General conception of polar diagrams for the evaluation of the potential machinability of workpiece materials

Abstract

This article presents a polar diagram method developed for describing and evaluating the potential machinability of different workpiece materials. The potential machinability is examined in terms of five critical properties of the workpiece material. Two groups of materials, a group of common steel grades and the other a group of stainless steels, were examined in detail, their polar diagrams illustrating the potential for comparing the machinability of different workpiece materials. Polar diagrams are seen as being particularly helpful in setup work for the machining of new, previously unknown materials as it allows for comparison with other materials and their respective machinability.