factors in shop drawing of an industrial part. The aim of present study is to empirically investigate the precision of holes created by helical milling method on AISI 4340 alloyed steel. This method refers to create the hole using milling tool, which moves along a helical path. By using helical milling, a high quality hole has been produced and there is no need for boring. Taguchi design of experiment was used to study the effects of process parameters including; cutting speed, feed rate, axial depth of cut and workpiece hardness on dimensional and geometrical tolerances of created hole. In addition, effect of minimum quantity lubrication method with two different oils and dry milling methods was studied. Results showed that the helical milling can be a suitable replacement for conventional drilling. In addition, cutting speed as the main parameter had significant effect on quality improvement of the created hole. On the other hand, in the helical milling, minimum quantity lubrication method using vegetable-based oil showed the best performance compared to mineral oil or dry cutting.