Cutting performance of carbide tools with hybrid texture

Friction is the main factor related to the reliability and durability of mechanical equipment. The main problems of machining difficult-to-cut material are violent friction of cutting area and an increase in tool wear caused by high cutting temperature. To solve these problems, surface texture has become an effective way since it can reduce cutting force and temperature and decrease the friction between the tool and chip. In this study, three kinds of hybrid textures, including variable density texture, variable shape texture, and variable shape and density texture were designed and experimentally investigated and compared with the homothetic texture and untextured surface. The textures were fabricated on the rake face of the carbide tools by pulsed fiber laser with different processing parameters. Experiments regarding cutting of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy were carried out with untextured tool and different textured tools under the condition of dry cutting and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). Results indicate that the cutting tools with variable shape and density texture possess advantages mostly related to improvement of cutting performance, which is manifested as the reduction in thrust force, average friction coefficient, and tool wear. Particularly, under MQL conditions, the average friction coefficient of the tool with the variable shape and density hybrid texture is the smallest, which is 9.362% smaller than that of the tool without texture and 5.81% smaller than that of the tool with homothetic texture. Furthermore, the antifriction mechanism of the hybrid texture was analyzed in detail.