Direct laser interference patterning of cemented cutting tools

Nowadays, improving processes sustainability has become a major topic for many manufacturers in metal processing industries. Next to the challenging rise of costs of raw material and tools, innovative and hard to process materials enter the market. Here, surface functionalization of cutting tools is devised as a convenient approach for reducing energy consumption as well as material losses. In this work, direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) is used for manufacturing periodic line-like structures with spatial periods of 5.5 µm on tungsten carbide. The texturing is applied on rake-flank faces of the cutting inserts, leading to texture depths up to 1.75 µm by controlling the amount of used laser pulses. Moreover, turning experiments under lubricated conditions carried out on Al 6061 T6 parts with structured and untreated tools are performed to investigate the tribological performance. In result, the used DLIP-functionalized cutting tools could effectively decrease machining forces up to 12 %. This is caused by the corresponding improvement in frictional and improved lubrication behavior at the tool/chip interface. Furthermore, the laser-processed tools generate thinner chips, which leads to a decrease in surface roughness by 31 % of the aluminum work piece. This work thus offers insight into the viability of improving cutting tools by laser surface micro patterning for upcoming innovative materials designed for improving tool wear resistance, energy efficiency and surface quality.