Investigation of the Cutting Performance of Cutting Tools Coated With the Thermo-Reactive Diffusion (TRD) Technique

Senol Erturk,Oguz Kayabasi

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2931976

Abstract

The life of cutting tools used in metal cutting operations is limited due to wear. Therefore, increasing wear resistance is of great importance for minimizing economic losses. By using different coating techniques, tools may be coated with harder compounds for enhancing wear resistance. Tool hardness and toughness are also increased through coating. In this study, boron and titanium coatings were applied on round cutting tool surfaces made of AISI D2 and AISI M2 steels by the thermo-reactive diffusion technique. AISI D2 cutting tool surface was coated with boron at 950 °C for 1 hour, and AISI M2 cutting tool surface was coated with boron at 1000 °C for 1 hour. After boron coating, the surfaces of the samples were coated with titanium at 1050 °C for 1 hour. The coated samples were characterized by using SEM, X-ray diffraction, EDS analysis, and micro hardness tests. Machining tests were performed to observe the wear resistance of the samples and the roughness of the machined surface. Machining tests were carried out on DIN 1651 free-cutting steel. Cylindrical turning tests were run at three different cutting speeds, 38, 73, and 138 m/min. and at three different feeding values, 0.08, 0.12, and 0.16 mm/rev. The results showed that the boron- and titanium-coated tools performed 50% better than the just boron-coated tools. In terms of surface roughness, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the coated and uncoated tools. The cutting performance values of our coating method were compared to those of ISCAR brand RCMT (code of the insert used in turning and milling operations in the ISO norm) inserts coated with the PVD and CVD methods, and it was seen in the experimental results that the tool coated with the TRD method performed better.

Highlights

Surface roughness is quite important in terms of strength and providing the optimum operational conditions of machine parts
After cutting the cutting tool samples that were exposed to thermo-reactive diffusion process (TRD) boron and titanium coating for bakalite, a sanding process was performed with 400–600–800–1000–1200 mesh sandpapers
In this study, boron coating and boron + titanium coating processes were carried out by the thermo-reactive diffusion method on cutting tools made from AISI D2 and AISI M2 steel

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Surface roughness is quite important in terms of strength and providing the optimum operational conditions of machine parts. R. Suresh et al evaluated the performance of TiC/TiCN/Al2O3 coatings on a cemented carbide substrate by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for metal cutting of hardened AISI 4340 steel. The TRD method is a relatively simple and economical coating method which allows obtaining coatings with high corrosion resistance on steels [17], [18] With this method, the surface of the cutting tool may be coated with boron and titanium to increase the life of the cutting tool. In order to investigate the performance of the most feasible base and coating materials which were determined by the experiments carried out by using two base and two coating materials, the wearing behavior of ISCAR brand RCMT type PVD and CVD coated cutting tools and the results of our study were examined. Tool wear and surface roughness measurements were performed during the cutting tests

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

HEAT TREATMENT

MICROSTRUCTURE INVESTIGATIONS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS