The effect of micro-texture on wear resistance of WC/Co-based tools during cutting Ti-6Al-4V

Abstract

Titanium alloy as an important material used in the aerospace industry and automotive field has many advantages such as excellent specific strength, good corrosion resistance, and ultra-low temperature performance. However, there are still some difficulties during the cutting of Ti-6Al-4V, such as severe tool wear which reduces the surface quality of work piece. Textures could protect the tool from further wear and improve the tool life, and cutting productivity. In this work, femtosecond laser was used to make textures with different orientations (vertical, parallel, and vertical to the main cutting edge) on the rake face of carbide-tipped cutting tool to research the influence of different textures directions on the cutting performance. The results found that using parallel textured tools could reduce the friction coefficient by 14%. Compared with untextured tools, the rake face wear of parallel textures tools is reduced by 35–70% and surface roughness improved by 29%, which is owned to smallest the tool-chip contact area of tool with parallel microstructure.