Documentation of tool wear progress in the machining of nodular ductile iron with silicon nitride-based ceramic tools

Nowadays, the HPM of cast irons is based on silicon nitride ceramic and CBN cutting tools. This paper characterizes and correlates several outputs of the cutting process of nodular cast iron using uncoated and Al2O3/TiN coated Si3N4 ceramic tools resulting from wear progress and destruction of tool faces. Investigations include tool wear curves, tribological behaviour of the tool-chip interface and tool wear mechanisms occurring on contact surfaces. The image-based characterization of worn surfaces employs such techniques as SEM,-BSE and EDX analysis. The occurrence of various wear mechanisms, such as abrasive, adhesive and chemical wear was revealed. (C) 2011 CIRP.