Because of serious abrasive flank wear of cutting tools during dry cutting of green alumina ceramics

in this paper

surface texturing with different geometrical characteristics was made on the flank face of the WC/Co carbide tools by laser. Dry cutting tests on the green alumina ceramics were carried out with these flank-face textured tools and a conventional WC/Co carbide tool

the wear resistance of these flank-face textured tools was investigated. Results show that there is only mild wear on the rake face

while flank face reveals serious abrasive wear. The flank wear of the flank-face textured tools is significantly reduced compared with that of the conventional one

and the flank-face textured tools with micro-scale grooves on the flank face parallel to the main cutting edge (AT-1) have the most improved flank wear resistance. Mechanism responsible are found that the textures on the flank face exhibited derivative-cutting phenomenon during dry cutting of green alumina ceramics

which serve as the removal of hard inclusion between the tool-workpiece interface. The derivative-cutting is found to be beneficial to the decrease of the flank wear of the flank-face textured tools. The textures on the flank faces can also be acted as storage for powder chip which can protect the texture groove from abrasion.