International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117

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Machinability of hardened steel using alumina based ceramic

cutting tools
A. Senthil Kumar a, A. Raja Durai a, T. Sornakumar b,*

a
Manufacturing Engineering Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai 600025, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai 625015, India
Accepted 25 November 2002

Abstract
Alumina based ceramic cutting tool is an attractive alternative for carbide tools in the machining of steel in its hardened con-
dition. These ceramic cutting tools can machine with high cutting speed and produce good surface finish. The wear mechanism of
these ceramic cutting tools should be properly understood for greater utilization. Two types of ceramic cutting tools namely Ti[C,N]
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool and zirconia toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool are used for our investigation. The
machinability of hardened steel was evaluated by measurements of tool wear, cutting forces and surface finish of the work piece.
These alumina based ceramic cutting tool materials produce good surface finish in the machining of hardened steel. In this paper an
attempt is made to analyse the important wear mechanisms like abrasive wear, adhesive wear and diffusion wear of these ceramic
cutting tool materials and the performance of these ceramic cutting tools related to the surface finish is also discussed here.

2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Machinability; Wear; Ceramic tools; Alumina; Hardened steel; Surface finish

1. Introduction Zirconia exists in three well-defined polymorphs: cubic

Advances in ceramic processing technology have re-
sulted in a new generation of high performance ceramic
cutting tools exhibiting improved properties. Improve-
ments have been made in tool properties such as fracture
strength, toughness, thermal shock resistance, hardness
and wear resistance. These developments have now en-
abled the ceramic tools to be used in the machining of
various types of steel, cast iron, non-ferrous metals and
refractory nickel based alloys at high speed. Aluminium
oxide is widely used as ceramic cutting tool material and
it is strengthened by the addition of particles like zir-
conium oxide, titanium carbide, and titanium nitride to
improve the properties. The strengthening or the tough-
ening mechanisms of these ceramic composites are phase
transformation toughening and precipitate or dispersion
strengthening.
Zirconia toughened alumina consists of partially
stabilized zirconia particles dispersed in alumina matrix.
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sornakumar2000@yahoo.com (T. Sornakumar).
(c) (above 2370 C), tetragonal (t) (between 2370 and
1150 C) and monoclinic (m) (below 1150 C). The high
temperature phases can be stabilized to room tempera-
ture by addition of dopants like yittria, ceria and mag-
nesia [1]. The t-phase, which is metastable phase at low
temperature, needs energy to transform to the stable low
temperature m-phase. Since this t to m transformation
absorbs energy, and since the ability to absorb energy
generates toughness, t to m transformation leads to
an increase in toughness of the material. This phenom-
enon is known as transformation toughening. When
zirconia is toughened by the dopants like yittria, ceria
and magnesia using the above transformation tough-
ening, it is called transformation-toughened zirconia
(TTZ). Introduction of an adequate amount of zirco-
nia in traditional alumina matrix has led to the devel-
opment of zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) with
improved toughness. In ZTA zirconia experiences a
constrained transformation, the constraining matrix
is alumina, which has higher elastic modulus and
lower thermal expansion than TTZ. The tetragonal-
monoclinic transformation is considered to be marten-
sitic in the bulk and it is accompanied by a volume

0263-4368/$ - see front matter
2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0263-4368(03)00004-0
110 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117
increase. When pure zirconia is dispersed in an alumina
matrix, zirconia retains metastable tetragonal particles,
which are constrained by the rigid matrix that oppose to
the volume increase related to phase transformation.
When the alumina-tetragonal zirconia composites are
stressed, the tensile strain field that surrounds a crack tip
transforms zirconia particles, which expand and gener-
ate compressive strain in the matrix and the tensile stress
at the crack tip is decreased. This stress-induced trans-
formation enhances the fracture toughness of zirconia
toughened alumina composites [2]. Zirconia particles
dispersed in alumina matrix also increase the fracture
toughness, due to the formation of a high density of
micro cracks absorbing energy due to their slow prop-
agation. The micro cracks are formed by the expansion
of ZrO2 during tetragonal to monoclinic transforma-
tion.
Another important type of alumina based ceramic
cutting tool is Ti[C,N] particulate mixed alumina ce-
ramic composite tool. By adding these non-oxide par-
ticles like TiC and TiN in the alumina matrix, the
thermal conductivity, the thermal shock resistance and
the hardness are increased. These composite ceramic
cutting tools retain their hardness even at elevated
temperature. The addition of particles like TiC and
TiN increases the transverse rupture strength of the
composite as compared to the white plain alumina ce-
ramic cutting tools. In the Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
composite ceramic cutting tool, the TiC, TiN grains pin
the crack initiated in the matrix. This is due to the fact
that additional expenditure of energy is required, in
order to propagate the crack around the particles [3]. In
this type of ceramic composite cutting tool, TiC and
TiN particles act to pin the stress induced dislocation
motion in the alumina matrix. The toughening mecha-
nism for this type of mixed ceramic cutting tools is
known as precipitate or dispersion strengthening. In
precipitate or dispersion strengthened materials, when
a dislocation encounters the precipitates, it will not,
in general, be able to cut through them because pre-
cipitates are stronger than the matrix. Consequently,
the dislocation will have to bow between the pre-
cipitates and around them, leaving a dislocation
loop around the particle. The dislocation movement
is thus hindered by the TiC and TiN particles dis-
persed in alumina matrix, and additional expenditure
of energy is required for the movement of the disloca-
tion [4].
2. Literature review
By the development of these ceramic composite tools
with improved properties, machining of steel in their
hardened condition using alumina based ceramic cutting
tools is made attractive. Ceramic cutting tools like zir-
conia toughened alumina ceramic cutting tools are
called oxide alumina ceramic tools and TiC and TiN
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tools are called mixed
alumina ceramic cutting tools. These ceramic tools can
be used for high speed machining and this facilitates the
effective utilization of high-speed machines, reducing the
machining time. The productivity is improved by shorter
cycle times and high-speed steel machining using ce-
ramic cutting tools thus reduces the cost of manufac-
turing. The wear behaviour of these ceramic cutting tool
materials is complex, and more information on wear
mechanisms and improved cutting tool materials are
needed in order to predict the performance under given
machining condition. These ceramic composite cutting
tool materials are being used primarily for machining of
hard materials like cast iron, steel, stainless steel in their
hardened conditions, refractory metals like nickel-based
alloys and composite materials. The need for finish
machining operation like grinding can be eliminated by
using these ceramic composite cutting tools. It was re-
ported that switching from coated carbide tools to
composite ceramic tools had resulted in a 2.5 times im-
provement in tool life plus faster metal removal rate
when machining automobile axle hubs made out of
malleable iron [5]. By using ceramic inserts, the cutting
speed could be increased from 183 to 381 m/min. The
other machining parameters such as feed rate of 0.20
mm/rev and depth of cut of 0.38 mm remained the same.
Machining of hardened steel was done using zirconia
toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool and Ti[C,N]
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool. Hong Xiao [6]
conducted tool wear studies on various ceramic tools
and observed that oxide and mixed ceramic tools are
more suitable for machining hardened steel than other
ceramic tools, because of their superior flank wear re-
sistance. Brandt [7] observed that mixed alumina ce-
ramic tool has better flank wear resistance due to higher
hot hardness and greater thermal conductivity than
oxide alumina ceramic tools, while machining hardened
steel. Brandt and Mikus [8] observed that the crater
wear of alumina based ceramic tools while machining
steel was predominantly dependent upon superficial
plastic deformation, and this deformation was greatly
affected by chemical reaction with the work piece ma-
terial. Bhattacharyya et al. [9] found that the tools based
on mixed ceramics give better performance than those
based on oxide and nitride ceramics, while machining
cast iron. Richards and Aspinwall [10] observed that
the tool life of mixed alumina ceramic tool was se-
verely limited due to excessive depth of cut notch-
ing, while machining Nickel based alloys. Wayne and
Buljan [11] observed that the depth of cut notching
was reduced with the addition of SiC whiskers and to a
lesser extent with TiC particles while machining Inconel
718.
 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117 111

3. Experimental procedure Table 1

Details of composition and properties of the cutting tool materials
3.1. Wear mechanism of ceramic cutting tools Details of tool Unit Zirconia Ti[C,N]
material toughened mixed
alumina alumina
In general, ceramic cutting tools undergo wear due to
Composition Al2 O3 96.5% Al2 O3 70%
abrasion, adhesion or diffusion. The total tool wear
ZrO2 3.5% Ti[C,N] 30%
observed in the ceramic cutting tool can be divided into Insert Speci- CNGN CNGN
two main broad categories [12]: fication 12 07 08-T 12 07 08-T
Density g/cm3 4.02 4.25
• mechanically activated wear which includes abrasion, Vickers hardness (HV30) 1730 1930
Compressive MPa 5000 4800
adhesion (attrition) and fracture;
strength
• chemically activated wear also called tribochemical Transverse MPa 700 620
wear which includes diffusion or dissolution wear. rupture
strength
Usually the wear in a cutting tool is a complex phe- YoungÕs Modulus GPa 380 400
Fracture MPa m1=2 4.5 4.5
nomenon and can be attributed to several of the above
toughness
wear modes/mechanisms. The combined effect of the Thermal W/mK 16 20
wear mechanisms or the predominance of any of them conductivity
1
depends upon the following factors: Coefficient of K  10 6
8 8
thermal
expansion
• type of cutting tool material such as single phase ce-
ramic or composite ceramic, type of reinforcements
like particles, whiskers, chemical affinity towards
work piece material, mechanical properties such as Table 2
hardness, toughness etc.; Composition of work piece material by weight percentage
• type of work piece material such as ferrous or non- C Si Mn Cr Mo Ni Fe
ferrous material, composite material, its hardness 0.35– 0.1– 0.45– 0.9– 0.2– 1.3– Balance
and machinability; 0.45 0.35 0.7 1.4 0.35 1.8
• cutting conditions such as speed, feed rate, depth of
cut, and tool geometry such as rake angle, clearance
angle, approach angle, cutting edge angle, nose radius
etc. Table 3
Experimental conditions
In general ceramic cutting tool materials are more Cutting speed m/min 120, 170, 270
wear resistant than cemented carbide tools. Abrasive Feed rate mm/rev 0.12
wear is predominantly controlled by the mechanical Depth of cut mm 0.5
properties of tool material such as hardness and tough- Environment Dry
ness. Diffusion wear is predominantly controlled by
chemical stability and the solubility of the tool material
in the work material at high temperature. tool wear measurements were noted for every 5 min and
In the present study the wear mechanisms of the ce- the total machining time was 20 min. Surface finish
ramic cutting tools were analysed by conducting ma- measurements on the machined work piece, and the
chining tests. These tests were conducted on EN 24 steel, force measurements of the ceramic cutting tools were
which was previously heat treated to get the hardness noted. Experimental conditions are shown in Table 3.
values of HRC 40 and HRC 45. Two types of ceramic The various types of wear mechanisms of the ceramic
tool materials were used for the present study. The cutting tools are discussed below.
properties and composition of the ceramic cutting tools
are given in Table 1. Zirconia toughened alumina ce- 3.1.1. Abrasive wear
ramic cutting tool and Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic Abrasive wear is usually a dominant wear mechanism
cutting tool were used for machining the hardened steel. on the flank face, it is also observed on the rake face.
The chemical composition of the work piece material is Abrasion is characterized by development of grooves
given in Table 2. Machining tests were conducted using and ridges in the direction of tool sliding against a newly
these alumina composite ceramic tools at different cut- machined surface of the work piece or chip sliding
ting speeds at constant feed and depth of cut, in a pre- against the rake face. The severity of abrasion can be
cision lathe. The flank wear, notch wear, crater wear increased in cases where the work piece materials contain
depth and crater wear contour area were measured. The hard inclusions, or when there is a hard wear debris from
112 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117

the work piece or the tool at the interface. The abrasive

wear in a ceramic cutting tool is related to its material
properties i.e. fracture toughness, ÔKIC Õ and hardness, ÔH Õ.
The abrasive wear resistance of ceramic material is di-
rectly proportional to the product of fracture toughness
3=4
and hardness of the cutting tool materials i.e. ÔKIC H 1=2 Õ
[2]. This parameter can be used to predict the wear re-
sistance of a tool in a cutting operation where abrasion is
a dominant wear mechanism, i.e. where tribochemical
wear is negligible. The wear by abrasion is usually due to
crack development and intersection caused by hard as-
perities or wear particles acting as small indenters on the
cutting face. In many cases, the abrasive action is at-
tributed to special features of the flowing chip, which is
characterized by a serrated profile along its edges and
also by the broken chips of irregular shapes caught in-
between the tool and work piece. This type of serrated Fig. 2. SEM micrograph showing ridges in Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic tool.
chips and broken chips abrades the tool material under
high cutting speed and creates scars in the tool material.
The abrasion marks caused by the abrasion in the zir-
conia toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool are visible 0.4

in Fig. 1. Also broken chips of work material of about

20–30 lm size, can be noted on the surface of the toolÕs 0.35
rake face. High stresses generated at the tool–chip/work
Flank wear (mm)

piece interface during machining cause many abrasive 0.3

grooves and ridges on rake and flank faces. For chemi-
cally stable cutting tools such as alumina based ceramics, 0.25
plastically deformed grooves and ridges account for most
of the rake and flank face wear. Fig. 2 shows the abrasive
0.2
ridges and grooves on the rake face of the Ti[C,N] mixed
ceramic cutting tool. The flank wear of the two ceramic
cutting tools are compared in Fig. 3. This figure shows, 0.15

on machining EN 24 steel (45 HRC), that the flank wear

progressively increases as the cutting speed is increased. 0.1
120 170 270
The increase in speed may increase the abrasive action, Cutting speed (m/min)
Ti[C,N] mixed alumina Zirconia toughened alumina

Fig. 3. Flank wear vs. cutting speed of the ceramic cutting tools after
20 min of machining of EN 24 steel.

hence there is an increase in flank wear for both types of

tools. Flank wear in Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic
cutting tool is slightly lower than zirconia toughened
alumina. This difference may be attributed to the greater
hardness of Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic tool than
zirconia toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool.

3.1.2. Adhesive wear

Fig. 1. SEM micrograph of zirconia toughened alumina ceramic cut-
ting tool showing abrasion marks on the surface of the rake face of the
tool.
Adhesive wear (often called attrition) of cutting tools
involves the mechanism in which individual grains or
their small aggregates are pulled out of the tool surface
and are carried away at the underside of the chip or torn
away by the adherent work piece. The term ÔpluckingÕ is
also used to describe the loss of tool particles from the
edge or faces. Weaker interface bonding between dif-
 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117 113

ferent ceramic phases can increase the severity of ad-

hesion wear. The adhered work piece particles often
remain attached to the tool edge. The difference between
the adhesive wear and the diffusion wear is that the
adhesive wear is not a chemically activated wear like
the diffusion wear. Adhesive wear is reported even in the
chemically stable work piece–tool interface, especially
when harder work materials are machined by ceramic
cutting tool materials. The wear scars produced by ad-
hesive wear are rough, as opposed to the smooth wear
surfaces generated by diffusion wear. However wear
mechanism is a very complex phenomenon and a com-
bination of all these mechanisms are responsible for the
overall wear behaviour of the ceramic cutting tools. The
predominant wear mechanism in notch wear of the ce-
ramic cutting tools is found to be adhesion. Chandr-
Fig. 5. SEM micrograph of the chip of EN 24 steel with 45 HRC.
asekaran and Johansson [13] observed that notch wear
would depend on the extent of area available for adhe-
sion of the chip, adhesive affinity of tool and work
0.5
material, the hot strength of the tool at the adhesive
junction and the frequency of interruption in the adhe-
sive contact. The repeated adhesive welding of the chip/
Notch wear (mm)
0.4
work material to the tool and breaking away from the
tool after adhesion, initiates the loss of material from 0.3
the notch region of the tool material. SEM micrographs
of the chips of the EN 24 steel of hardness HRC 40 and
HRC 45 are shown in Figs. 4 and 5. It may be noted that 0.2

the chip of EN 24 steel with 40 HRC is smooth and

without serrations whereas the chip of EN 24 steel with
45 HRC has serrations. Usually depth of cut notch wear
is more severe, on machining work piece material with
greater hardness values. The notch wear behaviour of
the two ceramic tools on machining EN 24 steel (45
HRC) is compared in Fig. 6, which shows notch wear vs.
machining time. Stachowiak and Stachowiak [12] found
that the depth of cut notch wear is mostly observed in
the ceramic tools, which have low toughness values,
Fig. 4. SEM micrograph of the chip of EN 24 steel with 40 HRC.
0.1
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (min)
Ti [C,N] mixed alumina zirconia toughened alumina
Fig. 6. Notch wear vs. machining time of the ceramic cutting tools on
machining EN 24 steel at 270 m/min.
while machining hard materials. It may be concluded
that the frequent adhesive contacts of the chip of the
hard work material with the ceramic cutting tool results
in significant notch wear. It may be noted that Ti[C,N]
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tools exhibit slightly
higher notch wear than zirconia toughened alumina
ceramic cutting tools. It was also reported in Section 2
that the tool life of mixed alumina ceramic tool was
severely limited due to excessive notching, while ma-
chining Nickel based alloys [10]. The reason why a zir-
conia toughened alumina ceramic tool gives better
performance is the transformation toughening effect of
zirconia particles in the composite which may prevent
the plucking of particles from the composite. Fig. 7
shows the notch wear vs. machining time of Ti[C,N]
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool on machining EN 24
steel with two different hardness values HRC 40 and
HRC 45 at a cutting speed of 270 m/min. The increase
of the hardness of the work piece material increases
the notch wear in the Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic
114 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117
0.5
Notch wear (mm)
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
5 10 15
Time (min)
EN 24steel /45 HRC EN 24 steel/4 0 HRC
Fig. 7. Notch wear vs. machining time of a Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic tool on machining EN 24 steel with 45 HRC & 40 HRC at 270
m/min.
cutting tool. This may also be attributed to the serra-
tions in the chip, due to the adhesive contact with the
tool material.
3.1.3. Diffusion wear
Diffusion wear involves a chemical reaction between
the work piece and the ceramic tool, and the process is
activated by high temperatures and is observed mainly
at the tool–chip (rake face) interface. This type of wear
is more pronounced at high cutting speeds or when there
is a high temperature at the tool–chip interface, and is
accelerated by a high chemical affinity between the work
piece and the tool. The main wear mechanism in crater
wear of ceramic tools is the diffusion of particles into the
work piece. It is thus a tribochemical wear as a result of
the chemical affinity between the work piece and the
cutting tool [12]. The factor, which probably causes this
type of wear, is the solubility of the tool material in the
work material at the tool–chip interface. The solubility
of aluminium oxide and zirconium oxide is lower than
the solubility of titanium carbide and titanium nitride.
The latter two materials thus react with iron at high
temperatures. At high cutting speed, the temperature at
the tool–chip interface increases and the transfer of
material between the work piece material and the tool
occurs. At high cutting temperatures, titanium nitride
and carbide inclusions react with iron to form low
melting eutectics. Therefore the cutting process is ac-
companied by the deposition of a thin layer of liquid
phase, with a melting point lower than that of the work
piece [14]. The liquid phase ejected from the tool–chip
contact zone into the environment will take a spherical
shape as a result of the surface tension. These spherical
droplets may be trapped on the surface of the cutting
tool material and spheres of a distinct dendritic structure
are formed on cooling. The spherical particles measur-
ing about 20–30 lm are found on the surface of the
20
Fig. 8. SEM micrograph of the rake face of Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic cutting tool material showing liquid phase spherical droplet.
Ti[C,N] mixed alumina tool and as shown in Fig. 8.
These observations show that a Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic tool is susceptible to diffusion wear and crater
wear in this type of tool can not be neglected.
Fig. 9 shows the crater wear depth vs. time of the
ceramic cutting tool materials on machining EN 24 steel
with hardness 45 HRC at 270 m/min. The crater wear
depth of Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic cutting tools is
higher as compared to zirconia toughened alumina ce-
ramic cutting tools. The growth of the crater contour
area can be observed by plotting the contour area as a
function of cutting speed or time [15]. Fig. 10 shows the
growth of the crater wear contour area vs. time on
machining EN 24 steel at 270 m/min. It can be observed
that the growth of the contour area is higher in Ti[C,N]
mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool than in the zirconia
toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool. The crater
wear in Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool is
due to chemical instability of the tool material at high
temperatures on machining steel is also reported by
Stachowiak and Stachowiak [12]. Zirconia toughened
0.08
Crater wear depth (mm)
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (min)
Ti[C,N] mixed alumina zirconia toughened alumina
Fig. 9. Crater wear depth vs. machining time on machining EN 24
steel at 270 m/min using the ceramic cutting tools.
 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117
Crater wear contour area (mm 2)
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 5 10 15 20
Time (min)
Ti [C,N] mixed alumina zirconia toughened alumina
Fig. 10. Crater wear contour area vs. machining time on machining
EN 24 steel at 270 m/min using the ceramic cutting tools.
alumina ceramic cutting tool exhibits better crater
wear resistance than Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic
cutting tool because of its chemical stability with iron at
high temperatures, which was also reported by Narutaki
et al. [16].
3.2. Surface finish observation
One of the important parameters in evaluating the
performance of a cutting tool is the surface quality it
produces on the machined work piece. It is well known
in turning, the surface quality largely depends upon the
accuracy of replication of cutting nose on the work
surface. An ideal tool material is the one which can
ensure high fidelity of its nose replication, thereby en-
suring good control over the surface quality [17]. The
advantage of machining using ceramic cutting tools is
generally seen in higher levels of surface finish obtained
Fig. 11. Surface roughness vs. cutting speed after 20 min of machining
on EN 24 steel (45 HRC) using alumina based ceramic cutting tools.
115
compared to that of other conventional tools such as
cemented carbides. While dimensional accuracy is con-
trolled by flank wear of the turning tools, the surface
quality largely depends upon the stability of the cutting
nose. The variation of surface roughness with cutting
speed is presented in Fig. 11. It can be noted that both of
the ceramic cutting tools produced good surface finish
with the increase of cutting speed. The performance of
25 Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic tool is better than that
of ZTA because of its higher hardness and the better
stability of its cutting nose.
3.2.1. Influence of cutting force and hardness of the work
material on surface finish
Ceramic cutting tools have an advantage in the ma-
chining of hard work piece materials at high speed. The
variation of main cutting force with cutting speed on
machining EN 24 steel (45HRC) using Ti[C,N] mixed
alumina ceramic cutting tool is presented in Fig. 12. It
can be noted from the figure that the cutting forces of
the ceramic cutting tool decreases with cutting speed.
The decrease of cutting force with respect to cutting
speed when using Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic cut-
ting tool shows that this type of ceramic cutting tool can
machine the work piece material with high speed and at
low cutting forces. The lower cutting forces, result in a
lower distortion of work piece [5], which improves the
surface finish while machining with the ceramic cutting
tools and particularly by using Ti[C,N] mixed ceramic
cutting tools. The influence of hardness of the work
piece on surface roughness was studied, on machining
with these ceramic cutting tools. It can be noted from
Fig. 13 that the surface roughness slightly increases as
600
550
Cutting force (N)
500
450
400
350
300
100 150 200 250 300
Cutting Speed (m/min)
HRC 40 HRC 45
Fig. 12. Comparison of main cutting force with cutting speed on
machining EN 24 steel with 40HRC and 45 HRC using Ti[C,N] mixed
alumina ceramic cutting tool.
116 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117
7 8
Surface roughness [Ra]
(microns)
5 2
4 120
3
50 100 150 200
Cutting Speed (m/min)
EN 24 Steel /45(HRC) EN 24 Steel 40 /(HRC)
Fig. 13. Surface roughness vs. cutting speed after 20 min of machining
EN 24 steel with 40 HRC & 45 HRC using Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic cutting tool.
the hardness of the work piece material increases. Due
to the increase in hardness of the material, greater cut-
ting force is needed to machine the work material and
this is illustrated in Fig. 12. The ceramic cutting tool
materials machine the harder work piece material with
higher cutting forces than work piece materials with
lower hardness. This may contribute to the increase in
surface roughness in addition to the other factors such
as the increase in cutting temperature, deformation of
the nose region of the cutting tool and the serrated chips
caught in-between the work piece and cutting tool. In
general these ceramic cutting tool materials produce
good surface finish though there is a marginal increase
in surface roughness for harder work piece materials.
The surface finish of the work material improves with
cutting speed, regardless of the hardness of the work
piece material. Wuyi Chen et al. reported that surface
finish was improved with increasing cutting speed during
machining medium hardened steel using CBN tools [18].
It was reported that the ceramic tools exhibited superior
performance as compared to the carbide tools, especially
at higher machining speeds, both in terms of tool life
and surface finish of the work-piece [19].
3.2.2. Effect of flank wear on surface roughness
Flank wear of alumina based ceramic cutting tools
affects the tool life and it is one of the main tool wear
criteria for all alumina based ceramic cutting tools. The
exception is SiC whisker reinforced ceramic cutting tool,
where crater wear is the main tool wear criterion. The
effect of flank wear on surface finish is analysed by
plotting flank wear and surface roughness against cutting
speed. Fig. 14 shows the flank wear and surface rough-
ness plotted against cutting speed for a zirconia tough-
0.4
Surface Roughness [Ra]
Flank wear (mm)
6 0.3
microns
4 0.2
0.1
0 0
170 270
Cutting speed (m/min)
Surface roughness Flank wear
Fig. 14. Comparison of Surface roughness and flank wear vs. cutting
250 300 speed on machining EN 24 steel (45 HRC) using zirconia toughened
alumina ceramic cutting tool.
ened alumina ceramic cutting tool. It can be noted that
the flank wear increases with cutting speed and that the
surface roughness decreases with cutting speed. From
this we can infer that the flank wear generally does not
affect the performance of the surface finish while using
these ceramic cutting tools, until it does not affect the
nose region of the tools. As long as the nose region is not
affected, even though the flank wear spreads with speed,
the surface finish shows continuous improvement with
cutting speed. The effect of flank wear on surface finish
against cutting time is also analysed by plotting the same
parameters against cutting time in Fig. 15. It shows a
typical variation of surface finish and the increase in
flank wear with cutting time. It can be noted the surface
roughness exhibited a rising trend, up to certain time of
machining beyond which there was an improvement in
surface finish. The improvement can be attributed to the
nose-associated transformation toughening of the re-
spective tool materials, and in this case the transforma-
tion toughening of zirconia toughened alumina ceramic
6 0.4
Surface Roughness [Ra]
Flank wear (mm)
0.3
microns
0.2
0.1
4 0
5 10 15 20
Cutting time (min)
Surface roughness Flank wear
Fig. 15. Comparison of surface roughness and flank wear with cutting
time on machining EN 24 steel (45 HRC) at 270 m/min using zirconia
toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool.
 A. Senthil Kumar et al. / International Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 21 (2003) 109–117
cutting tool [1]. Though the surface roughness increases
initially, it stabilizes as time progresses. The initial rising
trend may be attributed to the initial deformation of
cutting nose. Later it stabilizes due to the toughening
mechanism rather than flank wear. Though the surface
roughness increases initially and the flank wear increases
steadily with machining time, the flank wear has minimal
effect on the surface roughness, as long as the nose region
is not affected by flank wear or by general tool wear. The
good surface finish obtained by using ceramic tools is
certainly an advantage in the machining of hard mate-
rials.
4. Conclusions
The machinability of hardened steel using alumina
based ceramic cutting tool materials is analysed. Abra-
sive wear is found to be the predominant wear mecha-
nism in alumina based ceramic cutting tool materials
when machining hardened steel. Both of the two types of
ceramic cutting tool materials undergo gradual pro-
gressive abrasive wear with increasing cutting speed.
Adhesive wear is higher when machining harder mate-
rial. Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic cutting tool mate-
rial is more affected by adhesive wear. Chemically
activated diffusion wear is higher in Ti[C,N] mixed ce-
ramic cutting tool materials but zirconia toughened
alumina ceramic tool is not affected by diffusion wear.
Surface finish improves with increasing cutting speed for
both types of ceramic cutting tool materials. The per-
formance of the Ti[C,N] mixed alumina ceramic cutting
tool material is better with respect to surface finish than
that of zirconia toughened alumina ceramic cutting tool.
The performance of ceramic cutting tools is found to be
good in the machining of steel. Ti[C,N] mixed alumina
ceramic cutting tool produces the best surface finish.
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