Title: Tool life enhancement through nano-composite coating on the residual stress controlled cutting faces

Authors: K. Ramesh, Roger Heng, Jonathan Ho, Adrian Kang

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. ' Alignment Tool(S) Pte Ltd., Singapore. ' Alignment Tool(S) Pte Ltd., Singapore. ' Alignment Tool(S) Pte Ltd., Singapore

Abstract: The high performance machining of steel has reached 150-1500 cm³/min of material removal rate at cutting speeds up to 8000 m/min and experiences: chipping, abrasion wear, adhesion and diffusion wear to last for 150-300 m of tool life. On the industrial front the tool life was counted on parameters: surface finish, burr, dimensional tolerance and work hardening. This situation further reduces the tool life to hover around 50-100 m of cutting distance for steel. Therefore a new multiple layer hard coating was developed to achieve: high adhesion strength, high thermal stability, high hardness, low friction coefficient and good compatibility. Field machining tests results suggest that the tool life was extended by 5-10 times than the conventional carbide tools.

Keywords: tool life; nanocomposites; composite coating; material removal rate; MRR; cutting speed; chipping; abrasion wear; adhesion; diffusion wear; surface finish; burrs; dimensional tolerances; work hardening; steel.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2010.034292

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.21 No.1/2, pp.135 - 147

Published online: 31 Jul 2010 *

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