A study of the diamond tool wear suppression mechanism in vibration-assisted machining of steel

Inability of machining steel strongly inhibits the application of diamond machining in manufacturing industry, especially in the fields of ultra-precision and micro machining. In recent years, vibration-assisted machining (VAM) has been proved to be capable of efficiently suppressing the diamond tool wear in cutting steel. Currently, the prevailing speculation claimed by most researchers for such suppression is that the tool–workpiece flash temperature was reduced in VAM, which would slow the chemical reaction between iron on steel and carbon on diamond. However, the correctness of this speculation has not been proved by any experimental or theoretical research. In this paper, in order to understand the true wear suppression mechanism of diamond tools in VAM of steel, a study is conducted by measuring the workpiece temperatures and modeling the cutting energy consumption in both VAM and conventional cutting (CC). Based on the comparison results, it is concluded that the cutting temperature and energy consumption in VAM are not smaller than in CC, and hence the reduced diamond tool wear in VAM should not be caused by the claimed reduced temperature, especially when the material removal rate is very small. Finally, based on the EDS analysis and the comparison of experimental results under different air pressure, two probable reasons are proposed for the significantly reduced diamond tool wear in VAM of steel: (i) increase of gas pressure at the tool–workpiece interface and (ii) generation of an oxide layer on the freshly machined surface.     

基于切削技术的金刚石刀具磨损特征分析

金刚石刀具的磨损情况决定其使用寿命。用金刚石PCD刀具切削6061-T6镁铝合金工件,通过不同切削速度、切削深度、振动频率、刀具后角时的切削力及切削温度变化,研究不同刀具前后角、进给量、切削转速时的工件表面粗糙度及刀具磨损面积。结果表明:金刚石刀具的切削力和切削温度随切削速度、切削深度的增加而增大,随振动频率的增加而减小;刀具后角增大,金刚石刀具的切削力呈先下降而后缓缓上升趋势,但对切削温度的影响很小。当刀具前角为10°,刀具后角为8°,切削速度为0.46?m/s,切削深度为28?μm,进给量为0.10?mm/r,切削转速为4100?r/min,振动频率为22?kHz,切削振幅为9?μm时,金刚石刀具的磨损面积最小,磨损程度最低,使用寿命最长,但工件的表面粗糙度稍高。      

PCBN刀具高速切削淬硬钢材料的研究

以PCBN复合片为刀具材料进行相关力学性能分析,并将其制成SNGN120408型刀具后在刀具机床上进行淬硬钢切削试验.分析结果表明:PCBN复合片的结合剂主要为TiN和TiB2,其内部结构均匀,且有良好的致密性.切削试验表明:在干式切削淬硬钢的试验中,切削进给量以及切削速度对PCBN刀具的磨损有较为明显的影响.相比于切...     

The assessment of cutting tool wear

Flank wear of cutting tools is often selected as the tool life criterion because it determines the diametric accuracy of machining, its stability and reliability. This paper argues that the existing criteria of flank wear are insufficient for its proper characterization. Their existence is due to the lack of knowledge on the contact conditions at the tool flank–workpiece interface. Known attempts to evaluate the physical processes at this interface do not help to resolve this issue. This paper compares different characteristics of the evaluation of flank wear. The contact process at the mentioned interface is analyzed through the experimental assessment of the contact stresses, and the full validity of Makarow’s law is confirmed, i.e. minimum tool wear occurs at the optimum cutting speed. A new concept of tool resources is proposed and discussed. This resource is defined as the limiting amount of energy that can be transmitted through the cutting wedge until it fails.     

Analytical modeling and experimental investigation of tool and workpiece temperatures for interrupted cutting 1045 steel by inverse heat conduction method

Cutting temperature is a key factor which directly affects tool wear, workpiece integrity, and machining precision in high speed machining process. The interrupted cutting process consists of several periodical characteristics, such as cutting force and time varying heat source. Induced cutting temperature models with time varying heat flux are developed in this paper to predict temperature distribution at tool inserts and workpiece during interrupted cutting process. A set of interrupted cutting experimental installation is designed to verify the proposed models. The comparison of predicted and measured results for 1045 steel in interrupted cutting processes shows reasonable agreement. The measured temperature of both the tool inserts and workpiece increase firstly and then decrease as the cutting speed increases. The peak temperature of the workpiece appears at 1500 m/min, while the peak tool inserts temperature appears at 1250 m/min approximately. Heat flux is calculated by the inverse heat conduction method. The applicability of Salomon's hypothesis to the temperature of tool inserts and workpiece is discussed during the interrupted cutting process. The dropped temperature at high cutting speed is mainly caused by that heat flux into tool inserts decreases and heat transfer time is not enough after the critical cutting speed.     

Influence of refrigeration/lubrication condition on SAE 52100 hardened steel turning at several cutting speeds

Nowadays, the use of cutting fluids on machining operations has been questioned, due to problems they may cause to the environment, due to damage to human health and also more due to the severe laws regarding industrial waste that have been passed. Therefore, industries are being forced to review the production processes aiming either, at elimination or, when it is not possible, a sharp reduction in the use of these fluids. The technique of minimum volume of oil (MVO) has been studied in machining processes as one alternative to the use of abundant cutting fluid. Research has shown that this technique, which is the pulverisation of a minimum volume of oil in a flow of compressed air, in several cases, reduces tool wear when compared to complete dry cutting, causing the improvement of the workpiece surface quality and an increase in tool life. In this work, the influence of MVO (oil flow of 10 ml/h) in the wear of a cubic boron nitride (CBN) tool, when turning 52100 hardened steel, was studied. Aiming at a comparison of the results, the experiments were also carried out under two other conditions: dry cutting and cutting with abundant soluble oil (wet cutting). During the experiments, the influence of cutting speed on CBN tool wear for the three refrigeration conditions was also checked. Besides this, tool wear and workpiece surface roughness was also measured as cutting time elapsed.     

Development of ultra-fine-grain binderless cBN tool for precision cutting of ferrous materials

A new cutting tool was developed from ultra-fine-grain (<100 nm), binderless cubic boron nitride (cBN) material fabricated by transforming hexagonal boron nitride to cBN by means of sintering under an ultra-high pressure of 10 GPa at 1800 °C. The cutting edges of the newly developed cBN tool can be made as sharp as those of single-crystal diamond tools. In this experiment, cBN and single-crystal diamond tools of the same shape were compared by precision cutting tests using stainless steel specimens and steel specimens coated with an electroless Ni-P layer. The surface roughness (R_z) of specimen surfaces cut with the cBN tool by means of planing was approximately 100 nm for both the Ni-P-coated steel and stainless steel specimens. Though similar R_z values were obtained for Ni-P layers cut by the cBN and diamond tools, an R_z value exceeding 2000 nm was obtained for stainless steel cut by the diamond tool. High-precision surfaces with R_z values of 50–100 nm were obtained for stainless steel specimens cut with the cBN tool under high-speed milling (942 m/min) conditions. These results indicate that the newly developed cBN tool is useful for the ultra-precision or precision cutting of ferrous materials.     

Analysis of the manufacturing chain of CVD diamond coated shaft type cutting tools

Hypereutectic aluminium silicon alloys, e.g. casted AlSi17Cu4Mg, are commonly used in the automotive and aeronautical industries. These alloys consist of hard, abrasive silicon particles in a soft aluminium matrix and thus place high mechanical loads on the tool during machining processes. Polycrystalline Diamond or CVD (chemical vapour deposition) diamond based cutting tools can be used for the high speed machining of these alloys due to their high hardness and wear resistance. Diamond thin film coatings of different film morphologies are commonly applied on cemented carbide tools using Hot Filament CVD. The distinguishing characteristic to other coatings is utmost hardness resulting in high resistance to abrasion, low tendency to adhesion and low friction coefficient. The manufacturing of CVD diamond coated shaft type cutting tools is challenging due to the complex design of the cutting edges and the demanding stress behaviour during tool application. The influencing parameters of substrate type, chemical and mechanical substrate pre-treatment as well as diamond film modification on the tool cutting performance are discussed. The manufacturing route of CVD diamond coated thread milling drills is analysed with the use of material and tribological tests. The complex thread manufacturing tools are then applied in the machining of AlSi17Cu4Mg, whereby the tool performance is characterised with respect to their wear behaviour, the process forces and temperatures as well as the workpiece quality.     

Oxygen-shielded ultrasonic vibration cutting to suppress the chemical wear of diamond tools

Ultrasonic vibration has been applied to reduce intense chemical tool wear in ultra-precision diamond cutting of steel and other alloys since a few decades ago. But still, its tool wear suppression mechanisms have not been fully understood. In this paper, the effect of oxygen in suppression of diamond tool wear for ultrasonic vibration cutting is investigated. Experimental results show that the wearing rate is reduced by applying oxygen shielding to the cutting zone in comparison with air and argon. Scientific explanations are also provided for the observed phenomenon through low-pressure metal oxidation experiments and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy surface analyses.     

Effects of micro-milling conditions on the cutting forces and process stability

Determining stable cutting conditions for corresponding cutting tools with specific geometries is essential for achieving precision micro-milling with high surface quality. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of the tool rake angle, tool wear and workpiece preheating on the cutting forces and process stability. An advanced micro-milling cutting force model considering the tool wear is proposed. The micro-milling cutting forces are predicted and compared with experimentally obtained results for two cutting conditions and four edge radii measured at different stages of the tool wear. It is found that the cutting forces increase by increasing the edge radius. It is also observed that the cutting forces are higher at a rake angle of 0° compared with a rake angle of 8°. The increase of the cutting forces is mainly associated with the change of the friction conditions between the tool and workpiece contact. Stability lobes are obtained for different edge radii, rake angles of 0° and 8°, initial workpiece temperature and different measured static run-outs. The predicted stability lobes are compared with the micro-milling force signals transformed into the frequency domain. It is observed that the predicted stability limits result in good correlation with the experimentally obtained chatter free conditions. Also, the stability limits are higher at smaller edge radii, higher preheating workpiece temperature and positive rake angles.     

CVD diamond coatings on geometrically complex cutting tools

The manufacturing of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond coated shaft type cutting tools is demanding due to the complex design of the cutting edges and the cobalt content of the cemented carbide. The influencing parameters of substrate, pre-treatment and diamond film on the tool cutting performance are discussed. The optimised manufacturing route of CVD diamond coated thread milling drills is identified with the use of material and tribological tests. Following the optimised production of the tools, the thread milling drills are then applied in the machining of AlSi17Cu4Mg, whereby the tool performance is characterised with respect to their wear behaviour, the process forces and temperatures as well as the workpiece quality.     

Machinability study of tungsten carbide using PCD tools under ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting

Sintered tungsten carbide (WC) is an extremely hard and brittle material extensively used in tool manufacturing industries. However, the current cutting technologies for shaping this typical hard-to-machine material are still cost ineffective. In this study, polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools are used to study the machinability of sintered WC (~15% Co) by applying the ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting (UEVC) technique. Firstly, it presents the UEVC principle and the effects of speed ratio (i.e. the ratio of the nominal cutting speed to the maximum tool vibration speed in the cutting direction) on the tool–workpiece relative motion as the cutting speed greatly influences the UEVC performance. Then UEVC experiments are carried out to analyze the cutting force, tool-wear progression, chip formation and surface quality against the cutting time at different speed ratios. The results show that when the speed ratio decreases, the resultant cutting force and the tool flank wear decrease while the surface finish improves. Average surface roughness, R_a, in a range between 0.030 and 0.050 μm is achieved at speed ratios less than 0.107. The experimental findings suggest that the commercial PCD tools can be used to machine sintered WC to achieve ultraprecision surface by applying the UEVC technique, which will be cost effective for miniature cutting technologies in future.     

Effect of machining parameters in ultrasonic vibration cutting

The ultrasonic vibration cutting (UVC) method is an efficient cutting technique for difficult-to-machine materials. It is found that the UVC mechanism is influenced by three important parameters: tool vibration frequency, tool vibration amplitude and workpiece cutting speed that determine the cutting force. However, the relation between the cutting force and these three parameters in the UVC is not clearly established. This paper presents firstly the mechanism how these parameters effect the UVC. With theoretical studies, it is established that the tool–workpiece contact ratio (TWCR) plays a key role in the UVC process where the increase in both the tool vibration parameters and the decrease in the cutting speed reduce the TWCR, which in turn reduces both cutting force and tool wear, improves surface quality and prolongs tool life. This paper also experimentally investigates the effect of cutting parameters on cutting performances in the cutting of Inconel 718 by applying both the UVC and the conventional turning (CT) methods. It is observed that the UVC method promises better surface finish and improves tool life in hard cutting at low cutting speed as compared to the CT method. The experiments also show that the TWCR, when investigating the effect of cutting speed, has a significant effect on both the cutting force and the tool wear in the UVC method, which substantiates the theoretical findings.     

A worn tool force model for three-dimensional cutting operations

Previous studies have shown that there is a region on the flank of a worn cutting tool where plastic flow of the workpiece material occurs. This paper presents experimental data which shows that in three-dimensional cutting operations in which the nose of the tool is engaged, the region of plastic flow grows linearly with increases in total wearland width. A piecewise linear model is developed for modeling the growth of the plastic flow region, and the model is shown to be independent of cutting conditions. A worn tool force model for three-dimensional cutting operations that uses this concept is presented. The model requires a minimal number of sharp tool tests and only one worn tool test. An integral part of the worn tool force model is a contact model that is used to obtain the magnitude of the stresses on the flank of the tool. The force model is validated through comparison to data obtained from wear tests conducted over a range of cutting conditions and workpiece materials. It is also shown that for a given tool and workpiece material combination, the incremental increases in the cutting forces due to tool flank wear are solely a function of the amount and nature of the wear and are independent of the cutting condition in which the tool wear was produced.     

Using PCD for machining CGI with a CO2 coolant system

Polycrystalline diamond is widely used as a economic cutting material for machining non-ferrous materials such as aluminum. It is perceived that diamond cannot be used for cutting ferrous materials due to the high affinity of carbon to iron. Nevertheless, under certain conditions it is possible to use diamond materials for cutting ferrous metals. In order to avoid graphitization of the diamond matrix, it is necessary to keep the cutting temperature below the critical level of diamond graphitization. This paper presents the influence of a cryogenic CO₂ coolant strategy on the cutting process using PCD tools for cutting high strength compacted graphite iron (CGI). Investigations show, that tool wear behavior strongly correlates with the cutting speed, the cutting forces, cutting temperatures, and surface roughness of the workpiece. The test results show, that the tool life of PCD for cutting cast iron is dependent on the diamond grain size, the binder material, and the cutting parameters.     

Experimental and numerical modelling of the residual stresses induced in orthogonal cutting of AISI 316L steel

Residual stresses in the machined surface layers are affected by the cutting tool, work material, cutting regime parameters (cutting speed, feed and depth of cut) and contact conditions at the tool/chip and tool/workpiece interfaces. In this paper, the effects of tool geometry, tool coating and cutting regime parameters on residual stress distribution in the machined surface and subsurface of AISI 316L steel are experimentally and numerically investigated. In the former case, the X-ray diffraction technique is applied, while in the latter an elastic–viscoplastic FEM formulation is implemented. The results show that residual stresses increase with most of the cutting parameters, including cutting speed, uncut chip thickness and tool cutting edge radius. However, from the range of cutting parameters investigated, uncut chip thickness seems to be the parameter that has the strongest influence on residual stresses. The results also show that sequential cuts tend to increase superficial residual stresses.     

Toward a new tribological approach to predict cutting tool wear

This work aims at improving the numerical modelling of cutting tool wear in turning. The key improvement consists in identifying a fundamental wear model by means of a dedicated tribometer, able to simulate relevant tribological conditions encountered along the tool–workmaterial interface. Thanks to a design of experiments, the evolution of wear versus time can be assessed for various couples of contact pressure and sliding velocities (σ_n, V_s) leading to the identification of a new wear model. The latter is implemented in a numerical cutting model to locally simulate tool wear along the contact with regard to each local tribological loading.     

CVD金刚石涂层刀具切削性能与磨损机理研究

针对普通刀具切削质量差、刀具耐用度低等问题,对CVD涂层刀具制备方法及切削性能进行研究。首先以硬质合金刀具为基体通过CVD方法制备金刚石涂层,分析涂层表面形貌。然后在不同条件下进行铝合金材料的干式切削试验,分析金刚石涂层对切削力、切削温度以及工件表面粗糙度的影响规律。最后,通过对刀具磨损机理的分析,讨论涂层对刀具使用寿命的影响。研究结果表明,所制备的涂层刀具能够降低切削力和切削温度,大大提高刀具的切削性能和工件的表面质量,并能有效提高刀具使用寿命。     

Experimental and numerical investigations of single abrasive-grain cutting

The present work will provide an in-depth analysis of the abrasive-grain cutting process using a combination of experimental observations and finite element simulations. The workpiece material was AISI 4340. The cutting tool was spherical in shape with a 0.508 mm radius and was fabricated from diamond. The experiments were conducted at cutting speeds of 5−30 m/s in 5 m/s increments and depths of cut from 0.3 to 7.5 μm. The analysis provided a comprehensive understanding of the abrasive-grain cutting process related to the friction between the cutting tool and the workpiece, the material mechanics of the workpiece, and the cutting mechanics of the operation. It was found that the normal forces increased as cutting speed increased due to strain-rate hardening of the workpiece and that the tangential forces decreased as cutting speed was increased due to a reduction in tool-workpiece friction and due to a change in cutting mechanics. The scratch profiles showed that the cutting mechanics changed as cutting speed was increased due to a reduction in material pile-up height. The approximate uncut chip thicknesses for the transitions from elastic, elastoplastic, and fully plastic cutting were identified and were found to increase as cutting speed was increased.     

PCBN刀具高速切削淬硬轴承钢的磨损机理研究

采用美国D.I.公司生产的BZN9000作为刀具材料制成PCBN刀具,在沈阳机床厂生产的CA6140A车床上对GCr15淬硬轴承钢进行高速切削试验。对切削试验后刀具的前、后刀面进行SEM形貌观察和EDS能谱分析,结果表明:PCBN刀具在高速切削过程中,机械磨损、黏着扩散磨损和化学磨损是刀具磨损的主要形式;前刀面磨损主要为月牙洼磨损,切削刃处、月牙洼后、前刀面处的黏着元素扩散比月牙洼底部还要严重;对后刀面的WDS线能谱分析证实,切削刃处的黏着元素扩散比后刀面要严重。