Search Results (15)

Friction and wear are major factors affecting the efficiency and reliability of mechanical systems, leading to increasing interest in laser surface texturing (LST) for tribological surface engineering. This review summarizes the development of LST from conventional surface modification to multifunctional interface design and discusses the underlying process–structure–performance relationships. Different lubrication-dependent mechanisms, including micro-hydrodynamic pressure generation, wear debris entrapment, contact stress regulation, metallurgical strengthening, and wettability control, are analyzed under hydrodynamic, boundary, and dry sliding conditions. Representative processing technologies, including nanosecond, ultrafast, direct laser interference patterning (DLIP), and liquid-assisted laser processing, are compared in terms of fabrication precision, thermal effects, scalability, and tribological performance. Recent advances in hybrid surface engineering strategies integrating textures with coatings, solid lubricants, and surface hardening treatments are also reviewed. Representative applications involving bearings, cutting tools, biomedical implants, advanced ceramics, and additively manufactured materials are discussed to summarize application-oriented texture design principles. Current limitations related to thermal damage, manufacturing efficiency, coating stability, and long-term reliability are critically evaluated. Future developments are expected to focus on multifunctional surface integration, large-area manufacturing, and AI-assisted optimization for application-specific tribological interface design. Full article

Ultra-high-speed cutting (UHSC) has emerged as a transformative manufacturing technology aimed at overcoming the long-standing machining challenges associated with high-performance difficult-to-machine composites (HPDMCs). These materials—comprising silicon-based, metal matrix, and carbon fiber-reinforced polymers—are critical to strategic sectors such as aerospace and high-end equipment. This review adopts a distinctive “material-tool-process-equipment” synergistic innovation framework as its core analytical lens. Within this framework, it systematically outlines advances in UHSC, including the fundamental mechanisms of damage suppression and surface integrity enhancement under ultra-high strain rates. Innovative process methods such as laser-assisted and ultrasonic-assisted machining are examined in detail. This review also provides a mechanistic analysis of two key enabling technologies—tool micro-texturing and functional coatings—highlighting their roles in interfacial tribological regulation and physicochemical protection. Furthermore, dedicated equipment systems and stability optimization strategies essential for technological implementation are presented and evaluated. By synthesizing the current state of the field, this review identifies persistent bottlenecks and, guided by the proposed framework, suggests targeted future research directions: deep integration of smart manufacturing technologies, development of synergistic multi-energy-field processing, and enhanced adaptability to extreme service environments. This work not only consolidates the current knowledge in UHSC but also outlines a clear pathway for its evolution into a fully autonomous, efficient, and reliable manufacturing paradigm. Full article

To address the issues of high cutting temperatures and severe tool wear during titanium alloy machining, this study proposes a hybrid surface modification strategy combining micro-textures and multicomponent titanium nitride (TiN)-based coatings on cemented carbide tools. Using YG8 cemented carbide as the substrate, micro-dimple textures were fabricated by fiber laser, and three coatings with different architectures (TiAlSiN, TiSiN/TiAlN, and TiSiN/TiAlSiN/TiAlN) were deposited via multi-arc ion plating technology. Based on a two-factor (texture diameter and texture spacing) and three-level orthogonal experiment, the evolution behaviors of surface morphology, phase composition, and mechanical properties of the textured multicomponent TiN-based coatings were systematically characterized and comparatively analyzed. The results reveal that: compared to the monolithic-structured TiAlSiN coating, the TiSiN/TiAlSiN/TiAlN and TiSiN/TiAlN composite coatings with multilayered composite structures can effectively relieve the residual stress inside the film–substrate system, and significantly suppress the phenomena of coating cracking and localized spallation caused by irregular protrusions of the recast layer at the micro-texture edges. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and crystallite size analyses indicate that the amorphous Si₃N₄ phase promoted by the Si element in the composite coatings effectively impedes the growth of TiN columnar crystals, achieving significant grain refinement. Mechanical property tests confirm that the existence of multicomponent composite interfaces effectively hinders dislocation movement. Among them, the textured TiSiN/TiAlSiN/TiAlN composite coating exhibits the optimal comprehensive performance; its microhardness, nanohardness, and H/E ratio (characterizing the resistance to plastic deformation) are increased by 17.94%, 8%, and approximately 45%, respectively, compared to those of the textured TiAlSiN coating. This study deeply elucidates the synergistic strengthening and toughening mechanisms between micro-texture parameters and the internal structures of the coatings, providing important theoretical guidance and experimental data support for the surface design of long-lifespan tools oriented towards the high-efficiency machining of titanium alloys. Full article

The operational ability of a unit or mechanism depends mainly on the quality of the mechanically produced working surfaces. Many materials can be assigned to a group of hard-to-cut materials that includes titanium- and aluminum-based alloys, a new class of heat-resistant alloys, SiCp/Al composites, hard alloys, and other alloys. The difficulties in their machining are related not only to the high temperatures achieved on the contact pads under mechanical load and the extreme cutting conditions but also to the properties of those materials, which affect the adhesion of the chip to the tool faces, hindering chip flow. One of the possible solutions to reduce those effects and improve the operational life of the tool, and as a consequence, the final quality of the working surface of the unit, is texturing the rake face of the tool with microgrooves or nanogrooves, microholes or nanoholes (pits, dimples), micronodes, cross-chevron textures, and other microtextures, the depth of which is in the range of 3.0–200.0 µm. This review is addressed at systematizing the data obtained on micro- and nanotexturing of PCD tools for cutting hard-to-cut materials by different techniques (fiber laser graving, femto- and nanosecond laser, electrical discharge machining, fused ion beam), additionally subjected to fluorination and dip- and drop-based coatings, and the effect created by the use of the textured PCD tool on the machined surface. Full article

As manufacturing demands for challenging-to-machine metallic materials continue to evolve, the performance of cutting tools has emerged as a critical limiting factor. The synergistic application of micro-texture and coating in cutting tools can improve various properties. For the processing of existing micro-texture, because of the fast cooling and heating processing method of laser, there are defects such as remelted layer stacking and micro-cracks on the surface after processing. This study introduces a preheating-assisted technology aimed at optimizing the milling performance of textured coated tools. A milling test platform was established to evaluate the performance of these tools on titanium alloys under thermally assisted conditions. The face-centered cubic response surface methodology, as part of the central composite design (CCD) experimental framework, was employed to investigate the interaction effects of micro-texture preparation parameters and thermal assistance temperature on milling performance. The findings indicate a significant correlation between thermal assistance temperature and tool milling performance, suggesting that an appropriately selected thermal assistance temperature can enhance both the milling efficiency of the tool and the surface quality of the titanium alloy. Utilizing the response surface methodology, a multi-objective optimization of the textured coating tool-preparation process was conducted, resulting in the following optimized parameters: laser power of 45 W, scanning speed of 1576 mm/s, the number of scans was 7, micro-texture spacing of 130 μm, micro-texture diameter of 30 μm, and a heat-assisted temperature of 675.15 K. Finally, the experimental platform of optimization results is built, which proves that the optimization results are accurate and reliable, and provides theoretical basis and technical support for the preparation process of textured coating tools. It is of great significance to realize high-precision and high-quality machining of difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloy. Full article

Today, the machining of heat-resistant alloys based on triple, quad, or penta equilibria high-entropy alloy systems of elements (ternary, quaternary, quinary iron-, titanium-, or nickel-rich alloys), including dual-phase by Gibb’s phase rule, steels of the austenite class, and nickel- and titanium-based alloys, are highly relevant for the airspace and aviation industry, especially for the production of gas turbine engines. Cutting tools in contact with those alloys should withstand intensive mechanical and thermal loads (tense state of 1.38·10⁸–1.54·10⁸ N/m², temperature up to 900–1200 °C). The most spread material for those tools is cutting ceramics based on oxides, nitrides of the transition and post-transition metals, and metalloids. This work considers the wear resistance of the cutting insert of silicon nitride with two unique development coatings — titanium–zirconium nitride coating (Ti,Zr)N and complex quad nitride coating with TiN content up to 70% (Ti,Al,Cr,Si)N with a thickness of 3.8–4.0 µm on which microtextures were produced by the assisted electric discharge machining with the electrode-tool of ø0.25 mm. The microtextures were three parallel microgrooves of R0.13^+0.02 mm at a depth of 0.025₋₀.₀₅. The operational life was increased by ~1.33 when the failure criterion in turning nickel alloy was 0.4 mm. Full article

To meet the demand for energy-efficient and, at the same time, durable, functional components, the improvement of tribological behavior is playing an increasingly important role. One approach to reducing friction in lubricated tribological systems is the microtexturing of the surfaces tailored to the application, but in most cases, this leads to increased manufacturing costs and thus often makes their use in industry more difficult. In this work, we, therefore, present an approach for an efficient design and fully integrated production process using a cam tappet as an example. For the used cam tappet contact, we first determined the optimal texture geometries using two differently complex EHL (elastohydrodynamic lubrication) simulation models. Based on these, textured tappets were manufactured in a combined manner using sheet-bulk metal-forming and deposition with a diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coating for additional wear protection without further post-processing of the coating. We show that the simulation approach used has a rather subordinate influence on the optimization result. The combined forming of components with textured surfaces is limited by the local material flow, the resulting texture distortion, and tool wear. However, a targeted process design can help to exploit the potential of single-stage forming. The applied DLC coating has good adhesion and can completely prevent wear in subsequent reciprocal pin-on-disc tests, while the friction in the run-in behavior is initially higher due to the soothing effects of the coating. The experiments also show a tendency for shallow textures to exhibit lower friction compared to deeper ones, which corresponds to the expectations from the simulation. Full article

In order to solve the problem of poor stability of hard brittle material in cutting process, a 45° groove micro-textured composite bionic tool was proposed. Under the same cutting parameters and conditions, the temperature rise and cutting force can be suppressed, and the tool stability can be reduced. Firstly, the design tool was modeled in three dimensions and the optimal bionic tool structure was optimized by finite element simulation technology. Secondly, four microstructures were constructed on the basis of biomimetic tools, and the optimum microstructures were selected based on shear force, stress distribution and chip discharge capacity. The smallest microstructure size parameters were obtained by changing the spacing of microstructures. Finally, on the basis of optimizing the micro-textured biomimetic tool, the surface of the tool was coated, and the influence of coating material on tool performance was discussed. The results showed that the cutting fracture rate of the material increased and the cutting accumulation phenomenon was alleviated obviously when the 45° chute micro-textured bionic tool with composite coating was used for machining. The cutting stability of the tool was enhanced and chip adhesion was reduced when cutting forces and cutting temperatures were reduced. At the same time, compared with conventional tools, the main cutting force and radial force decreased by 35% and 62%, and the cutting temperature decreased by 3.5%. With the decrease in cutting force and cutting temperature, the stability of cutting was enhanced and the phenomenon of chip adhesion on the tool surface was reduced. Full article

This paper is devoted to the problem of wear resistance in square Si3N4 ceramic cutting inserts, which exhibit high hardness and strength, in combination with brittleness, and are subject to increased mechanical and thermal loads in machining super alloys for aviation purposes (e.g., a nickel-based alloy of Inconel 718 type). Microtextures were proposed to reduce the intensity of the contact loads on the pad between the cutting edge and the workpiece. The simulation of the mechanical and thermal loads demonstrated the superior ability of the faces with the preformed microgrooves (125 µm in width) compared to microwells (ø100 µm). The tense state was 4.97 times less, and deformations were 2.96 times fewer. The microtextures hamper the development of thermal fields at 900 °C. Two types of microtextures (210 µm-wide microgrooves and microwells 80 µm in diameter) were produced on the rake faces of the cutting inserts via an innovative and integrated approach (the electrical discharge machining of dielectrics using a multifunctional electro-conductive assisted and wear-resistant TiN coating and TiO₂ powder mixed suspension). The TiN coating was deposited via magnetron vacuum plasma sputtering (95%N₂/5%Ar). The failure criterion in turning was 400 µm. An increase of 30% in tool wear resistance was demonstrated. Full article

Diamond-coated tools often fail due to coating graphitization and delamination caused by poor coating adhesion, large contact stress, and thermochemical reactions. To address these issues, this research utilized a combination of micro-nano double-layer diamond coating, WS₂ coating, and micro-textures. The WS₂ coating inhibits the graphitization of the diamond coating through a transfer film mechanism, while the micro-textures and nanocrystalline diamond coating store WS₂, resulting in a prolonged lubrication life. Additionally, the influence of micro-texture on coating-substrate residual stress and coating-substrate mechanical interlocking was discussed, and it was proved that proper micro-textures effectively improve the coating adhesion. Under the same cutting flux conditions, taking coating peeling as the judging standard, the cutting distance of textured WS₂/Micro-Nano diamond coating tool is more than three times that of ordinary, diamond-coated tools, which greatly improves the service life of the tool. Full article

Aluminum alloy materials are very difficult to break in the processing process; chip accumulation leads to poor processing stability. In this paper, a coated composite micro–textured tool is presented. The influence of coated composite micro–textured tool on chip shape and cutting force under the same cutting parameters is studied. Firstly, the combination of cutting force and cutting temperature is optimized based on cutting test. Secondly, combined with the finite element simulation technology, three kinds of composite micro–texture tools are tested to determine the same cutting parameters, tools and workpiece materials, and optimize the composite micro–texture combination from the angle of chip shape, cutting temperature and cutting force. Finally, on the basis of optimizing the microstructure combination, the optimization of the cutting performance of aluminum alloy by coating material is studied. It was found that the chip was more easily broken in the composite microstructure when two tools were used. The cutting force decreased by 25% and the cutting temperature decreased by 9.09% compared with the non–micro–texture tools. The cutting temperature and cutting force decreased by 3% and 4.99% compared with those of uncoated composite microstructure. Full article

Placing micro-textures on a tool surface can play an anti-wear and friction-reducing role and capture impurities and improve the tool-chip friction state, thus improving the cutting performance of the tool and the quality of the workpiece. To ensure the processing quality in the micro-texture-coated tool-cutting process, the process parameters and micro-texture parameters are limited to smaller parameters, which reduces the processing efficiency and increases the cost. Aiming at this problem, this paper designs orthogonal experiments of the cutting process and micro-texture parameters, builds an experimental platform for milling titanium alloy with a micro-texture-coated ball-end milling cutter, analyzes the influence of cutting parameters on tool milling performance and workpiece quality, establishes a high fitting prediction model, and optimizes parameters. The results show that the cutting parameters significantly affect the milling force, tool wear, and workpiece surface roughness, which are in the first response level, and the micro-texture parameters, which are in the second response level. It is proven that micro-texture has anti-wear and anti-friction effects, and it is found that micro-texture parameters affect the evaluation index by changing the distribution state of the micro-texture. It is found that the multiple linear regression model fits better. Parameter optimization results are: v = 159.4232 (m/min), a_p = 0.211 (mm), f = 0.06 (mm/r), micro-pit diameter D = 62.3429 (μm), distance from blade L = 121.5184 (μm), and micro-pit spacing L₁ = 235.6443 (μm). It provides some guidance for the selection of micro-texture parameters and cutting parameters on a micro-texture-coated tool. Full article

Abrasive wear is a wear mechanism that results in a loss of material from the interaction of a surface with hard particles. This type of wear is frequently found in the surface of machining tools. Microscale abrasion equipment is often used to characterize the resistance to abrasive wear of a surface. The different parameters able to control micro-abrasion wear tests, such as ball rotation, sliding distance between ball and surface sample, abrasive slurry concentration, normal load acting on the sample, and abrasive flow rate over the sample, have been widely studied. The combination of different variables, including sliding distance, concentration of abrasive particles, their hardness, and size of abrasive particles, promotes the transition between two-body, three-body, or mixed abrasive wear modes. However, the influence of the ball surface on the dragging of abrasive particles, which is reflected in the wear modes, is still poorly studied. One of the variables possible to control and less studied is the influence of the ball surface texture on the dragging of abrasive particles in micro-abrasion wear tests. This work intends to correlate the effect of different testing times (500, 1000, and 1500 cycles) and different concentrations of 3 μm Al₂O₃ abrasive slurry (25, 35, and 45 g/100 mL) on the micro abrasion resistance of a TiN thin coating film, using balls of AISI 52100 steel whose texture and roughness were prepared by 60 s chemical etching. The rotation speed of each test was 80 rpm, applying a normal load of 2 N. Subsequently, the craters were carefully analyzed using SEM to evaluate the transition of the wear mode as a function of the applied load, the abrasive particle concentration, and the sliding distance. The textured ball tracks were observed via SEM to assess the particle dynamics. The results showed that, contrarily to what is reported in the literature regarding wear modes where rolling is promoted with increasing abrasive concentration, in this work grooving took place instead. This is a result of the rough balls use in the experiments which, due to the embedment of abrasive particles in the ball grooves, promotes the abrasion mechanism. The higher the abrasive concentration, the higher the grooving mechanism, since more particles are available to scratch the surface. Full article

Coated cemented carbide currently represents most of all cutting tool inserts due to its unique combination of wear resistance and toughness. Surface texturing technology can give additional performance to reduce the tool’s wear and energy consumption. Using TiAlN-coated cemented carbide tools as the research object, the effects of femtosecond laser parameters (laser energy, scanning speed, scanning times) on the groove morphology of TiAlN-coated tools and the bonding state of coating and substrate were discussed. The study found that when the laser energy was 10 μJ, the scanning speed was 0.7 mm/s, and the number of scans was 5, the groove morphology was ideal, and the coating and the substrate combination remained unchanged. The influence of micro-groove texture on the tool wear mechanism was investigated by cutting test using the micro-groove texture tool produced by this group of process parameters. The flank wear value of inserts with micro-grooved texture decreased significantly by around 25%. This work provides practical data to support the femtosecond laser processing of TiAlN-coated tools. It is helpful to understand further the processing mechanism of a femtosecond laser on the micro-texture of coated tools. Full article

A diamond-like carbon (DLC) film, coated on an SKD11 (alloy tool steel) substrate, was shaped by plasma oxidation to form an assembly of DLC macro-pillars and to be used as a DLC-punch array that is micro-embossed into aluminum sheets. First, the SKD11 steel die substrate was prepared and DLC-coated to have a film thickness of 10 μm. This DLC coating worked as a punch material. The two-dimensional micro-patterns were printed onto this DLC film by maskless lithography. The unprinted DLC films were selectively removed by plasma oxidation to leave the three-dimensional DLC-punch array on the SKD11 substrate. Each DLC punch had a head of 3.5 μm × 3.5 μm and a height of 8 μm. This DLC-punch array was fixed into the cassette die set for a micro-embossing process using a table-top servo-stamper. Furthermore, through numerically controlled micro-embossing, an alignment of rectangular punches was transcribed into a micro-cavity array in the aluminum sheet. The single micro-cavity had a bottom surface of 3.2 μm × 3.2 μm and an average depth of 7.5 μm. A heat-transfer experiment in boiling water was also performed to investigate the effect of micro-cavity texture on bubbling behavior and the boiling curve. Full article