Innovative anti-wear coatings on cutting tools for wood machining

The paper presents a study on the performances of innovative coatings for steel cutting tools in machining wood. A series of steel tools with different surface modifications, such as nitriding, application of antiwear DLC and CrN mono and multilayer coatings, has been applied to HSS18 and alloy steel 90CMV8 substrates. Tribological and erosion resistance of the samples was evaluated and related to the cutting performance, while surface analysis was carried out on the workmaterial at the end of the cutting tests. The overall tests indicated that the modified tools are promising in secondary transformation of wood. Furthermore, combined tribological and erosion studies allowed to individuate a wear mechanism and the possibility to foresee cutting performance in this application. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.