Quantitative assessment of plastic deformation in cutting tools materials

需要一种量化高价值制造部件加工过程中刀具材料塑性变形的方法，以提高加工效率（至少25%）并减少能源使用和材料浪费。其更准确的量化将实现这些改进，使更好的材料选择加工复杂的金属材料，如硬化钢和镍合金通常用于航空航天制造业。这也将有助于加速新刀具材料等级的开发。刀具材料（WC-Co硬质合金）的塑性变形导致刀具失效，其原因是硬质涂层的剥落和刀具材料本身的侵蚀加速了刀具的磨损。这种变形的机制尚不清楚，部分原因是它很难量化。在使用过程中对刀具几何形状磨损的外部测量给出了一些指示，但测量磨损量的不确定性尚不清楚，当然也没有与表面下塑性变形微观结构的测量相关联。发展在不同加工条件下对微观组织中的塑性变形和刀具外部磨损进行三维量化的方法，将有助于确定材料微观组织抵抗磨损的关键特性，从而更好地选择材料和开发具有改进显微组织的新材料牌号。

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.