Tool Wear in Intermittent Cutting of AISI 304 Stainless Steel by Thermally-Sprayed Coatings

Abstract

The use of thermal spray coatings is increasing to improve abrasion resistance, erosion and corrosion resistance. To improve the dimensional accuracy or surface roughness, it is often necessary for thermally-sprayed machine parts to be machined by the removal process. As thermally-sprayed coatings often show difficult-to-cut properties, a cutting, grinding, or honing process is usually employed. Replacement of the grinding process with a cutting process is an effective method for improving productivity. Cutting is performed intermittently because there is a hole in the ball part. However, there are no studies on intermittent cutting of thermally-sprayed coatings. In this study, in order to obtain an effective tool material for intermittent cutting of two types of the thermally-sprayed coating AISI 304, the tool wear was investigated experimentally. The results are as follows: (1) In the case of intermittent cutting of Ni-based self-fluxing alloy coating AISI 304, Si3N4 ceramics were considered an effective tool material. (2) In the case of intermittent cutting of thermally-sprayed (WC-Cr-Ni) cermet coating AISI 304, the uncoated cBN having the large grain size of cBN and a high content rate was effective for wear resistance.