Tailored Laser Structuring of Tungsten Carbide Cutting Tools for Improving Their Tribological Performance in Turning Aluminum Alloy Al6061 T6

Abstract

In times of societal development, sustainability has become a major concern for many manufacturers in the metal industries. In this context, surface texturing of cutting tools offers a promising approach in terms of reducing energy consumption and material waste. In this work, direct laser interference patterning is utilized for producing periodic line-like structures with spatial periods of 2.0 µm and 5.5 µm on rake-flank faces of cemented tungsten carbide cutting inserts. Structure depths up to 1.75 µm are reached by controlling the applied number of laser pulses. Turning experiments under lubricated conditions carried out on Al 6061 T6 parts with textured and untreated tools are performed to determine their tribological performances. The used textured cutting tools can effectively decrease machining forces up to 17% due to the corresponding improvement in frictional behavior at the tool/chip interface. Furthermore, the laser-processed tools produce thinner chips and decrease the surface roughness by 31% of the aluminum work piece.

Direct laser interference patterning of cemented cutting tools

“…It was reported that the energy concentration increases proportionally with the grain size, as the coarse WC grains act as barrier for the energy dissipation due to their high thermal conductivity 24 . According to this, eruptions of the overheated material occurred, resulting in several structure damages for the smallest spatial period 22 .…”

“…Moreover, the reduction in feed force Ff by 28 % compared to the other forces. As a result, the configuration 1 exhibited the best frictional behavior due to the correlation between feed forces and frictional forces for a zero-rake angle 22 . Furthermore, the obtained average oil contact angles for both investigated cutting fluids (CIMSTAR, BIOWAS) are shown in Figure 5.…”

“…Figure 2. SEM images of DLIP textured cutting insert using a spatial period Λ of 5.5 µm and a number of applied pulses NP of 60; inserts images shows magnification with low-and high spatial frequency LIPSS 22 .…”

“…The fabrications of these structures were carried out with identical processing parameters on the rake and flank face of the cutting tool. Moreover, the orientation of the interference lines was parallel to the cutting edge 22 .…”

“…Figure 3. Confocal analysis of the laser textured rake face area using 40 pulses and a laser fluence of 1.17 J/cm² (a) and 60 pulses and a laser fluence of 1.17 J/cm² (b) 22 .…”