An investigation on the micro cutting performance of diamond-like carbon coatings using finite element method
In an effort to prolong the tool life and improve the tooling performance in micro cutting, it is attractive and promising to apply diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings on micro tools. Comprehensive understandings of micro cutting performance under various coating circumstances are essential for choosing optimum coating conditions so as for potentially improving cutting tool designs. In the study, the cutting characteristics of a DLC-coated tool has been extensively evaluated and compared with those of an uncoated tool under constant and various uncut chip thickness (UCT) using 2D plane-strain finite element method (FEM). The thermo-mechanical modelling approach has been validated at different UCT in micro milling. Besides, the influence of coating friction coefficient, coating thickness as well as UCT on the cutting forces and tool temperatures has been determined and analysed through design of experiment. It is found that appropriate UCT in micro cutting is of the greatest importance for achieving desirable coating performance of micro tools.