Austenitic stainless steel 304 is widely used in high-tech fields such as medical treatment, nuclear power, aviation, and ships because of its good comprehensive performance in high-temperature corrosion environments, such as in nuclear main pumps. At the same time, the physical and mechanical properties of the material also greatly affect its cutting performance, which brings a lot of inconvenience to the processing. 304 stainless steel is a typical difficult-to-machine material, which has the following characteristics in the cutting process.
The work hardening is serious, and the tool is easy to wear. 304 stainless steel has good toughness and high plasticity. It produces huge plastic deformation during cutting. The crystal shift causes serious distortion of the lattice, the strengthening coefficient is large, and work hardening occurs. The stress and plastic strain generated during cutting will induce some parts. Unstable austenite transforms into martensite.
In addition, the compound impurities containing trace elements in the 304 stainless steel are easily decomposed and dispersed under the driving of cutting heat, so that a hardened layer is produced during cutting. This brings difficulty to the next cutting, resulting in increased tool wear and reduced tool durability.
The research shows that the surface hardening degree of 304 stainless steel after cutting is 85%~95% larger than that of the matrix, the depth of the hardened layer can reach more than 1/3 of the cutting depth, and the hardness of the hardened layer is 1.4~2.2 times higher than the original.
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