THE MACHINABILITY OF SINTERED CARBONS BASED ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN TOOL WEAR RATE AND PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES

Sintered carbons are often used for functional materials owing to thei r superior physical properties. When some kinds of carbon are machined , however, tool wear is remarkable. This paper deals with the machinab ility based on tool wear rate. The most simple sintered carbons which consist of filler and binder are prepared, and then tool life tests ar e conducted by using cemented carbide with grade K10. Tool wear patter n and wear rate are strongly affected by the thermal treatment tempera ture in production conditions. As the temperature rises, an amorphous structure not only transforms into a graphite structure, but also the chip formation mechanism changes. Consequently, the former leads to re markable flank wear, the latter to low flank wear and reasonable crate r wear. In addition, judging from multiple regression analysis, the fl ank wear rate correlates to the thermal conductivity rather than the m echanical properties of sintered carbons.