Wear and tool life of tungsten carbide, PCBN and PCD cutting tools

The wear mechanisms of cutting tools made of tungsten-carbide (WC), PCBN and PCD were investigated using the tool life and temperature results available in the literature. For tool/work combinations WC/steel and PCBN/hardened-steel, under practical conditions, tool wear was found to be greatly influenced by the temperature. It was concluded that the most likely dominant tool wear mechanism for WC is diffusion and that for PCBN is chemical wear. For PCD, more experimental results and hence further research is required to determine the dominant wear mechanism.