Key Engineering Materials Submitted: 2020-03-22

ISSN: 1662-9795, Vol. 866, pp 32-41 Accepted: 2020-03-22

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.866.32 Online: 2020-10-05
© 2020 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland

Optimization of Reaming Process Parameters for Alloy Grey Cast Iron

HT250 Using Grey Relational Analysis
C. Ye1,a，X.R. Shi2,a，L. Chen2,b*, Y.G. Wang1,3,a*
1
School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072,
China
2
Sinotruk (Hongkong) Limited Jinan Power Division, Jinan, 250220, China
3
School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China
a
ygwang@shu.edu.cn, bchenlin_cnhtc@163.com

Keywords: alloy grey cast iron; reaming; tool wear; hole dimensional accuracy; surface roughness;
optimization

Abstract: Reaming is one of the finishing processes that has been widely applied in automotive
industry. Reaming parameters were evaluated and optimized based on multiple performance
characteristics including tool wear and hole quality. Taguchi’s L16, 4 -level, 2-factor orthogonal array
(OA) was conducted for this test. It was shown that crater wear and flank wear were seen on the tool
surface. Furthermore, the crater wear was also of major significance. Hole quality was discovered to
be mostly dependent upon cutting speed and feed rate. TiAlN coated carbide reamer shows the best
performance with respect to the tool wear as well as hole quality. Grey relational analysis used as a
multiple-response optimization technique found that feed rate was the more influential parameter
than cutting speed. The goal of the experimental results was to obtain both minimum diametral error
and the value of surface roughness by adopting the optimal combination of the reaming parameters.

Introduction
Due to its superior forming property of casting, machinability, wear resistance, heat resistance,
and shock absorption, grey cast iron(GCI) is used as a conventional material for diesel cylinder block
and cylinder head [1]. GCI contains graphite particles dispersed in the form of matrix of pearlite and
limited quantity of ferrite. The literatures reveal that the pearlite matrix has well wear resistance [2].
To enhance its mechanical strength, some alloy elements, such as C, Si, Sn, Cr etc. are added in the
grey cast iron [3]. Reaming is a common machining process with the characteristic properties of
enlarging, smoothing and accurately producing the original holes to tight tolerances. Choosing
appropriate cutting speed and feed rate are important in reaming process. Cutting speed varies
significantly depending partly by the material to be reamed, the kinds of machine and required
accuracy. Before reaming, the starting holes (drilled or otherwise produced) also have relatively
straightness, roundness and surface quality. Generally, average surface roughness by reaming
operation ranges from 0.8μm to 3.2μm [4]. Carbide tools have been used to machine alloy gray cast
iron for a long time because of their high hardness, outstanding wear resistance and high economy.
Currently, a large number of researches about cutting gray cast iron with coated and uncoated carbide
cutting tools are conducted. Cermet, a special type of carbide that has nickel as a binder and TiC and
TiN as hard components, are generally more brittle than other carbides.
Reaming is a finish operation normally followed by drilling or core drilling. Flank wear and corner
wear are the typical wear types during the reaming process, Flank wear on the flank face and crater
wear on the rake face. Flank wear (VB) is considered as criterion of tool life to asses the tool
performance in machining process. Liang and Liu [5] conducted the dry turning experiment. They
revealed that tool flank wear effects on the depth of plastic deformation. When depth of cut is lower
than minimum thickness of cut, intense friction occurs around the corner edge of reamer. Corner wear
is easy to measure and drill life is characterized strongly by corner wear on the drill [6].
Some earlier researchers [7] argued that the hardness and thermal conductivity are considered as
the material properties mainly responsible of the crater wear. Nevertheless, other researchers claimed

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 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 866 33

that the continuous slipping of the BUE particles through the tool-chip interface might cause tool
wear [8,9]. From the point of view of cooling, it can greatly improve the tool wear and reduce the
BUE formation in compassion with the conventional cooling and dry cutting. Y Yang and JF Li et al.
[10] conducted a milling experiment to study the mechanism of chip formation during high-speed
milling of alloy cast iron by adopting an equivalent geometry model of chip. To improve the accuracy
of finite element simulation, several key technologies such as material constitutive model, friction
model, chip separation criteria was used. Chen ting et al. [11] conducted the dry finish milling
experiment of grey cast iron and surface quenched cast iron with the GC3220 and GC1010 coated
carbide inserts. The influence of cutting parameters on cutting force, surface roughness and tool wear
was studied. The genetic algorithm was used to optimize the cutting parameters aiming at production
cost, processing efficiency and surface quality. Luan et al. [12] established an energy consuming
model for face milling HT250 with carbide inserts to optimize the cutting parameter for purpose of
reducing the energy consumption. Bezerra et al. [13] designed experiments about reaming SAE 332
alloy using K10 cemented carbide-welded blade reamers and found that the satisfactory hole quality
would be achieved by employing smaller depths of cut, low cutting speeds and higher feed rates using
straight-flute reamers with many blades. There is also a large amount of other publications about
reaming process. Jaharah AG et al. [14] used ANOVA analysis to study the effects of cutting
parameters on cutting force, tool life and surface roughness during the milling experiments of FC250
gray cast iron by uncoated cemented carbide tool. For all machining conditions, the machining
operation was stopped when the flank wear (VB) reached about 0.2 mm. Finally, their researches
concluded that the longest tool life was achieved at cutting speed of 100 m/min, feed rate of
0.2 mm/tooth and depth of cut of 1.0 mm. However, only a few researchers have studied the influence
of wear mechanism on hole dimensional accuracy and surface roughness.
The aim of this study was to investigate the tool wear and introduce the Taguchi method in
determining optimum reaming conditions on the hole quality and surface roughness when reaming
the alloy grey cast iron using coated carbide reamer. The reaming parameters were set by Taguchi’s
L16 orthogonal array. After the reaming experiments, tool wear phenomenon was evaluated.
Furthermore, the influence of the tool’s corner wear and abrasive wear on the hole quality was
analyzed. Grey relational analysis was applied to investigate how the cutting parameters affect the
hole dimensional accuracy and surface roughness. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
performed for the factors and their contribution rates were determined. This work will be a good
guide for selecting optimal machining parameters for the diametral error of the reamed hole and
surface roughness.

Experimental Procedure
Experimental setup for hole reaming is shown in Fig.1. The material of the workpiece was grey
cast iron HT250. Chemical composition of the work piece HT250 are presented in table1[15]. The
experiments were carried out with Heller MCH350D four axis horizonal machining center under wet
cutting condition. The hole in the cylinder head need to be reamed to 44mm. Technical requirements
show that hole diameter ranges from 44.000mm to 44.039mm and surface roughness reaches Rz
16 μm. Tool dimensions are shown in Fig.2. Parameters of coated carbide reamer are listed in table 2.
In this work, Taguchi method which is a useful tool for the design of performance characteristics was
used [16]. L16(45) orthogonal array was chosen since it has ability to control the interactions among
the factors [17]. For reaming experiments, the control factors and levels of each parameter are given
in table 3. Cutting fluid was 8%-10% ECOCOO-L600NBFC universal emulsified with 18-27bar
internal cooling pressure.
34 Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology IV

Fig.1 Experimental set up and reamed workpiece:(a) Frontfiew of four axis horizonal machining
center;(b) Workpiece HT250 after reaming test

Table 1 Chemical composition of alloy grey cast iron work materials (wt.%)
Alloy element Fe C Si Mn Cr Cu S Sn
HT250 3.4 1.86 0.63 0.25 0.6 0.08 0.05 3.4

Table 2 Parameters of coated carbide reamer

Ream Rake Clearance Margin Edge Tool
material angle/(°) angle/(°) width/(mm) number diameter/(mm)
Coated
0° 6° 0.65 8 44.026
carbide

Wears of flank and corner were measured with a digital microscope type of VHX-5000-D
(KEYENCE corporation). Holes diameters was measured with a specific plug gauge (type of
JDGG8110-0204/φ44H8(0/+0.039)), and surface roughness of reamed holes was measured with a
TESA-rugosur10-G using the appropriate metrology standards. Total error of the hole diameters was
used.

Fig.2 Dimension of the reamer in experiments

 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 866 35

Table 3 Reaming parameters and levels

Control Level
Unit
parameters 1 2 3 4
Cutting speed(A) m/min 60 90 120 150
Feed rate(B) mm/z 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15

Results and Discussion

Tool wear.

Fig 3. Images f tool rake face and flank face

Figure 3 shows the images taken by digital microscope system of KEYENCE of worn rake face
and flank face for cemented carbide inserts at the end of reaming process. Experimental results
illustrate that the most important tool wear mechanism was crater wear. That is why crater wear was
deemed as the criterion for tool failure. The maximum depth was 71.74μ m, which was clearly
observed from Fig 3.(a). It is generally recognized that the hardness and cutting temperature are
responsible for crater wear. Reaming is a finish process, which can attain good surface quality by
squeezing and rubbing. Furthermore, high cutting speed determines a high surface temperature and
consequently more diffusive exchange of the chemical species (Co, Si and Cr) between the tool rake
face and adhered material on the tool surface. That is why we find crater wear on the rake face of
carbide insert. By conducting 16 orthogonal tests, it was concluded that the optimal reaming process
parameters was obtained as 150m/min cutting speed and 0.06mm/z feed rate. As was shown in Fig4,
high cutting speed sharply decreases the tool life and generates severe crater wear. It is revealed that
the optimal results through orthogonal tests was not available for actual production. In this
36 Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology IV

experiments, the optimal reaming process parameters by taking grey relational analysis was obtained
as 120m/min cutting speed and 0.06mm/z feed rate, which significantly reduces the tool wear,
especially crater wear.

Fig 4. Images of tool rake face under different cutting speed

Some HT250 grey cast iron workpiece material adhered to the tool flank face (see Fig 3. (b) (c)).
Moreover, some micro grooves were found on the flank face of carbide insert. Considering the wear
morphology, it can be concluded that major adhesive wear and minor abrasive wear happened on the
flank face of carbide insert. It can be stated that the flank wear is produced by the contact between the
workpiece and cutting edge of carbide insert.
Hole dimensional accuracy. The produced hole diameter depends on the reamer’s corner wear. In
this work, generally, produced hole diameters decreased due to the corner wear. For 16 reaming
experiments, lower and upper limit values of the hole diameters were found to be 44.0mm and
44.039mm, respectively.

Fig.5 Effects of factors on mean size variation of reamed hole

Figure 5 shows the effects of reaming parameters on the size variation of the reamed hole. This
figure revealed that there is significant variation of the hole size (Δφ )with regarding to the cutting
speed and feed rate. The variation of the diameter error increased with higher feed rate when keeping
the cutting speed constant. The size of reamed hole also decreased gradually. Regarding the ream
feed rate, low size errors were obtained with low feed rate. This condition can be explained by spring
back phenomenon that alloy cast iron material expanded and then contracted because of the
temperature fluctuations. However, the size of produced hole almost keeps constant by increasing
cutting speed under the condition of high feed rate. The experiment also showed that the diameter of
produced hole with high cutting speed and feed rate is relatively small. As a conclusion, the optimal
machining conditions for the hole quality were obtained as 150m/min cutting speed and 0.06 mm/z
feed rate.
 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 866 37

Surface roughness. The variances of surface roughness Rz of the reamed holes at different cutting
conditions are shown in Fig.6. The lowest values represent the optimal process parameter. When
cutting speed increases from 60m/min to 90m/min keeping the feed rate 0.06mm/z constant, the value
of surface roughness Rz increases slightly; When cutting speed increases from 90m/min to
150m/min, the value of surface roughness value Rz decreases sharply. It indicates that low feed rate
can easily achieve better surface roughness. When feed rate varies from 0.09mm/z to 0.15mm/z, the
value of surface roughness shows wave-like changes with increasing cutting speed. The surface
roughness value increases first and then decreases with the feed rate going up. Great surface
roughness can be obtained when the feed rate is low or high. When feed per tooth is low, there is
always an area where no chip can be generated on every cutting edge. At that time, the outer edge of
the cutting edge exists pressing effect and the value of surface roughness of the reamed hole wall is
smaller after strong extrusion. Similarly, when the feed per tooth increases to a certain extent, the
cutting back force is very large. It can be seen from the diameter value of processed hole that the
produced hole diameter is smaller and the hole shrinkage is the largest. In addition, When the squeeze
effect between the hole wall and the margin is enhanced, the surface roughness value is also smaller.

Fig.6 Effects of factors on surface roughness of reamed holes

Multi response optimization with grey relational analysis (GRA). The purpose of grey relational
analysis used in the present study is to obtain the single optimum process parameter setting for both
the responses hole size variation and surface roughness. The system in which the information is
completely known is referred as white system, while the information is completely unknown as black
system. Any system which lies between these two limits is called as grey system [18,19]. Grey
relational analysis is the normalization evaluation technique in which each response is normalized
between zero to one, which is calculated by using equation 1. The grey relational co-efficient ε ( K )
can be calculated using equation 3. Finally, the grey relation grade is calculated by taking an average
grey relation co-efficient of hole size variation and surface roughness. A higher grey relational grade
indicates a strong relational degree between the comparative and the ideal sequence.

max  S j ( k )  − S j ( k )
Z j (k ) = (1)
max j  S j ( k )  − min j  S j ( k ) 

Where S j ( k ) is the original value to be normalized; max j  S j ( K )  is the largest value of S j ( k ) ,

min  S j ( K )  is the smallest value of S j ( K ) .

∆ ( min ) + ρ∆ ( max )
ε j (K ) = (2)
∆ oi ( K ) + ρ∆ ( max )
38 Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology IV

Where ∆ ( min ) is zero, ∆ ( max ) is one, distinguishing coefficient ρ is defined in the range of
0 ≤ ρ ≤ 1 . It is generally taken as 0.5. ∆ oi is the deviation sequence of the experiments trials.

Table 1 Taguchi experimental design, normalized values and grey grades for diametral error and
surface roughness
Code Experimental result Grey relation Gray
Exp. Normalization (Zj) Optimum
factor (Sj) coefficient (εi) Grade
No order
A B de/μm Rz/μm de Rz de Rz (γ)
1 1 1 11 5.495 0.385 0.445 0.448 0.474 0.461 8
2 1 2 13 6.731 0.231 0.053 0.394 0.346 0.370 15
3 1 3 15 6.401 0.077 0.158 0.351 0.373 0.362 16
4 1 4 16 4.564 0.000 0.740 0.333 0.658 0.496 6
5 2 1 5 6.011 0.846 0.281 0.765 0.410 0.588 3
6 2 2 11 6.898 0.385 0.000 0.448 0.333 0.391 13
7 2 3 14 5.510 0.154 0.440 0.371 0.472 0.422 11
8 2 4 16 4.816 0.000 0.660 0.333 0.595 0.464 7
9 3 1 3 4.682 1.000 0.703 1.000 0.627 0.814 2
10 3 2 11 5.019 0.385 0.596 0.448 0.553 0.501 5
11 3 3 15 5.100 0.077 0.570 0.351 0.538 0.445 9
12 3 4 16 4.042 0.000 0.906 0.333 0.842 0.588 4
13 4 1 3 3.745 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1
14 4 2 11 5.798 0.385 0.349 0.448 0.434 0.441 10
15 4 3 15 5.980 0.077 0.291 0.351 0.414 0.383 14
16 4 4 16 5.306 0.000 0.505 0.333 0.503 0.418 12

The results of calculated grey relational coefficients ε j ( k ) ( j = 1, 2 ) and grey relational grade
γ k ( k = 1,,27 ) , for different cutting conditions are given in table1.The calculated grey relational
grades for each experiment were put in order from maximum (optimum) to minimum and then they
are presented in the rightmost of Table1. The optimal value, which was the maximum of the grey
relational grade, was found to be 13th experiment (Table1).
In the next step, the main effects of each factor were calculated from the value of grey relational
grade. The maximum grey relational grades of each factor were calculated (Table 2). Minimum
diametral error and surface roughness can be obtained at the A3B1 optimal machining conditions.

Table 2 Main effects of factors on grey grade

Level
Factor Unit
1 2 3 4
Cutting speed (A) m/min 0.422 0.466 0.587* 0.561
Feed rate (B) mm/z 0.716* 0.426 0.403 0.492
*Levels for optimum grey relational grade
Analysis of variance (ANOVA). After analyzing the effect of machining parameters on the grey
relational grade, the relative importance among the reaming parameters for multiple performance
characteristics is analyzed in order to find more definitely the optimal combinations of the reaming
parameter levels. For this purpose, analysis of variance（ANOA）is applied to determine which
parameter significantly influences the performance characteristic. According to the ANOVA results
presented in Table 3, the most efficient factor on the grey grade was found to be feed rate as 50.22%.
 Key Engineering Materials Vol. 866 39

Table 3 ANOVA results for grey grade

Factor DF SS V F-test PD
Cutting speed(A) 2 0.0731 0.0366 4.816 14.72
Feed rate(B) 2 0.2494 0.1247 16.408 50.22
A⋅ B 4 0.1210 0.0302 3.974 24.37
Error 7 0.0531 0.0076 10.69
Total 15 0.4966 100
DF: Degree of freedom; SS: Sum of squares; V: Variance; PD: Percentage distribution; F-table(0.05;2;7)=4.74;
F-table(0.05;4;7)=4.12
Confirmation experiments. The final step was to predict and verify the improvement in the
performance characteristic for reaming of alloy grey cast iron HT250 considering the selected initial
parameter setting were carried out. The predicted grey relational grade using the optimal level of the
reaming parameter can be calculated as the following model:
N
γ m ∑ (γ 0 − γ m )
γ predicted =+ (3)
i =1

Where γ m is the total mean of the grey relational grade, γ 0 is the mean grey relational grade at
optimal level, and N is the number of main design parameters that significantly affect the multiple
performance characteristic [20].
The predicted grey grade by Eq. (3) was found to be 0.794 under the machining conditions of
A3B1. Compared the predicted result (0.794) with the experimental result (0.814), the difference was
2.5%. It was concluded that the results obviously existed in the confidence interval of the optimal
condition. Furthermore, Fig.7 shows the comparison between the predicted and the experimental grey
grades at different cutting condition. Good agreements were achieved between the predicted and the
experimental results. Therefore, the grey relational analysis is a very powerful method for estimating
the grey relational grade in the reaming of alloy grey cast iron HT250.

Fig.7 Results of confirmation experiments

Conclusion
Reaming experiments of alloy grey cast iron were carried out to study the effects of reaming
parameters such as cutting speed and feed rate on the dimensional accuracy of reamed hole and
surface roughness. Reaming parameters were optimized based on the grey relational analysis. Based
on the experimental results, crater wear was observed on the rake face. adhesive wear and abrasive
wear were found on the flank face. With respect to the hole dimensional accuracy, the produced holes
were greatly affected by the corner wear. Generally, the produced hole diameter decreased with the
presence of corner wear. According to the experimental results, we should take low feed rate and high
cutting speed to attain good surface roughness. From the grey relational analysis, the largest grey
relational grade was found for cutting speed of 120m/min and 0.06mm/z. The optimal level of
reaming parameter was recommended when the minimum diametral error and the value of surface
roughness were considered.
40 Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology IV

Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry
of Science and Technology of China (2017ZX04016001).

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