Analysis and Monitoring the Initial Tool Damage and Coating Failure when Hard Milling Vanadis 4E with TiAlN Coated PcBN

Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PcBN) is renowned for its exceptional hardness and thermal stability, making it ideal for extreme machining conditions. Coatings on PcBN tools further enhance performance by extending tool life and improving cutting efficiency. While uncoated PcBN tools already excel in harsh environments, coatings primarily boost durability. Although extensively studied in turning applications, PcBN’s potential in milling remains underexplored. This preliminary study evaluates the performance of coated and uncoated PcBN tools in milling, addressing the limited research in this area. It focuses on detecting coating failures and monitoring tool wear in real-time. The approach successfully identifies anomalies and micro-scale tool damage, such as coating delamination and edge chipping, before significant wear like fank land or crater formation occurs. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) underpins this method, offering simplicity, fast training, and low computational requirements through efficient numerical algorithms.