International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 43 (2003) 139144

The influence of the microstructure of hardened tool steel

workpiece on the wear of PCBN cutting tools
Gerard Poulachon a,, B.P. Bandyopadhyay b, I.S. Jawahir c, Sebastien Pheulpin a,
Emmanuel Seguin a
a
b

LaBoMaP, ENSAM, Rue Porte de Paris, Cluny 71250, France

University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202-8359, USA
c
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0108, USA

Received 29 July 2002; received in revised form 6 September 2002; accepted 10 September 2002

Abstract
Due to the recent developments of advanced cutting tool materials in the superbarasive family, such as cubic boron nitride (CBN)
tools, the interest in cutting hardened steels has increased significantly. High flexibility and ability to manufacture complex workpiece
geometry in one set up is the main advantage of hard turning compared to grinding. The focus of this study is to investigate the
performance and wear behavior of CBN tools in finish, dry turning of four different hardened steels, treated to the same hardness
Rc = 54. The following four materials were machined: X155CrMoV 12 cold work steel (AISI D2), X38CrMoV5 (AISI H11) hot
work steel, 35NiCrMo16 hot work steel and 100Cr6 bearing steel (AISI 52100). A large variation in tool wear rate was observed
in the machining of these steels. The tool flank grooves have been correlated to the microstructure of these steels, namely the
presence of various carbides. The chip study reveals that there is presence of different amounts of white layers in machining
these steels.
2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Hard turning; Carbides; Microstructure; Tool wear; Flank wear; PCBN; White layer

1. Introduction
The commercialization of cubic boron nitride (CBN)
tools since 1970 has generated great interest in hard
machining technology for todays industrial production
and scientific research. During hard, dry turning, the
work can be turned to its final dimension in the hardened
state. The conventional process cycle consists of initial
turning, followed by hardening by heat treatment and
finally by finish grinding. Hard turning can therefore
save time, improve surface quality, reduce operations
and decrease rejections [1,2]. Moreover, the cutting can
be performed without coolant i.e. dry cutting and
therefore the process provides an added advantage from
the ecological point of view [3,4]. Hardened steel parts

Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-3-8559-5330; fax: +33-3-85595370.

E-mail
address:
gerard.poulachon@cluny.ensam.fr
(G.
Poulachon).

are widely used in the automotive, gear, bearing, tool,

and die industry. A recent study reports that the automotive industry started using hard turning to avoid grinding
gear-stem diameters. By eliminating the need to finish
grind parts, the automotive industry reduced capital outlays by as much as 40% and increased production by
approximately 30% [5].
One study suggests that hard dry turning requires
high-performance cutting tools and extremely rigid
machine tools. In many cases this may be a problem
because machine tools in existing shop floors may lack
the required rigidity [6]. However, Matsumoto et al. [7]
turned several AISI E 52100 hardened steels workpieces
(Rc 60) with ceramic and PCBN tools in a lathe of conventional design. The authors were able to achieve surface and dimensional quality similar to that of ground
components even when the machining was performed on
a conventional lathe [7]. Several other works documented the economic advantages of using hard turning
compared to grinding [1,812]. Hard turning therefore

0890-6955/03/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 8 9 0 - 6 9 5 5 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 7 0 - 0

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e. Poulachon et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 43 (2003) 139144

has a great potential for replacing grinding operations.

Hydraulic components with inner and outer diameter
machining will be ideally suited for hard turning in
the future.
One major problem of turning of hardened steels is
the tool wear caused by the hardness of the material.
Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) cutting tools
have found wide acceptance in machining a variety of
hard materials. PCBN possesses excellent mechanical
properties such as high-temperature strength, ability to
maintain its shape at high cutting temperature, and hardness second only to diamond. The hardness of CBN
material in the Knoops scale is 4800 kg/mm2, whereas
using the hardness conversion chart, the hardness of Rc
(55) corresponds to 600 kg/mm2.
Ko nig et al. [13] and Narutaki and Yamane [14] studied the wear mechanisms by diffusion, abrasion, and
adhesion. All these mechanisms are prevalent during the
wear process of the tools. According to the authors [13
17], chemical and diffusion processes play a vital role
in the tool wear. Ohtani and Yokagawa [18] found that
the main wear mechanism in machining cold-work tool
steel SKD 11 was by abrasion of hard alloy carbide particles contained in the workpiece. The tool life of carbide
tools decreases as workpiece hardness increases whereas
CBN and ceramic tools show the opposite results (in the
hardness range lower than Rc = 50).
Ko nig et al. [13] found that different work materials
such as hardened alloy steels, case-hardened steels,
nitriding steels, high-speed steel, with the same hardness
(Rc ~ 62), when machined under the same cutting conditions, showed varying tool wear rates. This means that
the hardness of the work material is not an adequate
parameter to evaluate tool wear. The focus of this
research is to study the performance and wear behavior
of CBN cutting tools while turning various hardened
steels. The investigation will concentrate on turning the
following hardened steels: bearing steel 100Cr6 (AISI
52100), cold-work steel X155CrMoV5 (AISI D2), hotwork steel X38CrMoV5 (AISI H11), and hot-work steel
35NiCrMo 16. Each of these materials was heat treated
to Rc 54. The flank wear was monitored and analyzed
after the experiments.
Machining of hardened steels involves high pressures,
temperatures, heating and cooling rate, strain and strain
rates with plastic deformation. The surface layer is thus
subjected to metallurgical changes, forming a white featureless layer often termed as a white layer. The white
layer has significant influence on fatigue, stress corrosion, and wear [1921]. The microstructures of the
chips collected during the experiments have been
observed for the presence of a white layer. The results
will be presented in the paper.

2. Experimental set-up
The experiments were conducted on a Mazak CNC
turning center of 20 kW capacity. CBN cutting tool
inserts
from
Sandvik,
reference
no.
STNGA164081020A 7019 were used for the experiments.
The cutting tool geometry was as follows: cutting edge
angle, Kr = 91, rake angle; o = 6, inclination angle;
s = 6. The material properties of PCBN can be influenced by the PCBN content, grain size, and its distribution as well as the composition of the binder phase,
which can be ceramic or metallic. For hard turning, ceramic binders are usually preferred. The range of PCBN
content in the different tool materials varies from 50%
to 90%. Tool material with a lower content of PCBN
has lower thermal conductivity and higher toughness.
The 7019 tool, a low content CBN tool, was selected
for the experiment because it is designed for finishing
operations without shock. Because of the low thermal
conductivity of the tool, the cutting temperature will be
increased, inducing thermal softening of the work
material [15]. The samples were prepared in the form of
tubes with outside diameter of 110 mm, length of 200
mm, and thickness of 20 mm. The tube thickness was
selected to keep the microstructure in the entire sample
uniform. The tubes were very carefully heat treated to
Rc 54. The goal was to achieve relative hardness values
within the range Rc + 1 and Rc 1. The hardened tubes
were clamped between soft jaws and a tail stock for
added stability during the machining operation.
The cutting parameters are selected keeping in mind
that the hard turning operation is generally used as a
finishing operation as an alternative to grinding. A depth
of cut (ap) of 0.2 mm has been selected to enable the
toolchip contact only on the chamfer. Two feed rates
(f) 0.08 and 0.12 mm/rev have been selected because
they can produce a good surface roughness for an 0.8mm-radius tool tip. Two cutting speeds (Vc) have been
selected; 230 and 180 m/min. The last cutting parameter
is the most influential on the tool-life in comparison with
the two previous parameters and it is strongly correlated
with the cutting temperature. According to Poulachon
[22], the optimal cutting speed for machining of 100Cr6
bearing steel treated at Rc 54 was around 120 m/min.
Therefore, this cutting speed has been increased in order
to reduce the cutting time in the experiment. However,
these parameters are very close to the industrial cutting
conditions. Dry cutting was performed.
Each material has been machined at two cutting
speeds and two feed rates. This gives a total of sixteen
tool wear experiments. Before each tool wear experiment, the workpiece was cleaned with a new cutting tool
at low cutting speeds to ensure that there was no effect
from the previous experiment and also no formation of
a white layer. The flank wear measurements were done
with an optical microscope NIKON EPIPHOT 300 with

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a built-in digital camera SPOT linked to a computer. The

software Image Pro Plus 4.1 was used for the picture
analysis. All the measurements were performed at an
optical magnification of X200. During the experiments,
some chips were collected for all test conditions. The
chips were embedded in a cold resin, and polished and
etched to observe the microstructures and presence of
white layers.

3. Results and discussions

3.1. Flank wear study
The flank wear of the tool has a significant effect on
the quality of the machined surface. The tool wear
depends on the tool, workpiece material (physical, mechanical, and chemical properties), tool geometry, cutting
parameters, cutting fluids, etc. The type of wear on a
tool depends on the relative roles of these variables. The
cutting of hardened steel is characterized by high mechanical and thermal loads that have to be endured by the
cutting tool material. Analytical studies of tool wear
present considerable difficulties, and therefore experimental studies of tool wear were performed.
Fig. 1 shows the relationship between the flank wear
and cutting time for the four materials for the cutting
speed of 180 m/min and feed rate of 0.08 mm/rev.
Although various steels of the same hardness were
machined, the tool lives vary significantly for each of
these steels. From the results shown in Fig. 1, the steels
can be classified into two distinct groups according to
the flank wear VB rate. The first group shows large tool
wear rates, which includes two work materials; 100Cr6
bearing steel and the X155CrMoV12 steel. The second
group is the group of steels with lower tool wear rates.

Fig. 1.

141

This group includes two other work materials:

35NiCrMo16 steel and the X38CrMo V5 steel.
The microstructure of these materials was studied. The
X155CrMoV12 steel contains significant amounts of
M7C3 carbide type with an average size of 10-15 m.
The matrix is primarily ferritic with cementite. The
microstructure study of the 100Cr6 bearing steel reveals
the presence of M7C3 carbide in large amounts with an
average size close to 1 m and M3C secondary carbides
in small amounts. The matrix consists mainly of martensite with a very small amount of cementite. The microstructure of 35NiCrMo 16 steel consists mainly of martensite grains with an approximate size of 40 m. the
structure of the X38CrMoV5 steel contains martensite
with cementite and a small amount of MC carbide type.
Fig. 2 shows the variation in hardness of the various
carbides [23]. It is clear from the figure that M7C3 car-

Fig. 2.

Micro-hardness of different carbides at 20 C.

The flank wear for all materials as a function of the cutting time (time in log scale).

e . Poulachon et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 43 (2003) 139144

142

bide, which is largely present in the first group of steels,

namely 100Cr6 bearing steel and the X155CrMoV12
steel, is three times harder (2400 HV) than martensitic
matrix (800HV) which is the main component of the
second group of steels.
Fig. 3 shows the flank wear shape of the tool for cutting these four materials at a cutting speed of 180 m/min,
f = 0.08 mm/rev, and ap = 0.2 mm as observed on the
optical microscope. The surface of the tool used for
machining X155CrMoV12 steel shows a groove
resulting from extensive abrasive wear. The major
groove size is close to the size of M7C3 carbide clusters.
The tool insert used for the machining of 100Cr6 bearing
steel shows a groove on the tool flank of 1 m size. This
corresponds to the size of primary M7C3 carbides. The
tool wear for the machining of 35NiCrMo16 steel can
be linked to the martensitic matrix abrasive action with
an average groove size of 6 m. For the machining of
the X38CrMoV5 steel, the tool wear with an average
groove size was found to be 25 m. Although even the
grooves seem to be larger than the X155CrMoV12
grooves, the depth seems to be smaller than 5 m. This
wear can be linked to the martensitic matrix abrasive
action.

geometry mainly depends on the tool wear and the workpiece material. The machining of X155CrMoV12 steel
produced two different types of chip and the chip form
was found to be linked to the tool geometry. A long blue
saw-tooth chip was generated while machining with a
new tool as shown in Fig. 4. The micrograph study of
the saw-tooth chip reveals that carbides are embedded
in the white layer Fig. 5. After the tool has been used
for a certain period of time, crater wear will be generated
on the face of the tool. This will play the role of chip
breaker and the chips are found to be more curved and
strained as shown in Fig. 6. The machining of 100 Cr 6

3.2. Chip morphology

The chips have been collected during the experiments
for all the tests. These chips were embedded in a cold
resin, polished, and etched to observe the microstructure.
It was noted that the cutting parameters do not have a
strong influence on the chip geometry. The chip

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.
tool.

Chip generated in machining of X155 CrMoV 12 with a new

Flank wear shape on the different work materials (Vc = 180 m/min, f = 0,08 mm/tr, ap = 0.2 mm.

e . Poulachon et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 43 (2003) 139144

143

Fig. 8. White layer on a 35 NiCrMo 16 steel chip.

Fig. 5.

X155 CrMoV 12 carbides within the white layer.

4. Conclusions
The study suggests that the microstructure of hardened
steel has an influence on tool wear in PCBN tools. The
major influencing factor on the tool wear is the presence
of various carbides in the steel microstructure. The hardness of these carbides varies significantly, causing different wear rates while turning these various steels. The
flank wear on the tool has resulted in grooves caused by
the abrasive action of these carbides.
The microstructure study of chips reveals the presence
of different amounts of white layers in machining
these steels.

Fig. 6. Chip generated in machining of X155 CrMoV 12 with an 80

m tool crater depth.

Acknowledgements
also generated a white layer. Fig. 7 shows the presence
of very small carbides in the chip. For the machining of
35NiCrMo 16 steel the white layer at the base of the
chip is clearly visible in Fig. 8. The machining of
X38CrMoV5 steel also produced a saw-tooth chip. The
nital etching only underlines the presence of the white
layer.

The authors wish to thank Mr. Philippe Jacquet of

ENSAM in Cluny for his assistance in heat treatment of
the workpieces. A special thanks from Dr. Bandyopadhyay to Dr. John Watson, Dean of the School of
Engineering and Mines and Dr. William Gosnold, Director of Research and Program Development of the University of North Dakota for their financial support in
this project.

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Fig. 7. Micrograph of a 100 Cr 6 chip etched with a 3% solution of

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