Challenges for exploitation of physical vapour deposition in metal cutting

The physical vapour deposition of hard coatings on cutting tools is an emerging technology with the capability of generating many different coatings with complex microstructures which have the potential for exploitation in a wide variety of applications. A current drawback to the cost effective exploitation of such coatings is the lack of knowledge concerning some aspects of chip formation and the tribological interactions occurring at the chip tool interface. This paper takes a step back to overview some of the materials science aspects of these issues and looks at the temperature profiles generated beneath uncoated and coated cutting tools in simple turning experiments. It is demonstrated that such experiments can lead to a clearer understanding of chip tool interactions and assist in the cost effective exploitation of speciality physical vapour deposition coatings designed for fitness for purpose.