Wear Resistance of the Cermet Cutting Tools After Aluminum (Al⁺) and Nitrogen (N⁺) Ion Implantation

In the paper, the issue of the cermet cutting tools wear resistance was addressed. The tool inserts made out of cermet composites were exposed to the ion implantation with ions of nitrogen N⁺ and with combination of nitrogen N⁺ and aluminum Al⁺ ions. In order to assess the impact of the ion implantation, the samples of stainless steel EZ6NCT25 were turned with the standard cutting tools and with the inserts after ion implantation. The results in general confirmed better wear resistance of the ion implanted inserts. In particular, they performed 20-40% smaller friction. After some time, when the destruction of the implanted surface layer took place, the friction coefficient rose up to the value typical for non-implanted inserts. For the implanted inserts, the wear index VB appeared to be lower, and even visual assessment revealed distinguishably smaller wear than in case of tools without ion implantation.