Development of tungsten carbide based self lubricant cutting tool material: Preliminary investigation

In the recent years, manufacturing industries show utmost attention toward clean technology. In the present work, self lubricated cutting tool material is developed for cutting fluid less machining. Tungsten carbide is considered as a basic cutting tool material, and cobalt and calcium fluoride are considered as a binder and solid lubricant respectively. In this work, the effect of milling time and the amount of solid lubricant on the material development is investigated. Particle size reduced with the increase in milling time up to 40 h and increased afterwards due to the agglomeration. Milled powders were compacted at various pressures and subsequently sintering was carried out. Effects of milling hours and compaction pressure on density and hardness were examined with the aid of a scanning electron microscope, a laser particle size analyzer, an X-ray diffraction analysis and the Rockwell hardness test. Various amounts of calcium fluoride were considered and the transverse rupture strength of sintered material was evaluated. Among the considered materials, 5 wt.% of calcium fluoride material exhibited superior strength over other investigated materials.