Data showing the effects of temperature and time variances on nano-additives treatment of mild steel during machining

The effects of temperature and time variances on nano-additives treatment of mild steel during machining was presented in this study. Mild steel of 150 kg mass containing 0.56% carbon was charged into the furnace at melting and pouring temperature of 1539 and 1545 °C respectively. Also charged into the furnace with the mild steel were 0.05% max phosphorous and a bit of sulphur. Thereafter, the sample was cooled and annealed at a temperature of 900 °C for 9 h and then cooled to 300 °C of hardening, normalizing and tempering respectively. The treated samples were then soaked with pulverized in palm kernel shell and barium carbonate (20%) energizer at respective temperatures (800, 850, 900 and 950 °C) and time variances (60, 90 and 120 min) in a muffle furnace. The developed tool was tested on a lathe machine to evaluate its performance. The surface and core hardness, wear resistance and toughness were carried out using the hardness tester, Rotopol–V and impact tester respectively. This is essential for predicting the useful life of the tool in service.


a b s t r a c t
The effects of temperature and time variances on nano-additives treatment of mild steel during machining was presented in this study. Mild steel of 150 kg mass containing 0.56% carbon was charged into the furnace at melting and pouring temperature of 1539 and 1545°C respectively. Also charged into the furnace with the mild steel were 0.05% max phosphorous and a bit of sulphur. Thereafter, the sample was cooled and annealed at a temperature of 900°C for 9 h and then cooled to 300°C of hardening, normalizing and tempering respectively. The treated samples were then soaked with pulverized in palm kernel shell and barium carbonate (20%) energizer at respective temperatures (800, 850, 900 and 950°C) and time variances (60, 90 and 120 min) in a muffle furnace. The developed tool was tested on a lathe machine to evaluate its performance. The surface and core hardness, wear resistance and toughness were carried out using the hardness tester, Rotopol-V and impact tester respectively. This is essential for predicting the useful life of the tool in service. &

Value of the data
The data for the hardness and toughness of the developed samples can be used to determine the optimum efficiency of case-hardened cutting tools.
Wear rate and machining test data could be used to predict the performance of any carburized tool during the machining operation.
The data on the use of nano-additive concentration can be used to determine the accuracy level of the carburization at each temperature and time.
Also, the dataset could be used to predict the most significant heat treatment parameters. The data obtained could be used in investigating the trend in surface and micro hardness profile of carburized cutting tool.

Data
The study utilized scrap (steel) for casting using Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) as a nano-additives carbon to develop several cutting tool. Compositional analyses before and after the casting was done with melt correction of carbon increase from 0.560 to 0.65 during melting as shown in Table 1. Data of the micro-hardness values in Table 2 present the core of the carburized samples, while the surface hardness values depict the case of the carburized samples. Tests carried out on the treated cutting tool measured its weight loss, wear volume, wear rate, wear resistance and impact/toughness as shown in Tables 3 and 4.

Experimental design, materials and methods
The pulverized carbon additive was prepared from palm kernel shell by drying, grinding, milling and sieving. The casting process was carried out with an induction furnace having a maximum temperature capacity of 3000°C [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The furnance was used to melt 150 kg mass of carbon steel at melting temperature of approximately 1539°C and a pouring temperature of 1545°C [6][7][8]. The samples were annealed at 900°C at a rate of 90°C per hour then, it was held for 2 h to cool. Hardening took place at 900°C a rate of 100°C /h for 9 h and then it was followed by force-cooling from 900°C in an oil quenching medium. Thereafter, normalization was conducted at 900°C at a rate of 100°C /h for 9 h. Finally, the sample was tempered by heat treatment of 400°C at a rate of 100°C/h for 4 h with natural cooling [8][9][10][11][12]. The treated carbon steel was machined into 24 pieces each of 200 mm Â 10 mm Â 10 mm and 20 mm Â 10 mm Â 10 mm respectively. Thereafter, they were charged into furnance at temperatures of 800, 850, 900 and 950°C and duration of 60, 90, 120, 180 min for each stage [12][13][14]. In order to evaluate the performance of the developed tool machining tests were carried out on the lathe machine [14][15][16]. Furthermore, the hardness tester, Rotopol-V and impact tester were used to conduct surface and core hardness, wear resistance and energy absorbed tests as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 on the developed sample tool [16][17][18].