The present study investigates performance and feasibility of application of low cost cemented carbide insert in dry machining of AISI 52100 steel hardened to (55 ± 1 HRC) which is rarely researched as far as machining of bearing steel is concerned. Machinability studies i.e. flank wear, surface roughness and morphology analysis of chip has been investigated and statistical regression modeling has been developed. The test has been conducted based on Taguchi L16 OA taking machining parameters like cutting speed, feed and depth of cut. It is observed that uncoated cemented carbide insert performs well at some selected runs (Run 1, 5 and 9) which show its feasibility for hard turning applications. The developed serrated saw tooth chip of burnt blue colour adversely affects the surface quality. Adequacy of the developed statistical regression model has been checked using ANOVA analysis (depending on F value, P value and R2 value) and normal probability plot at 95% confidence level. The results of optimal parametric combinations may be adopted while turning hardened AISI 52100 steel under dry environment with uncoated cemented carbide insert.

The present paper deals with the development of prediction model using response surface methodology and artificial neural network and optimizes the process parameter using 3D surface plot. The experiment has been conducted using coated carbide insert in machining AISI 1040 steel under dry environment. The coefficient of determination value for RSM model is found to be high (R2 = 0.99 close to unity). It indicates the goodness of fit for the model and high significance of the model. The percentage of error for RSM model is found to be only from -2.63 to 2.47. The maximum error between ANN model and experimental lies between -1.27 and 0.02 %, which is significantly less than the RSM model. Hence, both the proposed RSM and ANN prediction model sufficiently predict the surface roughness, accurately. However, ANN prediction model seems to be better compared with RSM model. From the 3D surface plots, the optimal parametric combination for the lowest surface roughness is d1-f1-v3 i.e. depth of cut of 0.1 mm, feed of 0.04 mm/rev and cutting speed of 260 m/min respectively.