Study of wettability test of pure aluminum against uncoated and coated carbide inserts

The wide application of aluminum in different industries has increased the need for finding the suitable cutting tool. In contrast to ferrous materials, the dry machining of aluminum is a great challenge. Wetting test is widely used to find out the chemical affinity of aluminum with different tool materials before proceeding for actual machining. Wettability tests were carried out in a high vacuum brazing chamber to find out the spreadability of aluminum on cutting tools. Mono or multilayer coated carbide tools with a top coating of TiC, TiN, Al2O3, TiB2, MoS2 and diamond on cemented carbide (WC–Co) cutting tool inserts were used in the experiment. The results revealed that diamond/graphite is the most inert for aluminum.