Experimental Investigation of Concave and Convex Micro-Textures for Improving Anti-Adhesion Property of Cutting Tool in Dry Finish Cutting

Tool-chip adhesion impacts on cutting performance significantly, especially in finish cutting process. To promote cutting tools’ anti-adhesion property, the concave micro-grooves texture (MGT) and convex volcano-like texture (VLT) were fabricated separately on lathe tools’ rake faces by laser surface texturing (LST). Various orientations of MGT and different area densities (9% and 48%) and regions (partial and full) of VLT were considered in textured patterns designing. The following orthogonal cutting experiments, machining of aluminum alloy 5038, analyzed tools’ performances including cutting force, cutting stability, chip shape, rake face adhesion and abrasion. It indicated that under dry finish cutting conditions, MGT contributed to cutting stability and low cutting forces, meanwhile friction and normal force reduced by around 15% and 10%, respectively with a weak correlation to the grooves’ orientation. High density VLT tools, on the other hand, presented an obvious anti-adhesion property. A 5 μm reduction of crater wear’s depth can be observed on textured rake faces after long length cutting and textured rake faces presented half size of BUE regions comparing to the flat tool, however, once the texture morphologies were filled or worn, the anti-adhesion effect could be invalid. The bearing ratio curve was employed to analysis tool-chip contact and durability of textured surfaces contributing to a better understanding of anti-adhesion and enhanced durability of the textured tools.