Multiscale analysis on the wear process of cemented carbide tools during titanium alloy machining

Cemented carbide tools are widely utilised in titanium alloy machining. However, the severe tool wear usually occurs in the machining, thus the wear process attracts wide attentions. Electromagnetic treatment was applied in our previous study to significantly improve the tool life of cemented carbide tools in Ti6Al4V machining. To investigate the effect of the electromagnetic treatment on wear performance, a multi-scaled analysis of the wear process of cemented carbide tools in turning process, including the microdefects and wear topography at various scales, was conducted in the present study. The distribution of dislocations in the tool material was measured through electron backscatter diffraction, and the surface topographies in the wear area during the Ti6Al4V cutting process were recorded with white light interferometry. A fractal analysis based on the scaling property of surface roughness was carried out to further quantify the wear performance of the tools. The results revealed that the wear mechanism of cutting tools was mainly adhesion and diffusion, and the diffusion wear of electromagnetically treated tools was lesser than that of untreated ones. Based on the multiscale analysis of flank wear, the effect of electromagnetic treatment on the enhancement of the wear resistance of cemented carbide cutting tools was demonstrated. The multi-scaled analysis on wear performance of cutting tools in this study effectively revealed the mechanism of electromagnetic treatment to enhance wear resistance, thus contributing to fill the research gap of traditional studies on tool wear that generally employed single scales.