Tool Wear Influence on Surface Integrity and Fatigue Life of Hard Milled Surfaces

In machining, the interfacial friction between cutting tool and work material leads to tool wear which is considered a critical factor for surface quality of machined components. Surface integrity and fatigue life of machined components will deteriorate when tool flank wear progresses in machining. Hard milling experiments on AISI H13 tool steel (50 ± 1 HRC) using PVD coated tools with different levels of flank wear were conducted in this study. Surface integrity of the machined components with flank wear VB = 0 mm, 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm was characterized. The effects of cutting speed, feed, and radial depth-of-cut on surface integrity were investigated respectively at the three levels of tool flank wear. In addition, four-point bending fatigue tests were performed on the milled samples at five levels of different flank wear (VB = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 mm) to evaluate the trend of fatigue life evolution with the increased tool flank wear.