Improving Cutting Tool Life a Review

The cutting tool is an important basic tool required in the machining process of a part in production. It not only performs the cutting action but helps in getting required surface finish and accuracy of the part. In order to perform these tasks the tool has to be strong enough to withstand wear resistance and serve for long period of time to produce more number of components with the same accuracy. Machining is important in metal manufacturing process to achieve near-net shape, good dimensional accuracy and for aesthetic requirements. In modern machining process and using the CNC machine tools the cutting tool will play a vital role in machining process and in improving the surface finish. Many reputed cutting tool manufacturing organizations globally with their rich experience of research and development, invented different ways of enhancing the life of cutting tool in order to optimise the rate of the production and to reduce the cost of production, which is highly acceptable to the manufacturing Industry. This paper deals with the ways of improving the tool life by various coatings on tungsten based cemented carbide cutting tool. The coatings like TiN, Al2o3, TiN/Al2 O3, and TiC/ Al2 O3/ TiN respectively are extensively in use. In this review, the machining performance of coated tungsten based cemented carbides, with 55 0 diamond shape, were investigated during finish turning of AISI 1018 steel under dry conditions. The coatings are of TiN, Al2 O3, TiN/ Al2 O3 and TiC/ Al2 O3/TiN respectively. For comparison, uncoated cemented tungsten carbides are also tested under the same cutting conditions. The coated tools exhibited superior wear resistance over the uncoated tool. The TiC/ Al2 O3/TiN coated tool had the lowest flank wear .The Al2 O3, coated tool showed superior wear-resistance over the TiN/ Al2 O3 coated tool. The TiN coated tool showed the least wear resistance with respect to the other coated tools. Surface roughness appeared to increase with flank wear while oscillating for all the tested tools except for TiN coated tool. The coated tools produced lower surface roughness compared to the uncoated tool. The TiC/ Al2 O3/ TiN coated tool produced the lowest surface roughness of all the tools tested.