Wear characteristics of cemented carbide tool in dry-machining Ti-6Al-4V

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn machining titanium alloys, due to the low thermal conductivity and high chemical activity of titanium alloys, tool wear is serious and processing efficiency is very low. To avoid the effects of impurities, which were brought by the cutting fluid, the uncoated cemented carbide tool (WC-Co), which was suitable for cutting titanium alloys, was used for the experiments of dry-turning titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) was used to analyze tool wear mechanism. Based on analyzing the friction characteristic of tool–chip interface, tool wear mechanism was also studied and a physical evolution model of tool wear was established. The results showed that there existed serious adhesion, diffusion and oxidation at tool–chip interface and increasing cutting speed accelerated their occurrence. The physical evolution of tool wear behavior can reflect the loss process of tool material very well.