The paper deals with the issue of cutting zone and chip compression. The aim was to analyse the microstructure transverse section of the cutting zone on a metallographic cut, due to determined values of chip compression and plastic deformation, which affect the cutting process efficiency. The tested cutting tool material was coated with cemented carbide. The selected workpiece materials were C45 medium carbon steel of ISO grade and 62SiMnCr4 tool steel of ISO (W.Nr. 1.2101) grade. In the experiments, a DMG CTX alpha 500 turning centre was used. The cutting speed and feed were varied, and the depth of the cut was kept constant during the turning. The plastic deformation and chip compression determine the efficiency of the cutting process. The higher compression requires more work to perform the process and, therefore, it requires more energy for doing so. With the increase of the cutting speed, the deformation for C45 steel is decreased. The rapid deformation reduction was observed when the cutting speed was increased from 145 m/min to 180 m/min. Generally, deformation is decreasing with the increase of the feed. Only at a cutting speed of 145 m/min was the deformation elevation observed, when the feed was increased from 0.4 mm to 0.6 mm. During the turning of the 62SiMnCr4 tool steel we observed an error value at a cutting speed of 145 m/min and a feed of 0.4 mm was the middle cutting parameter. However, feed dependence was clear: With an increase of the feed, the plastic deformation was decreasing. This decreasing was more rapid with the increasing of the cutting speed. Besides plastic deformation, there was analysed chip compression as well. With the increasing of the cutting speed, there was a decrease of the chip compression. Due to a lack of information in the area of the chip compression and the plastic deformation in the cutting process, we decided to investigate the cutting zone for the turning of tool steels 62SiMnCr4, which was compared with the reference steel C45. The results could be applied to increase the efficiency of the process and improvement of the surface integrity.
Keywords: chip compression; cutting edge radius; cutting zone; plastic deformation.