Thin Solid Films 518 (2009) 14511454

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Thin Solid Films

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Machining of high performance workpiece materials with CBN coated cutting tools
E. Uhlmann a, J.A. Oyanedel Fuentes a,, M. Keunecke b
a
Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF), Technical University Berlin, Pascalstrasse 8-9, 10587 Berlin, Germany
b
Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Film (IST), Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 2 October 2009 The machining of high performance workpiece materials requires signicantly harder cutting materials. In
hard machining, the early tool wear occurs due to high process forces and temperatures. The hardest known
Keywords: material is the diamond, but steel materials cannot be machined with diamond tools because of the reactivity
CBN coating of iron with carbon. Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is the second hardest of all known materials. The supply of
Hard machining such PcBN indexable inserts, which are only geometrically simple and available, requires several work
Turning
procedures and is cost-intensive. The development of a cBN coating for cutting tools, combine the
Milling
advantages of a thin lm system and of cBN. Flexible cemented carbide tools, in respect to the geometry can
be coated. The cBN lms with a thickness of up to 2 m on cemented carbide substrates show excellent
mechanical and physical properties. This paper describes the results of the machining of various workpiece
materials in turning and milling operations regarding the tool life, resultant cutting force components and
workpiece surface roughness. In turning tests of Inconel 718 and milling tests of chrome steel the high
potential of cBN coatings for dry machining was proven. The results of the experiments were compared with
common used tool coatings for the hard machining. Additionally, the wear mechanisms adhesion, abrasion,
surface fatigue and tribo-oxidation were researched in model wear experiments.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The machining of high performance workpiece materials such as
high-temperature alloys and hardened steels, because of the defor-
mation energy and the friction resulting from the reluctance of the
material to perform plastic deformation, results in high cutting forces
and high temperatures [1]. However these alloys and hardened steels
nd various industrial applications. Thus machining of these materials
and the research related to the cutting tools used for this machining
has gained immense importance. The ever increasing need of the
industry to improve productivity on one hand and reduce production
costs on the other hand coupled with the strict environmental laws
has motivated the research institutes to work towards increasing the
life of cutting tools. Previous research shows that a very effective way
of increasing tool life while keeping all the earlier mentioned factors
in mind is through coating of cutting tools, thus giving the research in
this direction high degree of importance [2].
Cubic boron nitride (cBN), today, has already established itself in
many areas of machining [3]. cBN being the second hardest material
know to man, after diamond, is produced articially [4,5]. However
certain factors such as geometrically complex forms being cost-
intensive, damage of external zone of structural components, etc. limit
the range of PcBN (polycrystalline cubic boron nitride) cutting tools. A
solution for meeting the increased requirements is the deposition of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 314 22424; fax: +49 (0)30 / 314 25895.
E-mail address: fuentes@iwf.tu-berlin.de (J.A.O. Fuentes).
superhard coatings. For this reason the deposition of cubic boron nitride
layers has been attempted since the mid-1980. Up till now it has not
been possible to develop a reliable process to use the large potential of
the cBN coated tools in industrial applications. At the Fraunhofer
Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST) in Braunschweig
the deposition of a 2 m cBN layer on silicon substrates with a long-term
stability and good adhesion has been achieved for the rst time. This has
been made possible by the use of a CBN gradient layer on the silicon
substrate [6].
The Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF) in
Berlin and the IST are working together in a research project on the
development and analysis of new cBN coatings. The main goal is to
develop cBN coated cutting tools which are ready for applications in
industry. Initial tests conrm an improvement in resultant forces.
Additionally, wear mechanisms like adhesion, abrasion, surface
fatigue and tribo-oxidation were investigated in many model wear
experiments [7,8].
2. Experimental details
2.1. CBN coating on cemented carbide substrate
The technology for the deposition of nano-crystalline cBN is based on
physical vapor deposition (PVD) sputtering of a boron carbide (B4C)-
target. The coating process details are discussed in [911]. In past studies
the focus was mainly on the layer system TiB4CBCNcBN, where the
interlayer is a thin metallic titanium layer. This component is replaced

0040-6090/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2009.09.095
1452 E. Uhlmann et al. / Thin Solid Films 518 (2009) 14511454
by a 2.5 m layer of titanium aluminium nitride (TiAlN). The reason for
this is to increase the binding of the cBN layer system to the substrate
and to obtain a better combination of toughness and strength. The boron
carbide intermediate layer is 0.4 m thick, while the nal nano-
crystalline cBN surface layer is approximately 2 m thick (Fig. 1A). In
Fig. 1B a cBN multilayer system is shown. The purpose of this layer
system is to increase the coating adhesion and the cBN layer thickness.
Although the multilayer system has a thickness of 6 m, with a 2.5 m
thick cBN layer, the mechanical properties are similar to a cBN coating.
Compared with other cutting materials, cBN possesses the highest
hardness and thermal stability for steel machining, a high wear
resistance as well as high oxidation and chemical stability. Due to the
dry cutting nature of the process the requirement for lubricants is
eliminated. Concerning tool expenses cBN coatings have the advan-
tage that no expensive cBN crystal must be acquired. Furthermore,
there are no negative effects on the tool performance in the machining
process as the binder is being avoided [3,12]. The composition of the
cBN coating shows remarkable characteristics. Measurements of the
hardness with the micro hardness measuring instrument Fischer-
scope H100 of the company Fischer, Sindelngen, veried this. An
evaluation of measurements of the Vickers hardness resulted in
approx. 5500 HV0.01 for the cBN layer system compared with approx.
2300 HV0.01 for a titanium nitride layer system.
2.2. Analysis of tribological behavior
2.2.1. Adhesion wear tests
For the adhesion experiments a cylinder-plate-tribometer was
used. The frictional force generated by the friction is measured by a
force measuring platform. The metrological determination of the
friction coefcient offers a simple method for the quantitative
evaluation of the adhesion afnity between the cutting tool material
and the workpiece material. The proceeding of the experimental setup
Fig. 1. SEM images of cBN layer systems.
and results are more in detail described in [13]. The cBN coating leads
to a signicant reduction of the frictional coefcient. In addition to
mechanical interaction with Inconel 718, the TiAlN coated substrate
showed chemical wear in the form of micro weldings of the workpiece
material. Despite the higher surface roughness of the cBN coated
indexable inserts as compared to the TiAlN coatings, they showed a
lower friction coefcient and better protection against friction
induced wear.
2.2.2. Abrasion wear tests
In order to achieve the resistance against abrasion Calo tests were
conducted. For the calotte grinding a hardened steel ball of 100Cr6
with 30 mm diameter is turned in order to grind the layer. Once the
lm has been abraded off, the projected surface can be evaluated. For
the purpose of comparison the tests were conducted with PVD-TiAlN-
and CVD-TiNTiCNAl2O3ZrCN coated indexable inserts. With an
optical microscope the different wear behavior of the different
coatings could be observed. It could be proven that the ZrCN coated
tool shows the highest diameter of affected zone. Measurement of the
diameters showed the TiAlN monolayer to be 1.37 mm, the cBN layer
system to be 1.35 mm, the cBN multilayer system to be 0.87 mm and
CVD-TiNTiCNAl2O3ZrCN to be 1.58 mm. The cBN multilayer
system determines a considerable lower diameter of affected zone.
These coated tools show generally higher abrasion wear resistances
against the reference coatings. Furthermore, a signicant advantage of
the cBN multilayer system against the cBN layer system could be
proven.
2.2.3. Surface fatigue wear tests
The machining of hard and high performance workpiece materials
leads to high dynamic loads which lead to surface fatigue. Surface
fatigue is a loss of material through near-to-surface material fatigue
and spreading of cracks, which may cause delamination of coatings. In
order to be able to characterize the wear resistance against surface
fatigue, blast tests were conducted. With an optical microscope the
different wear behavior of a TiAlN 2.5 m coating, a 1.4 m thick cBN
coating, a cBN multilayer cBN 0.4 m and cBN 1 m was observed. The
cBN coated substrates showed a higher resistance against surface
damages. The range of the affected zone of the TiAlN coated substrate
was the largest. The TiAlN coating experienced the most signicant
wear, since the surface layer was widely separated. Comparing the
two cBN coated substrates shows that the level of wear of the 1.4 m
thick cBN layer is higher. The layer failed in the form of chipping at the
edge zone. For the cBN multilayer an affected zone with a smaller
diameter was achieved and lesser layer chipping could be observed.
Thus, the coating adherence is evaluated to be comparatively high.
Summarized, the cBN layers compared to TiAlN exhibit a high
resistance against surface fatigue. The higher coating adherence of
the cBN coated substrates leads to a signicant increase in the
resistance against surface fatigue.
2.2.4. Oxidation wear tests
To determine the maximum application temperatures oxidation
tests were performed on the cBN coated indexable inserts. The
indexable inserts were annealed in a laboratory furnace at 500 C for
4 min. Afterwards the results were qualitatively evaluated using a
scanning electron microscope (SEM). The test was continued with an
increase of the furnace temperature in four steps up to a temperature
of 900 C. It was found that up to a temperature of 800 C no optically
recognizable change of the coating was present in comparison with
the starting situation. Indeed the uncoated regions of the indexable
inserts showed increasing oxidation appearances. At 900 C the
structure of the coating has clearly changed and the coating is
delaminated, in the form of chipping and cracks. It remains unclear
whether these changes resulted from effects of the high temperature
 E. Uhlmann et al. / Thin Solid Films 518 (2009) 14511454
Fig. 2. Width of ank wear land as a function of cutting time for different coatings in
machining Inconel 718.
on the layer system, from the drastic change of the substrate by
emission of the cobalt binder or as a result of internal stresses.
2.3. Machining tests
Turning experiments were carried out using cylindrical turning
under dry cutting conditions on a VDF180 C-U CNC lathe by Boehringer,
Gppingen. It has a maximum machining diameter length of
250 mm 1000 mm and a DC motor of 25 kW. Its rotational speed lies
between 31 and 5000 rpm and its maximum torque is 800 Nm. Milling
experiments were carried out on a high-speed precision milling
Fig. 3. Resultant cutting force components and workpiece roughnesses of the cBN coating and the reference coating during machining of Inconel 718.
1453
machine 10 V HSC by Mikromat, Dresden. It has a rotational frequency
of up to 40,000 rpm and a maximum spindle power of 20 kW. Its axial
and radial running precision is 1 m. For the turning tests a nickel-based
alloy (Inconel 718) was selected. For the milling experiments a chrome
steel X210CrW12 (AISI D6) were selected. The geometry of the
indexable inserts for turning tests was ISO code CNMG 120408 with a
rounded cutting edge radius of r = 30 m and a chip breaker angle of
10. The geometry of the indexable inserts for milling tests was ISO code
RDMW 1204MOT with a rounded cutting edge radius of r = 20 m.
Through the use of optical microscopy and SEM it could be shown that
the edges of the cutting inserts had been coated entirely.
2.3.1. Turning of Inconel 718
The tool performance for the machining of Inconel 718 of the cBN-
based coatings in comparison to the reference coating is displayed in
Fig. 2. The experiments were undertaken with a cutting speed of
vc = 50 m/min, a feed of f = 0.1 mm and a depth of cut of ap = 0.5 mm.
The tool life criterion was specied as VBmax = 0.3 mm. Fig. 2 shows the
measured width of ank wear land as a function of the cutting time tc for
different cBN layer systems with different cBN coating thicknesses and
also a TiAlN reference coating. It is particularly remarkable that the cBN
coated indexable inserts generally exhibit a clearly higher tool life than
the TiAlN monolayer. The longest tool life was achieved with the cBN
coated indexable insert with a 1.4 m thick cBN surface layer. Here the
tool life increased by over 100% compared with TiAlN coated indexable
inserts. It led to a tool life of 15 min. The result of the experiment shows a
higher mechanical wear resistance for all cBN coatings. Furthermore, no
tool breakage or fracture and good lm adhesion of the cBN layer could
be observed.
Fig. 3 shows the resultant cutting force components and workpiece
roughnesses during the cutting of Inconel 718 with the 1.4 m thick
cBN coating and the monolayer after a cutting time of tc = 30 s. It is
noticeable that the distribution of the resultant force in Fc, Ff and Fp is
similar with both cutting materials. The sum of the resultant force
components is certainly smaller for the cBN coatings than for the
reference coated tools. Clearly, the reason for these results is the
smaller frictional coefcient of cBN as compared to TiAlN. Moreover,
the improved wear behavior with a better resistance to adhesion leads
to a better workpiece surface roughness. The surface roughness of the
parts machined with the cBN coated inserts was very low. Further
results for the turning tests with hardened steel were published in
[13].
1454 E. Uhlmann et al. / Thin Solid Films 518 (2009) 14511454
Fig. 4. Width of ank wear land as a function of feed travel for different coatings in
machining AISI D6.
2.3.2. Milling of AISI D6
Fig. 4 shows the width of ank wear land as a function of feed travel
for the three tested coatings in milling AISI D6 (hardness 34 HRC) with a
cutting speed of vc = 70 m/min. The 1 m cBN tool wears slowly
resulting in a longer tool life travel. The tool life travel is increased by
approximately 50% (up to 3 m). In contrast, the 0.6 m thick cBN layer
does not lead to a tool life travel improvement. SEM images of the TiAlN
coated tools showed good lm adhesion. The sudden increase in the
observed wear of the tool can be attributed to notch wear. In contrast,
the cBN coated tools showed a constant rise in abrasive wear. Good lm
adhesion was also observed for the cBN coating.
3. Conclusion
The deposited cBN coatings exhibit a hardness twice as high as
conventional coatings such as TiAlN, as well as a higher chemical and
oxidation stability. Moreover, the cBN layers show a high resistance
against the wear mechanisms adhesion, abrasion, surface fatigue and
tribo-oxidation, which could be proven in model wear experiments.
Especially the adhesion wear tests on Inconel 718 proved cBN coatings
to be distinctly superior than the reference coatings. This superiority
of cBN coatings was also observed in turning tests of Inconel 718.
Furthermore, in abrasion wear tests higher potential of cBN multilayer
systems was detected.
On the basis of the machining tests on a nickel-based alloy it could
be shown that a cBN coating exhibits a large capability for machining
of high performance materials due to its high hardness and its high-
temperature stability. It could be proven that the cBN coated cutting
tools led to an increased tool life of up to 15 min compared to 7 min for
the reference coating. Furthermore, the cutting forces and surface
roughnesses were measured. In comparison with the TiAlN tool
coating, the cutting forces are lower, and the workpiece roughness
generated by cBN coated tools is signicantly lower than that
generated by a TiAlN coating. Finally the tool life of the cBN coating
and the reference coating in the milling of AISI D6 was analyzed. It
could be proven that the tool life of a cBN cutting tool is 50% higher
than a TiAlN cutting tool. To summarize, cBN tool coatings on
cemented carbide are eligible for the machining of various workpiece
materials even at high cutting speeds. Especially in the turning of
nickel-based alloys, cBN coatings outperform the reference coatings
by a signicantly large range.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the German Research Foundation
(DFG), Bonn, and the Fraunhofer Society, Munich, Germany for
funding.
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