CUTTING-TOOL APPLICATION OF CERIA-ZIRCONIA

Transformations between the tetragonal and monoclinic phases of stabil ized zirconia, popularly known as transformation toughening, have been widely studied. The transformation response of these phases to temper ature and stress are quite different and hence their transformation re sponse to an environment such as metal cutting, where both temperature and stress effects are involved simultaneously, is of interest. Since any processing may lead to transformations and phase changes, there h as been no report on the application of these transformation toughenin g materials. The present paper deals with the techniques of fabricatin g a ceramic cutting tool based on ceria stabilized zirconia without ph ase destruction. The machining performance of this tool in machining c ast iron is evaluated and its transformation behaviour in the metal cu tting environment is studied