Nanostructured cutting tools coatings for machining titanium

Innovative nanostructured tool coatings were developed in order to machine titanium-based alloys. Two dedicated coatings, AlSiTiN and TiCN, were applied by PVD on WC-Co tool inserts, developing nanostructured layers exhibiting superior performances, laboratory tests results being confirmed by machining experiments. Coatings surface qualification included tribological evaluation by ball-on-disc set-up, ball-erosion test, nanoindentation, scratch test, surface texture analysis and SEM observation with EDS analysis. The results have been compared to machining performances in wet and MQL turning, showing a marked pattern of agreement among different indexes.