Evaluation of the performance of coated carbide tools in face milling TC6 alloy under dry condition

Titanium and its alloys are well known as the typical different-to-cut materials because of their low thermal conductivity, high chemical reactivity, and low modulus of elasticity. During machining of titanium alloy, advanced high-speed, high-efficiency processing technologies are adopted to improve the production efficiency and reduce the production costs. The main goal of this work is to compare the performance of physical vapor deposition (PVD)-coated (TiN/TiAlN) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-coated (TiN/Al2O3/TiCN) carbide inserts in face milling TC6 alloy. To this end, the present paper reviewed the main works on the application of PVD- and CVD-coated tools in machining titanium alloys and the material performance of TC6 alloy, especially the machinability in machining process. Several tool life tests and tool wear experiments were carried out on a milling center with a five-axis spindle drive. Cutting forces were measured with a Kistler dynamometer. The failure modes and chip morphology were observed. Surface roughness and tool wear evolution were determined. The wear mechanism was discussed to compare the performance of PVD and CVD-coated tools. The main conclusions of this work were that the cutting tools made with PVD coating (TiN/TiAlN) had the excellent tooling quality and the main wear mechanisms were spalling and adhesion. PVD-TiN/TiAlN insert was more suitable to milling TC6 alloy than CVD-TiN/Al2O3/TiCN insert.