The effects of work material on tool wear

Wear maps showing the wear behaviour of titanium carbide (TiC)-coated cemented carbide tools during dry turning of various types of steel have been presented in earlier studies. The maps have demonstrated that tool wear rates vary with cutting speeds and feed rates used. They have also shown that there is a range of cutting conditions, called the safety zone, within which tool wear rates are the lowest. This paper further examines, using the wear mapping methodology, the effects of different grades of steel workpieces on the wear of TiC-coated carbide tools. Wear maps constructed for the machining of AISI 1045 and 4340 steels show that flank wear is generally more severe when machining the AISI 4340 grade, especially at high cutting speeds and feed rates. Nevertheless, the contour and location of the safety zone on the wear maps for both grades of steels correspond to that revealed in previous work on general steel grades.