Wear mechanism and life prediction of TiN coated tool in high speed milling of ceramic-PTFE composite

With TiN coated solid carbide, a series of machining experiments were performed to define wear blunt criterion, and the recommended wear blunt criterion is 40 mm. Using orthogonal experiment method, multifactor and multilevel cutting experiments were designed. Based on the measuring results, forms of tool wear are discussed according to grain abrasion, diffusion abrasion, bonding abrasion, and crack and breakage. Tool wear mechanism was analysed in detail by micropattern scan and chemical element analysis. For dependent variable wear extent (VB), regression analysis was performed with independent variables such as cutting speed v, feed rate f, axial depth of cut a(p), radial depth of cut a(e) and cutting length L. Based on the calculated result of VB, a method was proposed to predict tool life. Research results will provide a useful way of processing optimisation and quality improvement for high speed machining of ceramic-polytetrafluoroethylene composites.