Influence of different wet-blasting pressure on the surface integrity and tool cutting performance of hybrid CVD-TiN/TiCN/α-Al2O3/TiN coated tools

This paper investigates the effect of wet-blasting pressure on the surface integrity and tool cutting performance of hybrid CVD-TiN/TiCN/α-Al2O3/TiN coated tools. The hybrid TiN/MT-TiCN/α-Al2O3/TiN multilayer coating was deposited on the cemented carbide inserts' surface by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Then the coated inserts were subjected to wet-blasting by aluminum oxide with varying pressure. The coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, white light surface profiler, and X-ray residual stress diffractometer. The results indicate that the average residual tensile stress of the α-Al2O3 layer on the rake face of CVD-coated inserts gradually decreased with the increase of wet-blasting pressure. When the wet-blasting pressure reached 0.24 MPa, the residual tensile stress was transformed into compressive stress. It was accompanied by increased cutting edge roughness and cutting edge radius, reduced cutting edge coating thickness, and a change in rake face surface roughness. To understand the effect of the surface integrity change on the cutting performance of CVD-coated inserts, a case study designed for AISI 4340 steel machining under continuous and intermittent cutting conditions is performed. When the Al2O3 layer on the cutting edge is not peeled off by wet-blasting, the change of residual stress from tensile to compressive in the rake face of CVD-coated inserts can effectively improve the fracture failure resistance of inserts in continuous and intermittent cutting processes. When the Al2O3 layer on the cutting edge is not peeled off by wet-blasting, the fracture failure resistance during intermittent cutting will be significantly reduced.