Analysis of dimple textured surfaces on cutting tools

This paper presents the exploratory study of dimple-structured surfaces on cutting tools to reduce the friction between chip and the tool rake face. The objective is to study the effects of dimple-structured surfaces to the interactions between the chip and structured tool. Carbide inserts rake face which was structured with hemi-spherical micro-dimples with two different patterns using ultra-short pulse laser. Machining experiments were performed using three different materials: medium carbon grade steel ANSI 1045, cast iron ANSI GGG40, and aluminum alloy ANSI 2024-T6. The experiments were performed, under different cutting speeds and feed rates, at a constant cutting depth, and using 10% cutting fluid emulsion. Reference experiments were conducted with non-structured tool, and the results were compared. The results show that the interactions between the chip and structured rake face depend on the chip formation. Continuous chips with high contact length can produce enough lift hydrodynamic force to induce a cutting force reduction. No significance reduction on the cutting forces was observed for lamellar-segmented and discontinuous chips. The cutting parameters and the concentration of dimples are also importance design factor to be considered.