Edge passivation and quality of carbide cutting inserts treated by wet micro-abrasive blasting

Micro-abrasive blasting was urged by compressed air to form the high-speed sprayed water beam and passivate the cutting edge of inserts. The cutting edge shape had been changed without any damages due to the micro-impacting action of the high speed abrasive, which improved the quality of the cutting edge. The generative mechanism of cutting edges during the micro-abrasive blasting was discussed, and then, the edge quality was evaluated. The orthogonal experiment was designed to optimize the micro-abrasive blasting parameters range, and the effects of micro-abrasive blasting parameters on the passivated edge quality were further investigated by full factors experiment. The edge passivation results indicated that the micro-abrasive blasting processing technology mainly relied on the micro-cutting action of abrasives which crashed the insert in the mixture to generate the rounded cutting edge. Moreover, the micro-abrasive blasting process could remove an amount of edge defects of inserts, such as cavities and cracks. After micro-abrasive blasting, the cutting experiment was used to assess the cutting performance of the passivated insert. And machining results showed that the insert treated by micro-abrasive blasting had a higher cutting life and stabler cutting force, which could improve the cutting performance of insert.