Investigation of wear and tool life of coated carbide and cubic boron nitride cutting tools in high speed milling

Abstract

The objective of the investigation was analysis of the wear of milling cutters made of sintered carbide and of boron nitride. The article presents the life period of the cutting edges and describes industrial conditions of the applicability of tools made of the materials under investigation. Tests have been performed on modern toroidal and ball-end mill cutters. The study has been performed within a production facility in the technology of high speed machining of 55NiCrMoV6 and X153CrMoV12 hardened steel. The analysed cutting speed is a parameter which significantly influences the intensity of heat generated in the cutting zone. Due to the wear characteristics, two areas of applicability of the analysed tools have been distinguished. For vc ≤ 300 m/min, sintered carbide edges are recommended; for vc > 500 m/min, boron nitride edges. For 300 ≤  vc ≤ 500 m/min, a transition area has been observed. It has been proved that the application of sintered carbide edges is not economically justified above certain cutting speed.