Experimental study on the wear evolution of different PVD coated tools under milling operations of LDX2101 duplex stainless steel

Duplex stainless steels are being used on applications that require, especially, high corrosion resistance and overall good mechanical properties, such as the naval and oil-gas exploration industry. The components employed in these industries are usually obtained by machining, however, these alloys have low machinability when compared to conventional stainless steels. In this work, a study of the wear developed when milling duplex stainless-steel, LDX 2101, is going to be presented and evaluated, employing four types of milling tools with different geometries and coatings, while studying the influence of feed rate and cutting length in the wear of these tools. Tools used have been provided with two and four flutes, as well as three different coatings, namely: TiAlN, TiAlSiN and AlCrN. The cutting behavior of these tools was analyzed; data relative to the cutting forces developed during the process were obtained; and roughness measurements of the machined surfaces were executed. The tools were then submitted to scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, enabling the identification of the wear mechanisms that tools were subjected to when machining this material, furthermore, the early stages of these mechanisms were also identified. All this work was done with the goal of relating the machining parameters and cutting force values obtained, identifying, and discussing the wear patterns that were observed in the coating and tools after the milling tests, providing further information on the machining of these alloys.
The present work was done and funded under the scope of the project ON-SURF (ANI | P2020 | POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024521, co-funded by Portugal 2020 and FEDER, through COMPETE 2020-Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation. F.J.G. Silva also thanks INEGI-Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Indústria, due to its support. The authors would like to thanks to Dr. Rui Rocha from CEMUP (Porto, Portugal), due to his active collaboration in getting the best SEM pictures, helping with his critical analysis of some phenomena. Authors also would like to thank Ing. Ricardo Alexandre due to is extremely important role in providing all the coatings through TEandM company, and also Ing. Nuno André, for providing the substrate material and uncoated tools through the Inovatools company.