Quantitative assessment of plastic deformation in cutting tools materials

为了提高加工效率(至少提高25%)并减少能源消耗和材料浪费，需要一种量化刀具材料在高价值制造部件加工过程中所经历的塑性变形的方法。它更准确的量化将通过为加工复杂的金属材料(如航空航天制造业中常用的淬火钢和镍合金)提供更好的材料选择，从而实现这些改进。刀具材料(WC-Co硬质合金)的塑性变形通过加速所涂硬涂层的剥落而加速磨损，进而侵蚀刀具材料本身，从而导致刀具失效。这种变形的机制之所以不清楚，部分原因是它太难量化了。在使用过程中对刀具几何形状的外部磨损测量提供了一些正在发生的情况的指示，但测量的磨损量中的不确定性并不被理解，而且肯定与表面下塑性变形微观结构的测量没有关联。开发在不同加工条件下三维量化微观结构中的塑性变形和外部刀具磨损的方法将有助于识别材料微观结构的关键抗磨特征，从而导致更好的材料选择和具有改进的微观结构的新材料等级的开发。

A method for quantifying the plastic deformation of cutting tool materials that is experienced during machining of high value manufactured components is needed to increase process efficiency (by at least 25%) and reduce energy use and material wastage. Its more accurate quantification would achieve these improvements by enabling better material selection for machining of complex metallic materials such as hardened steels and Nickel alloys commonly used in the aerospace manufacturing industry. It would also help accelerate the development of new tool material grades.Plastic deformation of tooling materials (WC-Co cemented carbide) causes failure of the machining tools by accelerating wear through flaking of the hard coatings applied and then erosion of the tool material itself. The mechanisms of this deformation are not understood in part because it is so difficult to quantify. External measurement of wear to the tool geometry during use gives some indication of what is happening but uncertainties in the measured wear volume are not understood and certainly have not been correlated with measurement of the plastically deformed microstructure below the surface.Development of methods of quantifying plastic deformation in the microstructure and external tool wear in three dimensions under different machining conditions would help to identify the key characteristics of the material microstructure that resist wear and thus lead to better material selection and development of new material grades with improved microstructures.