Tool wear during high speed turning in situ TiCp/TiBw hybrid reinforced Ti-6Al-4V matrix composite

Chipping, adhesive wear, abrasive wear and crater wear are prevalent for both the poly-crystalline diamond (PCD) and the carbide tools during high speed turning of TiCp/TiBw hybrid reinforced Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) matrix composite (TMCs). The combined effects of abrasive wear and diffusion wear caused the big crater on PCD and carbide tool rake face. Compared to the PCD, bigger size of crater was found on the carbide tool due to much higher cutting temperature and the violent chemical reaction between the Ti element in the workpiece and the WC in the tool. However, the marks of the abrasive wear looked much slighter or even could not be observed on the carbide tool especially when low levels of cutting parameters were used, which attributes to much lower hardness and smaller size of WC combined with more significant chemical degradation of car-bide. When cutting TC4 using PCD tool, notch wear was the most significant wear pattern which was not found when cutting the TMCs. However, chipping, adhesive wear and crater wear were much milder when compared to the cutting of titanium matrix composite. Due to the absence of abrasive wear when cutting TC4, the generated titanium carbide on the PCD protected the tool from fast wear, which caused that the tool life for TC4 was 6–10 times longer than that for TMCs.