Influence of the cutting material on tool wear, surface roughness, and force components for different cutting speeds in face turning of CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) provide advanced properties like a high resistance to corrosion and wear. Concerning this and the elevated material costs wear protection layers are a possible field of application. Finish machining of these layers is necessary to achieve adequate surface properties. In the experimental investigations face turning of high-entropy alloy CoCrFeNi layers generated by spark plasma sintering is regarded. In this context, the influence of the cutting material and the cutting speed is analysed. For this, CBN tipped (two types), PCD tipped, CVD diamond tipped, and solid cemented carbide indexable inserts are used. Additionally, the influence of four different cutting speeds in the range between 100 m/min and 400 m/min is analysed. The feed and the depth of cut are kept constant with 0.05 mm and 0.1 mm, respectively. The geometrical surface properties are determined by tactile measurements and 3D laser scanning microscopy. The tool wear is analysed microscopically. Regarding the surface roughness, CBN tipped tools with a high content of boron nitride lead to the best results with the lowest roughness values irrespective of the cutting speed. The tool wear is also significantly reduced compared to the other cutting materials tested. The investigations represent the first results analysing the influence of the cutting material in machining of high-entropy alloys. Hence, this contributes to the enhancement of the field of application of HEAs.

Automated summary

The study analyzes the influence of different cutting materials on high-entropy alloys, finding that CBN tools with a high content of boron nitride achieve the best surface roughness and reduced tool wear at various cutting speeds. This contributes to expanding the application field of high-entropy alloys.