Cutting Performance and Failure Mechanisms of Coated Carbide Tools in Face Milling Powder Metallurgy Nickel-Based Superalloy

Abstract

Powder metallurgy (PM) nickel-based superalloy is regarded as one of the most important aerospace industry materials, which has been widely used in advanced turbo-engines. This work presents an orthogonal design experiments to study the cutting force and cutting temperature variations in the face milling of PM nickel-based superalloy with PVD coated carbide tools. Experimental results show that with the increase of feed rate and depth of cut, there is a growing tendency in cutting force, with the increase of cutting speed, cutting force decreases. Among the cutting parameters, feed rate has the greatest influence on cutting force, especially when cutting speed exceeds 60m/min. With the increase of all the cutting parameters, cutting temperature increases. However the cutting temperature increases slightly as the increasing of feed rate. Tool failure mechanisms in face milling of PM nickel-based superalloy are analyzed. It is shown that the breakage and spalling on the cutting edge are the most dominate failure mechanisms, which dominates the deterioration and final failure of the coated carbide tools.