Hole tolerance properties of aluminium and bearing steel in CNC plasma cutting process

Abstract

In this study, hole tolerances were investigated by creating holes on 6061-T6 Aluminium and 100Cr6 Bearing Steel in the CNC plasma machine. Holes with diameters of 4, 6.5 and 9mm were cut circularly in the plates of 3, 6 and 10mm thickness. The experiments were carried out at three different cutting speeds. Delamination factor, circularity error and taper values were measured. The amounts of burrs formed as a result of circular cut were investigated. For the same plate thickness and hole diameter, as the cutting speed increased, the delamination factor did not change much, but the circularity error and taper values increased. It was observed that the difference between the inlet and outlet diameters decreased as the plate thickness increased. This reduced the circularity error and taper. As the cutting speed increased, the delamination factor, circularity error and taper values increased. As a result of the regression and variance analysis, it was seen that the most important effect on the hole quality was the cutting speed. It has also been observed that the hole quality of 100Cr6 Bearing Steel was better than 6061-T6 Aluminium alloy.