Flank Wear Progression During Machining Metal Matrix Composites

The machining of composites present a significant challenge to the industry. The abrasive reinforcements cause rapid tool wear and increases the machining cost. The results from machining metal matrix composites (MMCs) with conventional tools show that the main mechanism of tool wear includes two-body abrasion and three-body abrasion. A more flexible method that can be considered as a cost-saving technique is therefore sought for studying the machinability characteristics of these materials. In the previous paper, a methodology for predicting the tool flank wear progression during bar turning of MMCs was presented (Kishawy, Kannan, and Balazinski, Ann. CIRP, 54/1, pp. 55–59). In the proposed model, the wear volume due to two-body and three-body abrasion mechanisms was formulated. Then, the flank wear rate was quantified by considering the tool geometry in three-dimensional (3D) turning. Our main objective in this paper is to validate the proposed model by conducting extensive bar turning experiments under a wide range of cutting conditions, tool geometries, and composite material compositions. The cutting test results showed good agreement between predicted and measured tool wear progression.