Hard AlTiN, AlCrN PVD coatings for machining of austenitic stainless steel

The austenitic stainless steels in general are considered to be difficult to machine materials. This is mainly due to the high plasticity and tendency to work-harden of the austenitic stainless steel, which usually results in severe cutting conditions. Additionally, austenitic stainless steels have much lower thermal conductivity as compared to structural carbon steels; this inflicts high thermal impact within the chip-tool contact zone, which significantly increase the cutting tool wear rate. The machineability of austenitic stainless steels can be improved due to application of coated cutting tools. Hard PVD coating with low thermal conductivity and improved surface finish should be used in this case. This can result in enhancement of frictional characteristics at the tool/workpiece interface as well as chip evacuation process. In this study the stainless steel plates were machined using cemented carbide finishing end mills with four high aluminum containing PVD coatings namely: AlCrN, AlCrNbN, fine grained (fg) AlTiN and nano-crystalline (nc) AlTiN. Both AlTiN and AlCrN-based coatings have high oxidation resistances due to formation of aluminum oxide surface layers. The influence of surface post-deposition treatment on tool wear intensity was investigated. The coating surface texture before and after post-deposition treatment was analyzed by means of the Abbot-Firestone ratio curves. Minimal wear intensity after length of cut 150 m was achieved for cutting tools with the nc-AlTiN coating.