Effect of volcano-like textured coated tools on machining of Ti6Al4V: an experimental and simulative investigation

The present study was to reduce the adhesion and wear that happened on the rake face during machining of Ti6Al4V alloys by employing volcano-like textured coated tools. A combination of experimental and simulative investigation was adopted. DEFORM-3D software with updated Lagrangian formulation was used for numerical simulation, and the thermo-mechanical analysis was performed using Johnson–Cook material model to predict the cutting forces, cutting temperature, chip morphology, and tool wear. In cutting experiments, volcano-like textures with different area densities (10%, 20%, 30%) were fabricated by fiber laser on the rake face of cemented carbide tools close to the main cutting edge. Then, these textured tools were deposited with CrAlN coating through cathodic vacuum arc ion plating technique. Experiments in cutting Ti6Al4V alloys were carried out with the textured coated tools and non-textured coated tool under dry and wet cutting conditions. Then, cutting forces, chip morphology, and tool wear were investigated. The results showed that textured coated tools were superior to the conventional tool. Especially in wet cutting, the main cutting force and radial force of the coated tool with texture area density of 20% (VCT2) were reduced by 11.6% and 21.25%, respectively. Surface morphology of VCT2 tool had lower workpiece adhesion on the rake face. Therefore, VCT2 tool showed a better cutting performance. Finally, the mechanisms of textured coated tools under wet cutting conditions were proposed.