Ultrasonic elliptical vibration texturing of the rake face of carbide cutting tools for adhesion reduction

Carbide tools are widely used to cut high-strength and corrosion-resistant aluminum alloys. However, aluminum chips tend to adhere to the cutting edge and rake face, influencing machined surface quality and even leading to tool failure. This paper proposes an innovative application of the ultrasonic elliptical vibration texturing (UEVT) process with properly selected elliptical locus for generating superior microgrooves on the carbide tool’s rake face using polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools, in order to create a micropool-like lubrication effect at the chip-tool interface. Two microtextured carbide tools with a channel pitch of 400 and 200 μm and a depth of 12 μm were generated by UEVT. An experimental comparison between nontextured and UEVT tools in turning tubular aluminum alloy workpieces has demonstrated that microtextured tools with a pitch of 200 μm show a clear reduction in chip adhesion. The corresponding cutting performance is also improved due to the anti-adhesive property at the chip-tool interface. This work has demonstrated that ultrasonic elliptical vibration texturing has the potential for the mass production of microtextured tools for adhesion and friction reduction with high efficiency and accuracy.