CUTTING FORCES DURING ULTRASONIC ASSISTED TURNING OF HARD TO

MACHINE MATERIAL SPM10

Vladimir PUCOVSKI
Milenko SEKULIĆ
Marin GOSTIMIROVIĆ
Pavel KOVAČ
Borislav SAVKOVIĆ
Darko JOVANOVIĆ

Abstract: In this paper, the results of experiments for ultrasonic assisted turning of hard to machine
material SPM10 will be presented. Cutting force values will be shown for various cutting parameters.
Ultrasonic assisted turning allows many hard-to-machine materials to be machined with greater material
removal rate, prolonged tool life and less affected surface microstructure. Its benefits are beyond dispute
and many authors have tested it and graded it as a positive upgrade for conventional machining process.
It is found out that while turning the workpiece made of SPM10, cutting forces are reduced when
compared with conventional turning.

Key words: ultrasonic assisted turning,cutting forces

1. INTRODUCTION
While machining with ultrasonic vibration assisted
turning (UAT), the cutting tool is induced with small
vibrations, usually couple of microns, and high frequency,
around 20 kHz. Intermittent contact between the cutting
tool and the workpiece is the result of this movement
which means that cutting forces are generated only during
one half-period of vibration. This cutting force is usually
higher than those during conventional turning (CT), but
average forces in UAT are smaller than those in CT.
Ultrasonic assisted turning is a potential technology
suitable for machining hard-to-machine metallic and non-
metallic materials. Result of ultrasonic assisted turning
usage leads to better surface of the machined workpiece,
prolonged tool life and more favourable microstructure of
the workpiece surface layer. The ultrasonic vibrations can
be applied along any of the three cutting directions or
along any combinations of them [1]. The most positive
effect has been found to be generated during applying
vibrations in the tangential direction, which is in the
direction of the cutting force.
Main condition for vibration assisted cutting which has to
be met to make an effect, is the cutting speed to be less
than v<vc=2πAf, where vc is critical cutting speed, A is an
amplitude and f is the frequency of vibrations.
In this paper a short presentation on developed ultrasonic
assisted turning device will be presented. Also a brief
preview of cutting forces while turning hard-to-machine
material SPM10 will be made. Comparison with cutting
force values between conventional turning and ultrasonic
assisted turning will also be shown.
Ultrasonic vibrational cutting is long known and one of
the first papers were [2] and [3]. As the time went by, the
topic started expanding and soon many authors accepted
the idea. For example influence on surface roughness in
turning with ultrasonic vibrating tool has been later done
by [4]. But the idea hit its peak only recently, with the
development of technical equipment, mostly electronic
controllers and powerful personal computers for
simulations and modeling. One of the things that brought
novelty is finite element numerical analysis. Among many
areas it was also used for research on influence of
ultrasonic vibrational cutting on occurrence of chatter
during turning [5]. The obtained results from the
numerical analysis for some selected points of the
stability lobe were compared and validated against the
observed experimental results. It was shown that
ultrasonic vibration can improve the stability for some
cutting conditions, while degrading the stability in others.
Hence, the proposed numerical analysis is a valuable tool
to aid the designer to predict the effect of ultrasonic
vibration on chatter stability [5]. Prior that, one paper
analysed the influence of ultrasonic turning on chatter [6]
and came to the conclusion that chatter is effectively
suppressed irrespective of the tool geometry by vibration
cutting. However, in the case of conventional cutting the
occurrence of chatter was strongly influenced by the tool
geometry. Obviously, vibration cutting achieved a higher
cutting stability as compared with conventional cutting.
By applying the vibration cutting method, the occurrence
of chatter can be reduced significantly [6].
Regarding a theoretical basics of UAT, one of the most in
depth paper which is dealing with this subject is [7]. A
kinematics model has been developed in the mentioned
study for the relative movement between the cutting tool
and workpiece in UAT. Among the others, the model

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predicts that the cutting tool does not disengage from the which it will operate. Modeling of acoustic behavior of
workpiece during its cyclic motion and inevitably rubs sonotrode has been performed in Solidworks and the
and presses against the lateral surface remaining after snapshot of final result is shown on Fig. 1. Part of this
each revolution of the workpiece. [7]. In the second part equipment development has already been presented [23].
of this [8] study, a dynamics model has been developed
for UAT. The model can theoretically estimate the
instantaneous cutting mechanics parameters and forces at
various vibration frequencies and amplitudes and for
different turning parameters. It is found out that the
cutting process is carried out easier at large rake angles
due to the lower cutting forces in UAT [8]. Third part [9],
which is the final part of this study, is experimentally
investigating claims of hypothesis and models stated in
two previous works. There was a close agreement
between the theoretical and experimental.
The development of new materials such as high-strength
metals, composites and ceramics, which are very hard,
brittle and abrasive, is demanding progress in the Fig.1: Acoustic properties of tool holder, modeled in
machining techniques. Ultrasonic assisted turning is one Solidworks and result from acoustic analysis
of the promising techniques for machining intractable
materials. These new materials include Ni and Ti based It can be seen that the ratio of input and output amplitude
super alloys, composites, ceramics, glass etc. [10]. Some is 1:1, which is 20 µm on 20 kHz. Tool insert was VCGT
everyday hard-to-machine materials have been studied 11 03 04-UM 1125 by Sandvik Coromant, two pieces
and machined with UAT, for example hardened steel which provided symmetric balance during oscillations.
SCM440 [11], stainless steel [12], low alloy steel (DF2) Through the brass ring the sonotrode was mounted on
[13] and Ti-64 [14]. Others researches are focused on steel holder custom made to fit on Kistler 9257A
more complex materials like Inconel 718 [15] [16] [17], dynamometer and onto the conventional lathe
Ti-15333 [18] [19] or shape memory alloy Nitanol [20] manufactured by Boehringer-Prvomajska.
[19]. Some focused their research on materials specially Classical piezo-electric ultrasonic transducer with 2kW
developed for certain purposes, like for example Ti-676- power was used to drive the sonotrode. Telsonic
0,9La [21] or Ti-15332Zr-0.9La [22]. Most above ultrasonic generator type DHG2020 with auto tune option
mentioned papers reported improvement in machinability was used to drive the transducer.
of those hard to machine materials with ultrasonic assisted Position of ultrasonically assisted turning device mounted
turning. on the lathe is shown on Fig 2.
Regarding abovementioned remarks it is clear that
SPM10 hasn’t been machined with ultrasonic assisted
turning. Because of its acoustic properties, this material is
heavily used for production of sonotrodes for ultrasonic
welding. While having these optimal properties for usage,
SPM10 has a big disadvantage which is a low tool life. To
solve this problem a solution has been proposed to
machine above mentioned material with ultrasonic
assisted turning. By this time only partial experiments
have been conducted and results are presented in this
paper.

2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
At the Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department for
Production Engineering a device has been developed for
UAT. This project originated as cooperation with
Telsonic company from Kac and the Faculty. Telsonic
company, which is active in the field of ultrasonic
welding, is using SPM10 for ultrasonic sonotrode
manufacturing and had the need to improve the
production process. The idea was to engage ultrasonic
assisted turning and to try to extend tool life and to
increase process parameters which would directly lead to
shorter manufacturing time.
Sonotrode, which is also the toolholder, is made from Fig. 2: Assembly of sonotrode on the lathe with Kistler
steel SPM10 and its dimensions are calculated with dynamometer and ultrasonic transducer
respect to acoustic properties given for frequency on

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3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS made. Example of cutting forces variation is shown on
graph in Fig 3. This example is for experiment number 7
As it was mentioned before workpiece material, used for in the Table 3.
this experiment, was tool steel SPM10. Chemical
composition of this material is shown in Table 1.Tool
insert used for this experiment was VCGT 11 03 04-UM
1125 made by Sandvik Coromant. Machining parameters
which were varied are cutting speed v, feed rate s, depth
of cut a and the value of the amplitude A. They were all
varied on three levels and values in each level are shown
in Table 2. Average values of measured cutting forces are
shown in Table 3, where Fs is the feed (axial) force, Fp is
the passive (radial) force and Fv is the main cutting
(tangential) force.
For the experiment the Taguchi L18 orthogonal array
design was used. During experiments, at the beginning
only conventional turning was employed. This phase Fig. 3: Cutting forces for CT and UAT
lasted about 30 seconds and then the ultrasonic vibration
was turned on for about the same time. With this kind of
approach direct comparison of cutting forces can be

Table 1: Chemical composition of SPM10 tool steel

Chemical element C Mn Si Cr V Mo S
Value [%] 2,45 0,5 0,9 5,25 9,75 1,3 0,07

Table 2: Levels and values of machining parameters

Levels
Symbol Parameters
1 2 3
A Cutting speed, v [m/min] 10 20 30
B Feed rate, s [mm/rev] 0,1 0,15 0,2
C Depth of cut, a [mm] 0,2 0,4 0,6
D Amplitude of oscillation, A [µm] 10 15 20

Table 3: Experiment machining parameters and measured cutting forces for CT and UAT
Ultrasonic assisted turning
Cutting Amplitude Conventional turning (CT)
Feed rate, Depth (UAT)
Number speed, of
s of cut,
of exp. v oscillation, Fs Fp Fv Fs Fp Fv
[mm/rev] a [mm]
[m/min] A [µm] [N] [N] [N] [N] [N] [N]

1. 10 0,1 0,2 10 12,82 31,50 62,20 8,67 18,00 38,65

2. 20 0,2 0,6 10 79,92 123,57 244,62 82,58 109,96 220,32
3. 30 0,1 0,4 10 34,70 52,05 104,23 34,8 50,00 99,90
4. 10 0,15 0,2 10 16,80 39,10 77,62 18,12 28,44 53,35
5. 20 0,15 0,6 10 52,11 66,21 149,67 34,42 44,27 101,46
6. 30 0,2 0,4 10 41,08 88,13 164,35 40,18 86,00 160,75
7. 10 0,15 0,4 15 20,60 39,95 100,85 12,27 21,18 57,01
8. 20 0,1 0,2 15 12,11 27,64 57,04 10,25 17,44 40,50
9. 30 0,15 0,6 15 42,20 67,50 130,40 46,24 62,55 113,00
10. 10 0,2 0,4 15 28,33 69,43 134,40 22,47 42,97 86,10
11. 20 0,2 0,2 15 12,30 35,90 86,13 12,90 21,38 59,65
12. 30 0,1 0,6 15 39,45 54,15 115,94 38,45 43,25 91,62
13. 10 0,2 0,6 20 55,12 106,00 210,50 24,60 36,90 97,36
14. 20 0,15 0,4 20 22,66 44,97 93,78 16,00 22,44 51,53
15. 30 0,2 0,2 20 10,70 30,70 62,76 10,79 24,83 51,08
16. 10 0,1 0,6 20 31,76 41,42 108,25 16,98 14,80 49,24
17. 20 0,1 0,4 20 24,60 42,60 85,32 16,00 21,95 43,67
18. 30 0,15 0,2 20 11,24 35,53 66,50 8,44 19,90 42,70

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As can be noticed from measured cutting forces values,
shown in Table 3, smaller values of cutting forces are
generated during ultrasonic assisted turning. Figure 4
show the measured force components during conventional
and ultrasonic assisted turning for experiment number 7.
The average force is computed by performing a
numerical average of the measured force component over
time. The average tangential force reduces significantly
from 100,85 N to 57,01 N, the radial force reduces
significantly from 39,95 N to 21,18 N, the axial force
reduces significantly from 20,6 N to 12,27 N, when the
ultrasonic vibration is switched on.
Table 4 shows the results of ANOVA analysis for the
main cutting force Fv, because of the tangential force is
traditionally referred to as primary cutting force. Results
of this analysis is that main effect on cutting force has
depth of cut with 40,6% of influence, the next in line is
amplitude of oscillation with 23,2% and feed rate with
22,9%. It also suggest that the cutting speed has very little
influence on main cutting force with only 6,7%.

Fig. 4: Cutting forces for CT and UAT

Table 4: ANOVA analysis for the main cutting force F v

Factor DOF Sum of squares Variance F-ratio Pure Sum Percent %

A (v) 2 24,186 12,093 9,673 21,685 6,726
B (s) 2 76,339 38,169 30,534 73,839 22,904
C (a) 2 133,351 66,675 53,337 130,851 40,588
D (A) 2 77,254 38,627 30,9 74,754 23,188
Other 9 11,249 1,249 6,594
Total 17 322,382 100%

behaviour is suggested while ultrasonically assisted

4. CONCLUSION turning of SPM10. Tool wear is also one of the main

The overall effectiveness of UAT in the cutting hard to
machine material such as steel SPM10 is demonstrated.
As can be seen from Table 3 a noticeable reduction in
cutting forces has been observed while using ultrasonic
assisted turning with comparison to conventional turning.
The reduction in average tool force measured for UAT
are a result of the intermittent contact between the tool
and uncut material. In-depth investigation of process
parameters which is to be monitored to see if there is any
influence of this technology in tool life duration.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank management and
engineers from Telsonic company Kać for their support
during design of sonotrode and for providing ultrasonic
transducer.

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The paper is the result of the research within the project
TR 35015 financed by the Ministry of Education, Science
and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia.
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CORRESPONDANCE

Vladimir PUCOVSKI, Ph.D. student

University of Novi Sad
Faculty of Technical Sciences
Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6
21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
pucovski@uns.ac.rs

Prof. Milenko SEKULIĆ, Ph.D.

University of Novi Sad
Faculty of Technical Sciences
Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6
21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
milenkos@uns.ac.rs

Prof. Marin GOSTIMIROVIĆ, Ph.D.

University of Novi Sad
Faculty of Technical Sciences
Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6
21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
maring@uns.ac.rs

Prof. Pavel KOVAČ, Ph.D.

University of Novi Sad
Faculty of Technical Sciences
Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6
21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
pkovac@uns.ac.rs
Assist. Prof. Borislav SAVKOVIĆ,
Ph.D.
University of Novi Sad
Faculty of Technical Sciences
Trg Dositeja Obradovića 6
21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
savkovic@uns.ac.rs

Darko JOVANOVIĆ, M. Mech. Eng.

Managing Director
Telsonic doo
Kać, Serbia
darko.jovanovic@telsonic.com

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