Cutting mechanism and performance of high-speed machining of a titanium alloy using a super-hard textured tool

The study investigates the anti-friction and anti-adhesion effects of micro-textured super-hard polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools in high-speed machining of a titanium alloy, Ti6Al4V. The experimental results indicate that the friction coefficient can be dramatically reduced by increasing the cutting speed. PCD tools with micro-grooves resulted in less friction during cutting in the absence of lubrication than both un-textured and textured tools with various lubrication condition. It was found that the adhesion area on the rake face of the PCD tool during high-speed cutting can be dramatically reduced by adding micro-grooves near the main cutting edge. It was shown that the maximum width of chip adhesion was reduced by 23.6% on the micro-grooved tool compared to that on the un-textured tool. Furthermore, the results confirmed that TiC can be formed on the surfaces of PCD tools as a bonding layer, which is of significance to revealing anti-friction performance of tool-chip interface. Together, these results show that the directional distribution of the micro-grooves on the tool, the actual tool-chip contact area, the effect of micro-grooves on trapping tiny debris and the TiC bonding layer play important roles in improving tool performance.