Modification of cutting tool surfaces with ion implantation

The paper presents some recent achievements on ion implantation enhancement of tool materials. Due to high mechanical, chemical, and thermal loads, materials for cutting tools must exhibit much differentiated properties. Implementation of the ion implantation technique for the tool surface engineering seems to be increasing in the last decades. This way not only the surface of the core material of carbides or ceramics is modified, but also the additional hard surface layers (TiN, TiC, Al2O3) undergo ion implantation. In the presented research, ions of rhenium (Re+), and yttrium (Y+) were used in the ion implantation process of the Si3N4 ceramic cutting tools. After the modification, both the structure and chemical composition of the surface layer are changed. Formation of the defected and amorphous layers is possible, which ensures completely different characteristics than that of a substrate. Among them, enhanced hardness and wear resistance can be named, which resulted with reduced friction forces during the cutting tests, and respectively longer time before the critical wear threshold was reached. In the paper, the results of the tribological tests and the cutting tests are presented together with wear analysis after cutting. From this perspective, the tested ceramic implanted with higher dose 2×10 17 ions per square cm of yttrium exhibited better performance than those of other tested materials. It should be noted that the wear resistance of the cutting tool resulted with better quality of the machined surface. The results presented and discussed in the paper demonstrate feasibility of the ion implantation process for cutting tool surface modification, which is more effective in the case of the hard-to-machine materials and finishing cutting operations. Prolonged service time of the cutting tools and improved machined surface integrity contribute to greener and sustainable manufacturing.