Experimental Investigations on the Machinability of Tungsten Carbides in Orthogonal Cutting with Diamond-coated Tools

A trend in the tool and die making industry is seen towards using highly wear-resistant and extremely hard dies for stamping and forming operations, which are made of tungsten carbides. The limiting factor to manufacture such dies is the poor machinability of these materials. In this paper orthogonal cutting tests on different tungsten carbides with diamond-coated tungsten carbides tools were carried out. It was observed that ductile cutting of tungsten carbides is possible. The influence of different tungsten carbide grades on specific cutting forces with variable process parameters was evaluated in this paper.