Chip formation and tribological behavior in high-speed milling of IN718 with ceramic tools

Abstract

Advanced ceramics exhibit excellent mechanical properties at elevated temperatures suggesting them as plausible cutting tool materials for machining of heat-resistant superalloys. However, despite numerous efforts to date, relative brittleness of ceramic tools can result in chipping or catastrophic failure, especially during an intermittent process where excessive thermo-mechanical alteration occurs, like high-speed face milling. Previous studies by the authors revealed that in high-speed milling of inconel with SiAlON tools, after surpassing a certain cutting speed where extreme levels of strain rates and temperatures exist, the IN718 machinability transforms drastically, showing a significant reduction in cutting force, chipping and tool wear. Following this observation, in the current paper, an attempt has been made to further investigate the phenomena acting at the shear deformation zones through analysis of chip formation mechanisms and tool-workpiece tribosystem. Numerous characterization techniques have been used in this research, such as cutting force measurements, chip cross-section studies, SEM/EDS, TEM, and nanoindentation. Results suggest that a reduction in material flow strength occurs at the extreme conditions of the cut, showing similarities to fluid flow in TEM images of the tool face. Increasing the cutting speed generally facilitates chip formation; However, a rise in cutting force by further increasing the speed, and excessive generation of unstable built-up layers practically limits the cutting speed. Additional XPS studies show that variation in cutting speed also changes the frictional response of the tool-workpiece tribosystem by forming lubricious and thermal-barrier tribofilms.