Experimental study demonstrates reduced carbide cutter wear during milling of aviation aluminum alloys, indicating extended tool life via multilayer zirconium-based coatings.
Key Points
Assess the influence of protective coatings on the tooth wear rate and service life of monolithic carbide end milling cutters during aluminum alloy machining.
Tested two-tooth monolithic end milling carbide cutters in both uncoated and coated configurations on hard aluminum aviation alloy V95ochT.
Evaluated cutting tooth wear experimentally across multiple operating periods up to 30 machine hours.
Compared the wear resistance of Zr + ZrN + (ZrCrNb)N and TiCN + TiN + TiN coatings against uncoated cutters.
Protective coatings decreased cutter tooth wear rate by a factor of 10 at 5 operating hours and a factor of 7 at 30 operating hours compared to uncoated cutters.
At 5 hours of operation, TiCN + TiN + TiN and Zr + ZrN + (ZrCrNb)N coatings produced tooth wear of 0.002 mm and 0.003 mm, respectively.
Zr + ZrN + (ZrCrNb)N coating demonstrated superior durability over longer runtimes, exhibiting 2.0-fold, 1.7-fold, and 1.9-fold less wear than the TiCN-based coating at 10, 20, and 30 hours, respectively.