Tribological aspects of tool wear during turning Ti-15Mo alloy with cemented tungsten carbide cutting inserts prepared with different surface finishes

Due to the low machinability of titanium alloys, which have been increasingly applied in medical and aerospace industries, several studies have been carried out focusing on the improvement of tool life in machining processes that involve such class of material. Aiming at contributing to the technological investigations and at expanding the knowledge on the phenomena involved in the tool-workpiece contact, this work presents tool wear results and a tribological analysis of the application of cemented tungsten carbide cutting inserts with different roughness characteristics in the edge and flank face as well as grinding marks (grooves) in the rake face in distinct directions. The inserts were prepared by plunge-face grinding and used in turning of a beta-titanium alloy (Ti-15Mo). Results showed that the insert with lower surface and edge roughness and with grooves in the rake face perpendicular to chip flow direction led to the lowest final flank wear value when the tool life criterion was achieved. Higher flank wear values were obtained for the rougher inserts, due to the greater edge chipping produced in grinding.