Toughening Mechanisms and Wear Behavior of a TiC Whisker Toughening Alumina Ceramic Cutting Tool Composite

Abstract

Toughening mechanisms and flank wear behavior of a TiC whisker toughening Al2O3-based ceramic cutting tool composite were investigated. The results showed that the wear behavior of the tool composite was greatly influenced by the whisker toughening mechanisms, of which the toughening effects on the composite can increase with increasing cutting temperature. As a result, the tool composite could still possess enough high fracture toughness and flexure strength at high cutting temperature, which resulted in an interesting phenomenon that the wear resistance of the tool composite at higher cutting speed was higher than that of itself at lower cutting speed.