Experimental evaluation of the ability of some metallic materials to allow turning sharp conical tips

Abstract Industrial practice sometimes requires the use of sharp conical tips. The ability of some metallic materials to allow the realization of sharp conical tips by turning has been experimentally investigated. It was intended to highlight the influence exerted by the angle at the tip of the cone, feed rate, and spindle speed on the minimum diameter of the frustoconical surface resulting from turning for samples made of steel, an aluminum alloy, and a copper alloy. In the experimental tests, the values ​​of the other parameters characterizing the cutting conditions were kept constant. The empirical mathematical models determined by the statistical processing of the experimental results showed that the copper alloy provides conditions for the realization of sharper conical tips compared to those of the steel and aluminum alloy. It was also observed that the tip angle exerts the strongest influence on the minimum diameter of the frustoconical surface. It was noticed that in the case of the three materials of the samples, for angles of the conical tip smaller than 30 °, the minimum diameter of the frustoconical surface resulting from breaking the part tip has values of 0.5–0.9 mm.