Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

DOI 10.1007/s00170-014-5611-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Cutting performance of coated carbide tools in high-speed face

milling of AISI H13 hardened steel
Xiaobin Cui & Jun Zhao

Received: 3 September 2013 / Accepted: 7 January 2014 / Published online: 24 January 2014
# Springer-Verlag London 2014

Abstract In the present study, high-speed face milling of Keywords Cutting performance . Coated carbide tools .
AISI H13 hardened steel was conducted to investigate the High-speed face milling . Hardened steel
cutting performance of coated carbide tools. The characteris-
tics of chip morphology, tool life, tool wear mechanisms, and
surface roughness were analyzed and compared for different 1 Introduction
cutting conditions. It was found that as the cutting speed
increased, the chip morphology evolved in different ways It has been about eighty years since Salomon [1] proposed the
under different milling conditions (up, down, and symmetric concept of high-speed cutting (HSC). HSC technology has
milling). Individual saw-tooth segments and sphere-like chip been widely applied in the manufacturing process in order to
formed at the cutting speed of 2,500 m/min. Owing to the enhance machining efficiency and achieve high geometric
relatively low mechanical load, longest tool life can be ob- accuracy. Being a significant part of HSC technology, high-
tained in up milling when the cutting speed was no more than speed milling (HSM) plays an important role in the
1,000 m/min. As the cutting speed increased over 1,500 m/ manufacturing of aluminum automotive and aeronautical
min, highest tool life existed in symmetric milling. When the components. HSM technology has also been used in the field
cutting speed was 500 m/min, owing to the higher mechanical of manufacturing the mold and dies in their hardened state as a
load, the flaked region on the tool rake face in symmetric result of the rapid development of machine tools and cutting
milling was much larger than that in up and down milling. tools. Researches [2, 3] showed that hard milling can be an
There was no obvious wear on the tool rake face at the cutting alternative for the grinding process.
speed of 2,500 m/min due to the short tool-chip contact length. There have been considerable amount of researches on
In symmetric milling, the delamination of tool material, which cutting tool performance in HSM of hardened steel. Most of
did not occur in up and down milling, was caused by the these previous studies mainly focused on end milling and side
relatively large cutting force. Abrasion had great effect on the milling [4–12]. HSM of hardened steel was performed by Toh
tool flank wear in symmetric milling. With the increment of [4] in order to evaluate different cutting path orientations.
cutting speed, surface roughness decreased first and then Experimental results showed that the longest tool life can be
increased rapidly. Lowest surface roughness can be obtained obtained when a vertical downward orientation was
at the cutting speed of about 1,500 m/min. employed. However, vertical upward orientation should be
chosen to achieve better surface finish. Koshy et al. [5] inves-
tigated tool wear and surface roughness in high-speed end
milling of AISI D2 hardened tool steel. It was found that
X. Cui (*)
chipping, adhesion, and attrition can be considered as the
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic
University, Jiaozuo 454003, China governing mechanisms responsible for the tool flank wear.
e-mail: kokcxb@163.com Analysis results indicated that the surface roughness was in
the range 1–6 μm Ra when carbide ball-nose end mills were
J. Zhao
employed. Aslan [6] studied cutting tools performance and
Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical
Manufacture of MOE, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong wear behavior by means of high-speed end milling of X210
University, Jinan 250061, China Cr12 cold-work tool steel (62 HRC). The results revealed that
1812 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

cubic boron nitride (CBN) tools showed the best cutting In the present study, high-speed face milling of hardened
performance in terms of surface finish and flank wear. For steel is performed to investigate the cutting performance of
the purpose of identifying the cutting tool performance and coated carbide tools. Cutting speeds ranging from 500 to
determining the recommended cutting parameters, HSM of 2,500 m/min are adopted to explore the new phenomenon
hardened steel was conducted by Fallböhmer et al. [7] to and mechanisms induced by higher cutting speeds. Consider-
investigate machining time and surface finish. Urbanski ing the variation of cutting mechanisms, the cutting tool
et al. [8] investigated cutting force, tool wear, and surface performance is expected to differ greatly among up milling,
roughness in high-speed ball-end milling of AISI H13 hard- down milling, and symmetric milling. This work identifies
ened steel. Various combinations of cutting parameters were and compares the characteristics of chip morphology obtained
applied by Ghani et al. [9] to investigate the wear mechanisms under different milling conditions such as up milling, down
of TiN-coated carbide and uncoated cermets tools in high- milling, and symmetric milling. Based on the analysis of chip
speed end milling of AISI H13 hardened steel. Okada et al. morphology, tool life and tool wear mechanisms are investi-
[10] experimentally investigated the performance of CBN gated for different milling conditions. Finally, surface rough-
cutting tool in high-speed end milling of hardened steel. The ness obtained in up milling, down milling, and symmetric
experimental results revealed that the CBN tools could be milling are analyzed and compared.
applied to high-speed hard milling. An experimental study
was conducted by Pu and Singh [11] to investigate the cutting
performance of coated tungsten carbide and CBN tools in 2 Experimental procedures
high-speed ball nose end milling of hardened AISI A2 tool
steel. Camuşcu and Aslan [12] performed high-speed end 2.1 Cutting tool and workpiece
milling of hardened AISI D3 steel to compare the cutting
performance of coated carbide, coated cermet, Al2O3-based Tungsten carbide inserts SEEX 09T3AFTN-D09
mixed ceramic and CBN cutting tools. manufactured by Seco Tool were utilized in the high-speed
Relatively few studies [13–15] have been conducted to face milling tests. Details of the tool geometry are shown in
investigate the cutting tool performance in high-speed face Fig. 1. The inserts were coated with Ti(C, N)–Al2O3. Seco
milling of hardened steel. High-speed face milling of hard- R220.53-0125-09-8C tool holder with a tool diameter of
ened AISI D3 steel (60HRC) was performed by Siller et al. 125 mm was used in the milling tests. The axial rake angle,
[13] to study the effects of a special carbide tool design on the radial rake angle, and major cutting edge angle of the tool
process viability in terms of tool life and surface quality. It was holder were 20°, -5°, and 45°, respectively. In all the milling
found that surface roughness Ra in the range of 0.1 to 0.3 μm tests, only one of the teeth was used in order to avoid the
could be obtained with an acceptable level of tool life. Cui effects induced by small differences between the teeth and
et al. [14, 15] investigated the cutting performance of CBN keep the cutting condition constant. The tests were conducted
tools in high-speed face milling of AISI H13 hardened steel. on a vertical computer numerically controlled machining cen-
These studies focused on the effects of cutting parameters ter DAEWOO ACE-V500, which had a 15-kW drive motor
especially cutting speed on tool performance. and a maximum spindle rotation speed of 10,000 rpm.
It can be concluded that these existing studies provided AISI H13 tool steel has been widely used in hot forging,
much valuable information about cutting tool performance in extrusion, and pressure die casting due to its advantages such
HSM of hardened steel. Taking the small number of studies as great wear resistance and large high-temperature strength.
into consideration, more attention should be paid to the re- A block of AISI H13 hardened steel (hardened to 46 to 47
search on the tool performance in high-speed face milling of HRC) was applied in the milling tests. Table 1 shows the
hardened steel. Increasing chip cross-section and cutting chemical composition of the hardened steel under
speed are the two basic ways to enhance machining efficiency, consideration.
but increasing chip cross-section is limited owing to the de-
flection and stability constraints. The manufacturing indus-
tries adopt increasingly high cutting speed in order to acquire
high efficiency and maintain competitiveness. However,
few of the previous researches on high-speed face mill-
ing of hardened steel performed milling experiments
with cutting speeds higher than 2,000 m/min. The chip
formation process is considered to have great effect on
cutting tool performance. Scant research on chip mor-
phology has been conducted in the field of high-speed
face milling of hardened steel. Fig. 1 Experimental setup and tool geometry
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1813

Table 1 Chemical composition

of AISI H13 tool steel (wt.%) C Mn Si Cr Mo V Ni Fe

0.32–0.45 0.20–0.50 0.80–1.2 4.75–5.50 1.10–1.75 0.80–1.20 0–0.30 Bal.

2.2 Cutting tests arc-shaped chip (500, 1,000, and 1,500 m/min), short strip of
chip (2,500 m/min), and powder-shaped (2,500 m/min). How-
Up milling, down milling, and symmetric milling were used in ever, when down milling was used, the order changed to be:
the present study. Cutting speeds ranging from 500 to spiral chip (500 m/min), arc-shaped chip (1,000, 1,500, and
2,500 m/min in steps of 500 m/min were adopted in this work. 2,000 m/min), and powder-shaped (2,500 m/min). When
Relatively small values of other cutting parameters were used symmetric milling was adopted, the order became: powder-
to avoid the rapid tool wear in the milling process. Radial shaped (20,00 and 2,500 m/min). The interaction between
depth of cut ae, axial depth of cut ap, and feed per tooth were cutting tool and workpiece led to the formation of chip.
fixed at 10, 0.5, and 0.04 mm/tooth, respectively. Therefore, the different evolving trends of chip morphology
All the cutting tests were carried out in dry condition. Each with cutting speed indicated that the cutting mechanisms
trial was repeated three times under given cutting conditions. varied in different ways as the cutting speed increased. It is
During the milling process, the cutting forces were measured reasonable to speculate that when milling condition (up,
by means of Kistler piezoelectric dynamometer (type 9257B). down, and symmetric milling) changed, tool life, tool wear
The dynamometer was mounted on the machine table as mechanisms, and surface roughness exhibited different char-
shown in Fig. 1. The charge generated at the dynamometer acteristics as the cutting speed increases.
was amplified by a multichannel charge amplifier. A low-pass Figure 3 shows the magnified chip morphologies obtained
filter was used at the charge amplifier. The force sensor was at relatively low cutting speed (v=500 m/min). It can be seen
filtered in order to remove noise caused by the process vari- that the serrated chip had already formed at the cutting speed
ables. The sampling frequency of data was set as 10,000 Hz. of 500 m/min.
After the first pass of the workpiece surface, surface roughness It has been mentioned that the analysis concentrate on the
Ra was measured using a portable tester (Model TR200, chip morphologies obtained at relatively high cutting speed.
China). The tool flank wear was examined periodically using Figure 4 shows the magnified chip morphologies obtained at
a digital microscope. The tool flank wear was measured three the cutting speed of 2,500 m/min. It was found that the some
times for each insert and the average value was calculated. of the serrated chip were divided into separated segments at
When the tool flank wear reached or surpassed 0.3 mm, the this cutting speed for up milling, down milling and symmetric
tool life was recorded in terms of the volume of the removed milling. This phenomenon was most obvious when symmetric
metal. After the milling tests, the worn tools were observed milling was adopted as shown in Fig. 4 (c). When symmetric
using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (JSM-6510LV, milling was used, most of the chips were in the form of
Japan) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) (JSM- individual saw-tooth segments. Figure 4(b) shows that the
6510LV, Japan). The chip morphology was examined by means minimum amount of individual saw-tooth segments formed
of a digital microscope (type IMPC, China) and SEM. when down milling was applied. Taking the formation of
individual saw-tooth segments into account, it can be inferred
that the tool-chip contact length decreased greatly when the
3 Results and discussion cutting speed reached 2,500 m/min.
Due to the high cutting temperature, individual sphere-like
3.1 Chip morphology chip appeared in up milling as shown in Fig. 4(a). The highest
cutting temperature was more than 1,427 °C with the melting
In the present work, chip morphologies obtained under differ- point of AISI H 13 steel considered. However, it can be seen
ent cutting conditions are analyzed. The analysis of chip from Fig. 4(c) that no sphere-like chip arose in down milling.
morphologies obtained at relatively high cutting seed When down milling was used, the chip was melted at one end
(2,500 m/min) is focused on. Figure 2 shows chip morphol- of the chip as shown in Fig. 4(b). The emergence of sphere-
ogies obtained under different cutting conditions. It can be like chip revealed the high cutting temperature at the cutting
seen from Fig. 2 that the chip morphology evolved in different speed of 2,500 m/min. The large quantity of sphere-like chip
ways with increasing cutting speed when varying milling indicated that the highest cutting temperature arose when up
conditions (up, down, and symmetric milling) were adopted. milling was applied. Moreover, it can be inferred that the
When up milling was applied, as the cutting speed increased, cutting temperature in symmetric milling was relatively low
the shape of the chip changed gradually in the following order: compared with that in up and down milling.
1814 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

Fig. 2 Chip morphologies

obtained under different cutting
conditions

Measurement of the sphere-like chip was conducted and it thorough than that happened in the formation of type II
was found that diameter of the spheres were some tenths of a sphere-like chip. It can be deduced that type I sphere-like chip
millimeter. This is consistent with the work by Elbestawi et al. was induced by higher cutting temperature.
[16] in spite of the difference of cutting conditions. Since the structure of type I sphere-like chip was charac-
Figure 5 shows the magnified morphologies of the serrated terized by cavity, it was more likely to be split. Figure 8 shows
chip which was about to be divided into separate segments. It the magnified morphologies of a split part of the type I sphere-
can be seen from Fig. 5 (d) that melted steel surface existed in like chip. The shell wall of the hollow sphere can be seen
the junction area between the two saw-teeth. It is believed that clearly from Fig. 8(b). It can be observed from Fig 8(e) that
thermal softening caused by high temperature in the shear similar to the surface of the sphere-like chip, the inner shell
band had great effects on the formation of individual saw- wall of the sphere was also built with grains resulted from
tooth segments. The temperature in the shear band should be recrystallization.
high enough so that the saw-tooth chip can be divided into
separate segments by external loads. 3.2 Tool life and tool wear mechanisms
SEM analysis of sphere-like chip revealed that sphere-like
chip could be classified into two types as shown in Fig. 6 (type In the present study, tool life is represented by the volume Vof
I) and Fig 7 (type II). There were many gas cavities distributed the removed metal. Figure 9 shows the tool lives obtained
on the type I sphere-like chip surface, contrary to that on the under different cutting conditions. It can be seen from Fig. 9
type II chip surface. Figure 6(d) shows that type I sphere-like that tool lives obtained in up milling and down milling were
chip was filled with gas inside. It can be seen from Figs. 6(c) close to each other. Tool life decreased as the cutting speed
and 7(e) that recrystallization happened in the quenching increased from 500 to 2,500 m/min. The decreasing trends
process of the melted chip. It can also be observed from were similar for up milling, down milling, and symmetric
Figs. 6(c) and 7(e) that the recrystallization arose in the milling. For the purpose of revealing the decreasing trends
formation process of type I sphere-like chip was more more clearly, the curves of tool life with cutting speed were

a b c

Up milling Down milling Symmetric milling

Fig. 3 Magnified chip morphologies obtained at relatively low cutting speed (v=500 m/min)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1815

a 1,000 m/min, higher value of tool life existed in up milling.

The tool life was shortest in symmetric milling when the
cutting speed was below 1,000 m/min. However, longer tool
life was obtained in symmetric milling as the cutting speed
increased over 1,500 m/min. It seemed that up milling should
be avoided in order to acquire longer tool life at cutting speeds
above 1,500 m/min.
In the present work, the cutting forces were measured
Up milling
during the first pass of the workpiece surface. The average
value of the data points of the resultant cutting force in three
b cutting periods were calculated for each milling test. Each test
was replicated three times. Figure 10 shows the average values
of the resultant cutting forces obtained under different cutting
conditions. It can be observed that the cutting forces exhibited
decreasing trends with increasing cutting speed for up milling,
down milling, and symmetric milling. The decreasing trends
of cutting forces can be attributed to the higher cutting tem-
Down milling perature induced by increasing cutting speed. Generally, the
cutting forces in symmetric milling were higher than those in
c up milling and down milling. The lowest values of cutting
forces arose in up milling. The values of cutting forces in up
and down milling were close. The close values of the cutting
forces are considered to have great effect on the close tool
lives in up and down milling.
It has been discussed that when the cutting speed was
below 1,000 m/min, the longest tool life arose when up
milling was applied. This can be attributed to the relatively
Symmetric milling
low mechanical load in up milling as shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 4 Magnified chip morphologies obtained at relatively high cutting
In the cutting speed range of v≥1,500 m/min, it was found
speed (v=2500 m/min). a Up milling, b Down milling, c Symmetric
milling that relatively long tool life existed in symmetric milling in
spite of the relatively high cutting force by means of compar-
fitted as shown in Fig. 9 (dotted line). Equations 1, 2, and 3 ing Figs. 9 and 10. The cutting temperatures became very high
were fitted formulas for tool life in up, down, and symmetric (e.g., ≥1,427 °C at 2,500 m/min) as the cutting speed in-
milling, respectively. creased over 1,500 m/min. At the same time, the cutting forces
became much lower (below 100 N) due to the thermal soften-
V u ¼ −5  10−4 v2 − 5:5179v þ 1:8075  104 mm3 ð1Þ ing effects as shown in Fig. 10. It seems that the cutting
temperature had greater effect on tool life than cutting force
did in the speed range of v≥1,500 m/min. This is believed to
be the reason why relatively long tool life and relatively high
V d ¼ −10−3 v2 −3:0943v þ 1:5885  104 mm3 ð2Þ cutting force arose in symmetric milling at the same time.
Probably due to the close values of cutting forces and tool
lives, it was found that the morphologies of worn tools in up
and down milling were similar at each cutting speed. There-
V s ¼ −1:8  10−3 v2 þ 0:7393v þ 1:23  104 mm3 ð3Þ fore, one typical worn tool was picked out for the analysis of
tool wear mechanisms in up and down milling at each cutting
speed. The tool wear mechanisms at relatively low cutting
The R squares for Vu, Vd, and Vs were 0.9972, 0.9954, and speed (500 m/min) and relatively high cutting speed (2,500 m/
0.9960, respectively. The large values of squares verified the min) are focused on in the present study.
accuracy of these fitted formulas. Analysis of the fitted for- Figure 11 shows the SEM images of the typical worn tool
mulas was conducted. It was found that the tool lives obtained in up milling and down milling obtained at the cutting speed
in up milling, down milling, and symmetric milling were close of 500 m/min. It can be observed from Fig. 11(a), (c), and (d)
to each other when the cutting speed is between 1,000 and that flaking happened on the tool rake face. There existed
1,500 m/min. When the cutting speed was no more than serious chippings on the tool cutting edge as shown in
1816 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

Fig. 5 Magnified morphologies

of the serrated chip which was
about to be divided into separate
segments (v=2500 m/min)

Fig. 11(b) and (c). Figure 11(e) and (f) shows that the domi- and point 2 on the tool flank face in Fig. 11 were conducted as
nant wear mechanisms of the tool flank face were adhesion shown in Fig. 12. EDS analysis of point 1 revealed large
and abrasion. EDS analysis of point 1 on the tool cutting edge amount of element W (57.20 wt.%) from the cutting tool

Fig. 6 Magnified morphologies

of the sphere-like chip (type I)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1817

Fig. 7 Magnified morphologies

of the sphere-like chip (type II)

substrate and relatively little amount of element Fe to the analysis of points 1 and 2 in Fig. 11, EDS analysis of the
(9.05 wt.%) from the workpiece. EDS analysis results showed cutting edge (point 3 in Fig. 13(c)) and flank face (point 4 in
that great amount of element Fe (87.64 wt.%) existed at point Fig. 13(c)) were conducted correspondingly as shown in
2. However, there was no element from the tool substrate at Fig. 14. The analysis results showed that the elements distri-
point 2. EDS analysis of points 1 and 2 showed little amount butions on the cutting edge and flank face shown in Fig. 13
of element O. The EDS analysis results indicated that adhe- were analogous to these in Fig. 11 despite little differences of
sion had great effects on the wear happened on tool flank face. magnitude. It should be pointed out that the area of the flaked
It seemed that oxidation had little effect on the tool wear at region on the tool rake face in symmetric milling was much
cutting speed of 500 m/min. larger than that in up and down milling. This was mainly
SEM images of the typical worn tool in symmetric milling caused by the higher mechanical load in symmetric milling
(v=500 m/min) are shown in Fig. 13. It was found that when as shown in Fig. 10.
the cutting speed was 500 m/min, the tool wear mechanisms in Figure 15 shows the SEM images of the typical worn tool
symmetric milling were similar to that in up and down milling. in up milling and down milling obtained at the cutting speed
Flaking and chipping occurred on the tool rake face and of 2,500 m/min. It can be seen that there was no obvious wear
cutting edge, respectively. The main wear mechanisms of on the tool rake face. This can be attributed to the short tool-
the tool flank face were also adhesion and abrasion. Similar chip contact length as discussed in “3.1” section. Micro-
1818 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

Fig. 8 Magnified morphologies

of a split part of the sphere-like
chip (type I)

chippings arose on the tool cutting edge and the fractured tool wear mechanisms were adhesion and abrasion for the tool
region acted as small cutting edge as shown in Fig. 15(b) flank face. EDS analysis of point 5 in Fig. 15(b) is shown in
and (d). It can be observed from Fig. 15 that the dominant Fig. 16. The analysis results revealed that the amount of

Fig. 9 Tool lives obtained under different cutting conditions Fig. 10 Cutting forces obtained under different cutting conditions
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1819

Fig. 11 SEM images of the

typical worn tool in up milling
and down milling (v=500 m/min)

Fig. 12 EDS analysis of points 1

and 2 in Fig. 11. a EDS analysis a b
of point 1. b EDS analysis of
point 2

EDS analysis of point 1 EDS analysis of point 2

1820 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

Fig. 13 SEM images of the

typical worn tool in symmetric
milling (v=500 m/min)

Fig. 14 EDS analysis of points 3 a

and 4 in Fig. 13. a EDS analysis b
of point 3. b EDS analysis of
point 4

EDS analysis of point 3 EDS analysis of point 4

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1821

Fig. 15 SEM images of the

typical worn tool in up
milling and down milling
(v=2500 m/min)

elements Fe and O were 70.31 and 11.40 wt.%, respectively. It

can be inferred that besides adhesion and abrasion, oxidation
also affected the tool flank wear to some extent.
During the up and down milling process, when the cutting
speed was 2,500 m/min, it was observed that the tool wear
increased quickly at the end of tool life. It was also found that
the area of the worn region on the tool flank face was rela-
tively large. It has been discussed in “3.1” section that when
the cutting speed is 2,500 m/min, individual sphere-like chip
and melted chip arose in up milling and down milling, respec-
tively. It can be inferred that the highest cutting temperature
was about 1,427 °C at the cutting speed of 2,500 m/min.
Taking the melting point (1,495 °C) of cobalt into consider-
ation, the high cutting temperature softened the tool material
greatly. This should be reason why the cutting tool worn
rapidly when the tool was about to be worn out and relatively
Fig. 16 EDS analysis of point 5 in Fig. 15 large worn region appeared on the tool flank face.
1822 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

Figure 17 shows the SEM images of the typical worn tool be seen from Fig.17(a), (c), (e), and (f) that the area of the
when symmetric milling was adopted. Comparing Figs. 15 worn region on the tool flank face was relatively small in
and 17, it can be observed that when the cutting speed was symmetric milling. The obvious scratches on the tool flank
2,500 m/min, tool wear mechanism in symmetric milling was face indicated that abrasion contributed greatly to the tool
similar to that in up and down milling. The main wear mech- flank wear. The boundary between the cutting tool coatings
anisms of the tool flank face were abrasion and adhesion. EDS and substrate can be clearly seen in Fig. 17(e).
analysis of point 6 on the tool flank face in Fig. 17 was
conducted as shown in Fig. 18. The analysis results also 3.3 Surface roughness
showed relatively large amount of elements Fe (42.52 wt.%)
and O (10.11 wt.%), which indicated the contribution of Surface roughness of the machined surface was measured
adhesion and oxidation to the tool flank wear. However, there after the first pass of the workpiece surface. Figure 19 shows
still exist some differences. Delamination of tool material the surface roughness obtained under different cutting condi-
arose near the cutting edge as shown in Fig.17(a), (b), and tions. It can be seen that as the cutting speed increased from
(d). This phenomenon was not encountered in up and down 500 m/min to 2,500 m/min, surface roughness decreased first
milling. The delamination of tool material in symmetric mill- and then increased rapidly. Valley values of surface roughness
ing can be attributed to the relatively large cutting force. It can can be obtained at the cutting speed of about 1,500 m/min.

Fig. 17 SEM images of the

typical worn tool in symmetric
milling (v=2500 m/min)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824 1823

Fig. 20 Tool flank wear vs. cutting speed (after one pass of the work-
piece surface)

tools. Cutting speeds adopted in this work were in the range of

500 to 2,500 m/min. Up milling, down milling, and symmetric
Fig. 18 EDS analysis of point 6 in Fig. 17 milling were used in the present study. Chip morphology, tool
life, tool wear mechanisms, and surface roughness were ana-
lyzed and compared for different cutting conditions. The
When the cutting speed is below 1,500 m/min, surface rough- following conclusions can be drawn from this work.
ness Ra about 0.10 μm can be obtained. In the cutting speed As the cutting speed increased, the chip morphology
range of v≤1,500 m/min, up milling should be adopted to evolved in different ways under varying milling conditions
acquire better surface finish. When the cutting speed (up, down, and symmetric milling). The serrated chip had
surpassed 2,000 m/min, relatively low surface roughness can already formed at the cutting speed of 500 m/min. Individual
be obtained in symmetric milling. Surface roughness in up, saw-tooth segments and sphere-like chip formed when the
down and symmetric milling were close to each other in the cutting speed was 2,500 m/min. The tool-chip contact length
cutting speed range of 1,500 m/min<v<2,000 m/min. decreased substantially when the cutting speed reached
Figure 20 shows the tool flank wear obtained at different 2,500 m/min. The cutting temperature in symmetric milling
cutting speeds after one pass of the workpiece surface. It can was believed to be relatively low compared with that in up and
be seen that the tool flank wear increased quickly with the down milling. The temperature in the shear band affected the
cutting speed as the cutting speed surpassed 1,500 m/min. It is formation of individual saw-tooth segments greatly. The
believed that the increased tool flank wear contributed greatly sphere-like chip could be classified into two types. Recrystal-
to the growth of surface roughness in the cutting speed of lization occurred in the quenching process of the melted chip.
1,500 to 2,500 m/min. In the cutting speed range of 1,000 to 1,500 m/min, tool
lives obtained in up milling, down milling, and symmetric
milling were close to each other. Due to the relatively low
4 Conclusions mechanical load, longest tool life was obtained in up milling
when the cutting speed was no more than 1,000 m/min. The
High-speed face milling of hardened steel was performed in cutting temperature had greater effect on tool life than cutting
order to investigate the cutting performance of coated carbide force did in the speed range of v≥1,500 m/min. Highest tool
life existed in symmetric milling as the cutting speed increased
over 1,500 m/min. The morphologies of worn tools in up and
down milling were similar at each cutting speed because of the
close values of cutting forces and tool lives. At the cutting
speed of 500 m/min, the tool wear mechanisms in symmetric
milling were similar to that in up and down milling. Flaking
and chipping occurred on the tool rake face and cutting edge,
respectively. The dominant wear mechanisms of the tool flank
face were adhesion and abrasion. Due to the higher mechan-
ical load, the flaked region on the tool rake face in symmetric
milling was much larger than that in up and down milling.
Owing to the short tool-chip contact length, there was no
Fig. 19 Surface roughness obtained under different cutting conditions obvious wear on the tool rake face at the cutting speed of
1824 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 71:1811–1824

2,500 m/min. The wear mechanisms of the tool flank face 3. Iqbal A, He N, Li L, Dar NU (2007) A fuzzy expert system for
optimizing parameters and predicting performance measures in hard-
were abrasion, adhesion, and oxidation. The delamination of
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Acknowledgments This research is supported by the National Natural
performance in end milling of AISI D3 tool steel. J Mater Process
Science Foundation of China (51175310) and the National Natural Sci-
Technol 170(1–2):121–126
ence Foundation of China (51205112).
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