Crater wear prediction in turning Ti6Al4V considering cutting temperature effect

Abstract

Tool wear has great impacts on tool life and cutting parameter selection in the machining process. As ceramic inserts are widely employed in efficient machining, it is of great significance to predict accurately the wear of ceramic tools. Crater wear is one of the most significant tool wear modes when turning difficult-to-cut materials at high speeds. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the forming and influence mechanisms of crater wear in Ti6Al4V turning with ceramic inserts while considering cutting temperature at the tool-chip interface. An effort is made to describe quantitatively the appearance of crater wear from the perspective of temperature distribution based on crater wear experiments under various cutting conditions. In order to obtain the cutting temperature distribution efficiently, an analytical temperature prediction model is used in this paper. Then, a prediction model for crater wear depth and width considering the influence of the maximum temperature is developed. The maximum crater wear depth and width models are validated by a series of cutting experiments, and the outcomes prove that the proposed models are practical. Additionally, the influence of various cutting parameters on crater wear is discussed. The cutting speed has the greatest impact on crater wear, followed by the feed rate. Furthermore, this research can be used to improve cutting parameters for controlling crater wear.