Experimental observations on flank wear in machining spherodized plain carbon steels

As a part of a comprehensive study on predicting tool wear, the authors' preliminary findings on flank wear are presented in this paper. To understand flank wear, commercially available plain carbon steels including AISI 1018, 1045, 1065 and 1095 were spherodized and turned using C6 grade carbide inserts coated with a single layer of TiN, Al2O3 or TiCN at various cutting speeds. The wear behavior of these inserts is studied in terms of the cementite content and the physical properties of coating materials at their respective cutting temperatures. An infrared pyrometer with fiber-optic cable was used to measure the temperature at a fixed point on the rake face of the inserts. An inverse estimation scheme using the 1-D ellipsoidal model of Yen and Wright (1) was employed to obtain the mean temperature of the tool-chip interface. The scheme suggested by Oxley (2) was then used to estimate the flank face temperature. The experimental results indicated that flank wear per sliding distance increases with cement...