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Cutting performance of CBN and diamond

tools in dry turning of cemented carbide

Article · January 2016

DOI: 10.1299/mej.15-00526

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 Advance Publication by J-STAGE

Mechanical Engineering Journal

DOI:10.1299/mej.15-00526

Received date : 28 September, 2015

Accepted date : 23 December, 2015

J-STAGE Advance Publication date : 6 January, 2016

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 Cutting performance of CBN and diamond tools in dry
turning of cemented carbide
Abang Mohammad Nizam ABANG KAMARUDDIN*,**, Akira HOSOKAWA***, Takashi UEDA****,
Tatsuaki FURUMOTO*** and Tomohiro KOYANO***
* Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
** Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University
Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
E-mail: akamnizam@stu.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
*** Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kanazawa University
Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
**** Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan35 Shinanomachi, Japan

Abstract
This research deals with the hard turning of cemented carbide with CBN and diamond tools, and focuses on the
tool performance, mainly tool wear with respect to cutting force and cutting temperature. The internal turning
tests without cutting fluid are executed with the vertical machining center. Seven types of tool materials: SC,
CVD-SC, two PCDs, BL-NPD (Binderless nano-polycrystalline diamond) and CBN: are selected for cutting
three grades of cemented carbides WC having the different Co binder content (12%, 20% and 25%). Attrition
has been found to be the main tool wear mechanism for all tools with slight adhesion of the workpiece binder on
the tool face. In cutting of softest carbide WC-m (25% Co), the polycrystalline CBN tool has the lowest tool
wear than any other PCD tools. In turning of harder carbides WC-d (20% Co) and WC-t (12% Co), both
polycrystalline CBN and PCD cannot be used continuously due to their low hardness, and BL-NPD, SC and
CVD-SC tools are applicable. And the BL-NPD tool has the best cutting performance with less flank wear. As
for WC-d, extremely stable cutting can be done with BL-NPD where the principal cutting force is kept almost
constant at 40 N. Only BL-NPD tool can continue to turn the hardest WC-t. In spite of turning hard materials,
the tool temperatures measured are relatively low below 450°C due to the high thermal conductivities of tool
materials. However, cutting temperature is directly related to the tool wear and cutting force rather than thermal
conductivity of tool in turning of WC-m and WC-t.

Key words : Turning, Cemented carbide, Diamond tool, CBN tool, Cutting temperature, Flank wear

1. Introduction

Cemented carbides, which are commonly used for molds, dies and cutting tools, are currently machined or shaped
by grinding and/or EDM in order to form the exact desired dimension. In grinding of cemented carbides, an expensive
diamond grinding wheel is needed and the MRR (Material Removal Rate) is very low as well as EDM process. In order
to reduce the post casting/sintering processes, cemented carbides are being produced in near net shape form. This has
encouraged researchers to find alternative post-processing methods in producing precision tools, molds and dies without
sacrificing quality of the surface finish.
A study by Nath, et al., (2009) shows that it is possible to produce almost same surface finish quality as ground one
by ultrasonic elliptical vibration cutting/milling of sintered tungsten carbide. Miyamoto, et al., (2009, 2013) have reported
the influence of binder content of sintered WC on cutting performances of PCD and CBN tools. However, the significant
machining characteristics such as cutting force and cutting temperature with respect to the workpiece properties of

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 Table 1 Properties of three kinds of cemented carbides.
Grain size Co content Thermal conductivity Vickers hardness
Specification of carbide
µm wt% λ W/(m·K) HV GPa
WC-m (for mold) 3 25 71 8.2
WC-d (for die) 3 20 71 9.5
WC-t (for cutting tool) 2 12 71 13.3

Table 2 Characteristics of cutting tools.

Vickers
Grain size Binder content Thermal conductivity Rake angle
Specification hardness
µm wt%  W/(m·K) º
HV GPa
CBN 2 7 % Co 110-120 41 – 44 0
PCD-a > 0.5 10 % Co 480 – 560 50 – 60 0, 10
PCD-b 50 5 % Co 480 – 560 60 – 80 0
BL-NPD 0.03 – 0.05  250 – 300 120 – 140 0
SC   1000 – 2200 70 – 120 0
CVD-SC   1000 – 2200 70 – 120 0

Table 3 Cutting conditions.

Cemented carbide
Workpiece
(WC-m, WC-d, WC-t)
Insert CBN, PCD-a, PCD-b,
(Nose radius: r = 0.8 mm) BL-NPD, SC, CVD-SC
Cutting speed v m/s 40
Depth of cut d mm 0.05
Feed f mm/rev 0.1
Cutting style Dry
Fig. 1 Seven types of cutting tools.

cemented carbides have has not been clarified. Furthermore, the appropriate tool materials for cemented carbides are still
incompletely understood.
This paper deals with the cutting performances of some diamond and CBN tools in hard turning of three types of
cemented carbide materials designed for mold, die and cutting tool in which WC particles size and Co binder content are
changed.

2. Experimental Procedure
2.1 Workpiece material and cutting tools

Three types of cemented carbides: WC-m, WC-d and WC-t: having the different mechanical characteristics are
prepared as shown in Table 1. WC-m for use in mold contains about 25 wt% Co and softest. WC-t developed for tool
contains 12 wt% Co and hardest, and WC-d for die has medium hardness. These straight tungsten carbide grades have
grain size of 2 to 3 µm.
The tools used are polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (CBN) and five types of diamond tools: polycrystalline
diamond (PCD-a, PCD-b), binderless nano-polycrystalline diamond (BL-NPD), single crystal diamond (SC) and single
crystal diamond produced by chemical vapor disposition technique (CVD-SC). The properties of tool material are listed
in Table 2. Figure 1 depicts the appearances of seven cutting inserts.

2.2 Experimental Setup and Conditions

The internal turning experiments without cutting fluid are carried out with the vertical machining center as shown in

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

Feed direction Cutting direction
Boring head
Peltier cooler Fin
Tool
Workpiece InSb
A
Op Amp

InAs
Two-color pyrometer

`
Dynamometer

Charge amplifier Oscilloscope

Fig. 2 Experimental arrangement. Fig. 3 Cutting temperature measurement.

Fig. 2. In order to assess the availability of cutting tools, the relatively high cutting speed of v=40 m/min is set and the
other operating parameters are also set constant as shown in Table 3. The cutting performance of each tool is evaluated
by cutting force, cutting temperature, surface roughness and tool wear. Cutting force, tool wear and surface roughness
are measured by 3-axis piezoelectric dynamometer, stylus profilometer and SEM, respectively. The cutting experiment
is stopped upon reaching the flank wear width of 300 µm or showing signs of tool failure. Two sets of cutting tests in
each tool are executed, where cutting force and surface profiles are measured at first step and cutting force and cutting
temperature are done at second step.

2.3 Cutting Temperature Measurement

The cutting temperature is measured using a new compact type two-color pyrometer. As shown in Fig. 3, the
chalcogenide glass fiber is inserted into a small hole (ϕ1.1 mm) which extends to the inner surface of the cylindrical
workpiece. The incidence face of the fiber accepts the infrared rays radiated from the flank face of the tool when the
cutting tool passes through the hole during the cutting operation. The thermal radiation accepted by fiber is transmitted
to the two-color detector, in which InAs and InSb photocells are assembled in a sandwich structure. These detectors are
electrically cooled by Peltier device and have different spectral sensitivities within 1–3 µm and 3–5.5 µm, respectively.
By taking the output voltage ratio from these two detectors, the temperature of the object could be calculated using the
calibration curve which is obtained by the experiment. The pyrometer, having a flat response from 10 Hz to 400 kHz,
can be used for measurement of the tool temperature in turning with a good degree of accuracy. This pyrometer type has
been successfully applied in previous studies in cutting (Tanaka, et al., 2013) and milling (Okada, et al., 2010).

3. Experimental Results

In the preliminary experiment where the softest WC-m is cut by the hardest BL-NPD tool, the intensity of thermal
radiation emitted from the tool is so low that it is undetectable by the pyrometer used. This means that the tool temperature
is very low and the discussion on the tool performance from the thermal viewpoint could not be done. For this reason,
PCDs and CBN tools have been assigned for WC-m cutting, whereas SC, CVD-SC and BL-NPD for WC-d and WC-t.

3.1 Tool Wear

The experiment have been done on three different carbides with five types of cutting tools. Figure 4 shows the change
of flank wear width with cutting length L when the softest WC-m is cut. As shown in the figure, the polycrystalline CBN

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 600 500 Workpiece: WC-d
Workpiece: WC-m : SC
500 : PCD-a : CVD-SC
: PCD-a(=10°) 400 : BL-NPD
Flank wear width VB µm

Flank wear width VB µm

: PCD-b Workpiece: WC-t
400 : CBN : SC Chipping
300 : BL-NPD
300
Chipping 200
200
Chipping
100
100

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Cutting length L m Cutting length L m

Fig. 4 Change of flank wear width with cutting length Fig. 6 Change of flank wear width with cutting length
in turning of softest carbide WC-m. in turning of harder carbides WC-d and WC-t.

Fig. 7 SEM photographs of flank face in turning WC-d

with respect to Fig. 6.

Fig. 5 SEM photographs of flank face in turning WC-

m with respect to Fig.4.

Fig. 8 SEM photographs of flank face in turning WC-t

with respect to Fig. 6.

tool () has the lowest tool wear than any PCD tools. This result is aligned to the previous report (Miyamoto et al.,
2009) that CBN wears slower than PCD tools in cutting WC with higher cobalt content. In the case of relatively soft
carbide, the wear seems to depend on chemical reaction rather than mechanical attrition. Diamond tends to react with
carbides (titanium-carbide, tungsten-carbide and others) whereas CBN has less reactive at high temperature because
boron-nitrogen bonds replace the carbon-carbon bonds in diamond. This causes the relatively small tool wear of CBN
tool coupled with large grain size (2 µm) and small Co content (7 %). In addition, CBN grains can endure the interference
between WC-m grade carbide within the cutting length below 64 m. As for PCD tools, the wear of PCD-b with less Co
content and large grain size is considerably smaller than those of PCD-a tools. The SEM photographs of the flank face
at L =12.5, 37 and 61 m are shown in Fig. 5, in which large attrition traces with scratch marks are observed in PCD-a
(α=0º, 10º). In addition, there is little effect of rake angle on tool wear.
Meanwhile the change of flank wear width with cutting length L in turning of harder WC-d and WC-t is shown in

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 500 400
Workpiece: WC-m Workpiece: WC-d

Principal cutting force Fp N

: PCD-a : SC
Principal cutting force Fp N

400 : PCD-a(=10°) : CVD-SC

: PCD-b 300 : BL-NPD Chipping
: CBN Workpiece: WC-t
300 : SC
: BL-NPD
200
200 Chipping

100
100 Chipping

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Cutting length L m Cutting length L m

Fig. 9 Change of principal cutting force with cutting Fig. 10 Change of principal cutting force with cutting
length in turning of softest carbide WC-m. length in turning of carbides WC-d and WC-t.

Fig. 6. In cutting of such hard carbide materials, both polycrystalline CBN and PCD cannot be used continuously due to
their low hardness of the tool material, while BL-NPD and SC tools are applicable. Especially, only BL-NPD is well
available for cutting of the hardest WC-t.
In turning of WC-d, the BL-NPD tool () has the best cutting performance with less flank wear. In the case of SC
tool (), on the other hand, the flank wear with VB approaches approximately 270 µm at the cutting length of 560 m,
and then chipping occurred at the same time. Figure 7 represents the SEM photographs of tool flank and it is visible that
the cutting edge geometry of BL-NPD is kept almost constant. Similar behaviour is seen in CVD-SC because it has the
similar physical properties as SC. In the case of CVD-SC, however, wear rate is somewhat higher than that of SC but
chipping has not taken place. It is estimated that the toughness of CVD-SC is higher than that of SC.
In the case of turning WC-t, the SC tool underwent the chipping at the initial stage of cutting, whereas BL-NPD can
continue to cut up to the cutting length of approximately 500 m. In most cases, the chipping of cutting edge occurs at the
bottom of the workpiece where the feed stops and turn back immediately as shown in Fig. 3, and pulsed cutting force
arises at that time. This could have caused the chipping. The SEM photographs of the flank face of BL-NPD is shown in
Fig.. 8. In spite of turning hardest carbide material WC-t, the flank wear is smaller than that of SC in turning middle WC-
d. This abrasion resistant of BL-NPD can be explained by both high hardness and toughness due to extremely fine grain
size. From the above results, the BL-NPD has the best cutting ability in turning of cemented carbide. Based on the same
physical properties of CVD-SD and SC, cutting test has passed with CVD-SC tool.

3.2 Cutting Force

The change of cutting force with cutting length in turning of softest carbide WC-m is shown in Fig. 9. It is noticed
from the figure that CBN and PCD-b indicate almost same cutting forces and smaller than the other PCD tools. This
result shows the similar tendency as the tool wear characteristics shown in Fig. 4. From Figs. 4 and 9, CBN tool seems
to be suitable for cutting of relatively soft cemented carbide sintered for mold.
Figure 10 shows the cutting force in turning of harder WC-d and WC-t. As for WC-d carbide, both SC () and BL-
NPD () are sufficiently usable while chipping has occurred on SC tool when cutting length L approached 560 m. The
extremely stable cutting, however, can be done with BL-PCD where the principal cutting force is kept almost constant at
40 N. CVD-SC () shows a similar tendency with SC tool, in which cutting force reaches approximately 130 N at 500
m without chipping.
In the case of hardest WC-t, on the other hand, turning experiment can be continued with BL-NPD only. As shown
in Fig. 10, the cutting force increases rapidly from L=260 m and reaches approximately 220 N at L=510 m, where a tool
failure occurred. According to the above results, the cutting conditions should be determined insofar as the cutting force
does not exceed approximately 200 N.

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 500 600
Workpiece: WC-d
: SC
: CVD-SC

Tool flank temperature Tf °C

Tool flank temperature Tf °C

400 : BL-NPD
500
Workpiece: WC-t
: SC
300 : BL-NPD

Chipping 400
200
Workpiece: WC-m
: PCD-a 300
100 : PCD-a(=10°)
: PCD-b
: CBN
Chipping
0 200
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Cutting length L m Cutting length L m
Fig. 11 Change of tool flank temperature with cutting Fig. 12 Change of tool flank temperature with cutting
length in turning of softest carbide WC-m. length in turning of WC-d and WC-t.

3.3 Cutting Temperature

The tool flank temperature reading in cutting WC-m is shown in Fig. 11. In spite of turning hard materials, the tool
temperatures measured are relatively low below 450°C due to the high thermal conductivities of tool materials. It is
estimated, however, that the temperatures at chip-tool interface are somewhat higher than those of flank face (Moriwaki,
et al., 2013). Both PCD-a (α=0° and 10°) tools indicate the relatively higher temperature over 400°C associated with
cutting force as shown in Fig. 9. WC-m cutting with CBN tool also produced temperature around 250°C to 310°C within
the cutting length of 20 m. In the case of CBN, the cutting temperature becomes higher due to the low thermal
conductivity while the cutting force is kept low. On the other hand, PCD-b emits a lower thermal energy in cutting WC-
m in comparison to CBN and PCD-a tools. This is closely related to the combination of flank wear and cutting force
experienced and also the thermal conductivity of PCD-b.
Meanwhile, in the case of cutting harder WC-d carbide, cutting temperature Tf of BL-NPD () is clearly lower than
that of SC () and CVD-SC tool (), where Tf of BL-NPD is anchoring around 250°C with a very slow increment
whereas values of Tf of SC increases from approximately 270°C to 320°C. Meanwhile, Tf value with CVD-SC tool
reaches a slightly higher than that of SC at 340°C but the temperature curve has similar pattern due to the similarity of
tool’s properties between the two. This temperature difference is directly related to the lower tool wear and cutting force
rather than thermal conductivity as shown in Figs. 6 and 10. In this case, thermal conductivity has less effect on cutting
temperature. Additionally, the single diamond is not perfect transparent and has some absorbance within the visible to
infrared region. As shown in Fig. 1, both SC and CVD-SC tools are colored materials, especially CVD-SC looks like
almost opaque, and the thermal radiation occurs when they become hot. In fact, the clear output signals by thermal
radiation energies from the tool flank faces were obtained for both SC and CVD-SC tools.
In the case of hardest WC-t carbide cutting, the SC tool breaks abruptly after 1st cutting pass as shown in Fig. 10, so

Fig. 13 3D surface profiles of WC-d cut by BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC.

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 100 Oxygen Cobalt

Mass density  %
Carbon Tungsten
80
60
40
20
0

PC -a
D

-b
PC

N
CB

PD

CV SC
N
(WC

BL SC
Cutt -m)

BL

PD
-
in g t

SC
-N
ool m (WC-
ateri d)
al (W
orkp (WC-t)
iece)
Fig. 14 SEM photographs of machined surface of WC-
d cut by BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC. Fig. 16 EDS elemental analysis on adhesion at tool edge.

Fig. 15 Close-up BES images of pitting/cavity on WC-

d surface machined by SC tool.

Fig. 17 Close-up SEM images of flank wear.

that the temperature measurement could not continue but the highest temperature of about 420°C is obtained. This seems
to be caused by large flank wear shown in Fig. 6. It is clear here that WC-t is a very hard material to be cut in dry and
hard turning condition. The cutting temperature of BL-NPD progressively increases from 275°C to 420°C as the tool
wear grows in a steeper pattern in comparison of cutting temperature in WC-d machining. The gradient of cutting
temperature tabulated for BL-NPD shown in Fig. 12 again reflects the flank wear and cutting force.

3.4 Surface finish

Figure 13 represents the typical turned surface of WC-d carbide cut by BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC tools. As seen in
the figure, the clear feed marks having the cutting edge geometry are observed. These stable finished surfaces seem to be
formed by plastic flow of workpiece material. The chip morphologies are also shown in Fig. 13, in which short-length
semicontinuous chips are generated as same as high carbon steel. According to the above results, it should be said that
the cemented carbides for mold, die and tool can be relatively easily turned by binderless diamond tool.
Further observation is done on the machined surface of the WC-d cut by BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC shown in Fig.
14. It is obvious that, SC and CVD-SC cutting produced cavity/pitting in the end of the tool’s life. This is clearly shown
in Fig. 15. Meanwhile, BL-NPD cuttings produced much smoother surface with smaller cavity/pitting in comparison to
SC and CVD-SC. In the other hand, clear marks of cutting is seen here similar to Fig. 13 description.

4. Discussion

Most of the tool experienced attrition as the main tool wear mechanism. Failures of these tools are due to the
exceeding of the allowable flank wear width and major chipping. On the other hand, with softer grade cemented carbide
(WC-m), most of the failure due to mechanical shocks. This is also similar to harder grade WC (WC-d and WC-t) on the

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 Insert Dulled insert

WC particle

Binder
Workpiece
Close-up

(a) Dulled SC/CVD-SC (b) Close-up of (a)

Fig. 19 Formation of machined surface by dulled
SC/CVD-SC tools (a). Magnified view in the
vicinity of cutting edge area showing cleaving
(a) BL-NPD (b) SC and grain plucking by dulled SC/CVD-SC
Fig. 18 Crack propagation model in cutting tools. tools.

harder BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC tools. The aforementioned tool wear mechanism is accompanied by some adhesion of
the workpiece material. Figure 16 shows the EDS (Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) analysis on the adhesion
section at the tool surface, where the mass percentage of W, C, Co and O are shown. From the figure, it should be noticed
that the adhesion of work materials (Co and W) are detected on CBN also BL-NPD SC and CVD-SC tools. The influence
of this adhesion on generation of chipping is not clear at the present stage.
The tool performance is somehow related to the tool hardness value and the grain structure of the tool. This is evident
in cutting WC-d and WC-t with BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC although these tools almost acquired the same hardness
value. BL-NPD with the grain structures size of several nm seem to perform better in cutting force and tool wear in
comparison to single crystal structured SC and CVD-SC tools. In cutting WC-d, the tendency of chipping or edge
chipping is nonexistence on BL-NPD cutting edge in contrast of SC and CVD-SC tools. SC and CVD-SC tools seem to
incur chipping during cutting of WC particles. On the other hand, BL-NPD wears in a gradual manner. Comparable
performance indication has also been seen in previous study (Yui, et al., 2012) where similar tools are used in cutting
binderless cemented carbide.
This wearing phenomenon is noticeable in Fig. 17 and it is explained further in Fig. 18. It is apparent that the nano-
grained tool wears more gracefully and the crack that formed chipping by exposed WC particles is being halted by another
grain/particle or following the interface before it propagates to other areas in BL-NPD. This act reduces large chipping
and the tool will usually sustain attrition wear. Meanwhile, the structure of both SC and CVD-SC have been a factor of
localized chipping. This is due to the nature of singular crystal. When the crack of the worn tool started, it will propagate
and uncontrollable. This has been the reason of chipping that is shown visually on the tool edge.
The difficulties of cutting cemented carbide have been touched in earlier study by (Fujiwara, et al., 2013). This study
emphasizes that as the binder content increases, the carbide became much easier to cut as the space between the WC
particles are becoming bigger. In this paper, clearly binderless small grained (in µm or nm) tool material performs best
in cutting of harder carbides. Hard single crystal structure tool is the second best. The interaction between carbide and
SC/CVD-SC tool is emphasized in Fig. 19, where WC grains might be ripped out by SC and/or CVD-SC tool. It could
be concluded that as the tool draws to near the end of its life, unsuccessful cutting of WC grains result a cavity/pitting on
the machined surface, and then the WC grain is plucked out of the workpiece by the plunging of the tool cutting edge.
Furthermore, this phenomenon seems to cause chipping/micro-chipping of tool face. The above action is effect of the
dulling process of cutting WC-d workpiece using SC and CVD-SC tools. It is obvious here that the grain structure and
hardness are important parameters in choosing the tool in cutting of cemented carbide as these feature improve the tool’s
ability to withstand tool wear and maintaining tool edge’s sharpness.
Tool flank temperature is significantly low due to the high thermal conductivity of both workpiece and tool materials.
Thermal conductivity values indicate the ability of the tool and workpiece to channel the thermal energy away from the
source as the higher the value, the quicker the thermal energy transferred to the surroundings. However, Figures 10 and
12 suggest that, cutting temperature is more influenced by cutting force (tool wear) than thermal conductivity in the case
of harder carbide WC-d and WC-t. SC tool has been shown to produce high cutting temperature at slower cutting speed

© The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers

 and higher depth of cut in previous research (Moriwaki, et al., 2013). This phenomenon is similar in WC-m cutting
whereby although PCD-a have a higher thermal conductivity in comparison to CBN tool; it experienced much higher
cutting temperature than CBN as shown in Fig. 11.

5. Conclusions

Cutting performance of four types of diamond tools and CBN tool is examined in dry turning of three grades of
cemented carbide (WC), where Co binder content is changed with 12%, 20% and 25%. The main results are summarized
as follows.
(1) In cutting of softest carbide WC-m (25% Co), the polycrystalline CBN tool has the lowest tool wear than any
other PCD tools but BL-NPD. In turning such a relatively soft carbide, the wear seems to depend on chemical
reaction rather than mechanical attrition. Diamond tends to react with carbides whereas CBN has less reactive
so that relatively small tool wear take place coupled with large grain size and small Co content.
(2) In turning of harder carbides WC-d (20% Co) and WC-t (12% Co), both polycrystalline CBN and PCD cannot
be used continuously due to their low hardness, and BL-NPD, SC and CVD-SC tools are applicable. And the
BL-NPD tool has the best cutting performance with less flank wear. As for WC-d, the extremely stable cutting
can be done with BL-NPD where the principal cutting force is kept almost constant at 40 N. It is naturally
estimated that the BL-NPD also shows the best tool performance in turning WC-m as well as WC-d and WC-t.
(3) In the case of hardest WC-t, turning can be continued with BL-NPD only, while the cutting force and flank wear
width reach approximately 220 N and 270 µm, respectively at the cutting length exceeds 500 m.
(4) In spite of turning hard materials, the tool temperatures measured are relatively low below 450°C due to the high
thermal conductivities of tool materials. However, cutting temperature is directly related to the tool wear and
cutting force rather than thermal conductivity in turning of WC-d and WC-t.
(5) The stable finished surface is formed by clear feed mark having the cutting edge geometry in all carbides.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their outmost gratitude to Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Co., Ltd. for providing
cutting tools and workpiece materials. The first author is also grateful for the financial support received from the Ministry
of Higher Education Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

References

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vibration cutting, International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, Vol. 49, No. 14 (2009), pp.1089–1095.
Fujiwara, J., Wakao, K. and Miyamoto, T., Influence of tungsten-carbide and cobalt on tool wear in cutting of cemented
carbides with polycrystalline diamond tool, International Journal of Automation Technology, Vol. 7, No. 4 (2013),
pp.433–438.
Miyamoto, T., Fujiwara, J. and Wakao, K., Influence of WC and Co in cutting cemented carbides with PCD and CBN
tools, Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 407–408 (2009), pp.428–431.
Moriwaki, T., Tsurimoto, S. and Ueda, T., Cutting temperature in diamond turning of tungsten carbide, Proceedings of
the 13th euspen International Conference, Vol. 2 (2013), pp.43–46.
Okada, M., Hosokawa, A., Tanaka, R. and Ueda, T., Cutting performance of PVD coated and CBN tools in hardmilling,
International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, Vol. 51, No. 2 (2010), pp.127–132.
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machining steel, Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design Systems and Manufacturing, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2013), pp.
474–484.
Yui, A., Okuyama, S., Kitajima, T., Okahata, G., Sumiya, H. and Harano, K., Performance of single-crystalline and
nanometer-sized polycrystalline diamond tools in cutting cobalt-free tungsten carbide under face turning,
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