20

GEAR SOLUTIONS

JUNE 2008

gearsolutionsonline.com

The following article provides an

overview of the wear mechanisms of
high-speed steel cutting tools, both
coated and uncoated.

By Sture Hogmark and Mikael Olsson

1: Introduction

Metal cutting puts extreme demands on the tool and tool material through conditions of high forces,
high contact pressures, high temperatures, and intense chemical attack by difficult-to-cut work materials. In addition, the tool geometry and cutting conditions in terms of sharp edges, cyclic engagement,
and presence of cutting fluid will add to the severity. Most often cutting tools are used close to their
ultimate resistance against these loads, especially to the limiting thermal and mechanical stresses.
In spite of the increasing use of high performance tool materialssuch as CVD and PVD coated
cemented carbides, cermets, ceramics, cubic boron nitride, and diamondhigh speed steels (HSS)
are still frequently used in tools for metal cutting applications. The relatively high toughness and the
possibility of economic manufacturing of tools with complicated geometries still justify the use of
HSS in many cutting operations. The introduction of powder metallurgical grades in combination with
Electro Slag Heating (ESH) and Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) coating technologies has further
improved the performance of HSS cutting tools.
Since the successful introduction of the PVD-TiN coating in the late seventies, the academic
research on HSS metal cutting tools has been concentrated to developing even better coating materials and techniques for their deposition.
This paper is a brief overview of the mechanisms of wear of HSS cutting tools and includes illustrations from both uncoated and coated tools. More details on the metal cutting process, the mechanisms of tool degradation, and the properties of HSS materials and their coatings are found in Refs
[1-10].

gearsolutionsonline.com

JUNE 2008

GEAR SOLUTIONS

21

2: The Cutting Process

To understand the wear mechanisms in

metal cutting it is necessary to have a brief
understanding of the severe contact conditions prevailing at the cutting tool/work material interface (see Fig. 1). The common model
illustrates orthogonal cutting, but it applies to
any cutting operation including turning, milling, sawing, drilling, tapping, broaching, etc.
Through plastic shear of the work material
and sliding of work material against the tool
flank and rake face a characteristic temperature profile is established. The principal heat
sources are located at the primary shear
zone in the forming chip and in the frictional
contact between chip and tool (secondary
shear zone), and the highest temperature
is consequently reached on the rake face at
some distance from the edge.
To illustrate the forces and mechanical
stresses acting on the tool edge in one picture is less straightforward since they change
considerably with cutting operation and cutting parameters. In intermittent cutting they
also may change completely from entrance to
exit during the individual edge engagements.
Generally the overall cutting force F is related

Fig. 1. Principle action and temperature distribution of a

HSS metal cutting edge exposed to its practical limit of
thermal loading.

Fig. 2. Schematics of cutting force F vs. cutting speed (a)

and feed (b). (Linear scales).

22

GEAR SOLUTIONS

JUNE 2008

gearsolutionsonline.com

to cutting speed and feed, as indicated in Fig.

2. It is indicated that a low-friction coating can
lower the cutting force, thereby giving a lower
edge temperature, which can be utilized to
increase the productivity.
We know from the type of failure mechanisms that HSS cutting tools are used close
to their limits of yield and fracture stresses
(see section 6, and forward). Since the
cutting edge is forcing its way through the
interior of the work piece like a propagating
wedge, both surfaces of the opened crack
represent highly chemically reactive metal.
The fact that there is no access to external
oxygen or cutting fluids to this region means
that there is no formation of oxide films or
any other protecting interlayer. Consequently,
the tool edge is also exposed to extremely
severe conditions.

3: Tool Material Properties

3.1: High Temperature Strength

A metal cutting tool must be able to combine high hardness (or high yield strength)
with high fracture strength at elevated temperature (see Fig. 3a). The latter is especially important in interrupted cutting. A high

Fig. 3. a) Hot hardness (HV) of

thermal conductivity is also a
HSS compared to that of carbon
desired tool property since it
steel and austenitic stainless
will reduce the tendency to local steel. The superior hot hardness of
carbides, nitrides and oxides in the
thermal softening.
whole temperature interval is also
indicated. b) Room temperature
The high thermal resistance
fracture strength (Rmb) vs. hardness (HV) of some common tool
of carbides, nitrides, and oxides
materials.
indicates their potential as
protective thin PVD or CVD
coatings, but also their strengthening ability when present in
the form of small particles in
the tool material. However, they are also common as strengthening elements in most work
materials where they contribute to abrasive wear
(see section 6.1).

3.2: Fracture Strength vs. Hardness

High hardness is associated with brittleness,
and strengthening metallic materials such as
HSS by martensitic hardening, dispersion of
hard particles, etc., of a metallic materials most
often results in a material with a lower fracture
strength as indicated by Fig. 3b.

4: Common Work Materials

for HSS Cutting Tools

Generally the work materials in metal cutting with HSS tools are macroscopically much
softer than the tools (see Table 1). However,
many work materials contain constituents
carbides, nitrides, or oxidesthat are harder
(HV 1500-3000) and more temperature resistant than the HSS matrix, as indicated in Fig. 3a,
and contribute to the tool degradation by abrasion. High toughness, large fracture elongation
(ductility), and the ability to work harden all add
to generate a high temperature during chip formation. High temperatures reduce the strength
of the HSS tool, but will also facilitate chemical
reactions and possibility to form intermetallic
phases between tool and work material. This will
increase the friction between these materials
and thus further aggravate the situation.
Another fact that has to be considered when

Fig. 4. Schematic of tool wear distribution.

gearsolutionsonline.com

JUNE 2008

GEAR SOLUTIONS

23

comparing the mechanical properties of tool materials with those of

work materials is that chip formation generally occurs by extremely
high shear rates. Taking high strain rate into account, the work
material curves of Fig. 3a are lifted up such that the corresponding
RT hardness of a carbon steel may well match the hardness of the
cutting edge at its working temperature, as indicated by the two
ovals in this figure [11]. The illustrated situation is accentuated in
intermittent cutting when a hot tool edge suddenly meets cold work
material.

B
Fig. 5. Typical appearance of abrasive wear. a) Wear dominates the crater and flank wear of a
milling tool. The arrows point at ridges of HSS material relatively resistant to abrasion. There is
also evidence of edge fracture. Work material: C-steel. b) Paper knife. An extremely fine-scaled
abrasion, only resisted by the hard carbides, dominates the tool wear.

B
Fig. 6. Crater in a milling tool that has been cutting in low carbon steel. In low magnification (a)
the dominating wear mechanism appears to be abrasive. However, a close up (b) reveals that it
is dominated by a mild adhesive component with shear fragmentation of the HSS material in the
direction of chip flow (arrow).

Fig. 7. a) Optical micrograph of cross-sectioned hob tooth after cutting austenitic stainless
steel. b) Detail of a). The arrows indicate the chip flow direction and flow pattern of superficial
HSS material, respectively. The latter is indicative of severe adhesive wear.

Fig. 8. Plastic deformation of HSS tool edge. a) The edge line in the central part of the picture is
being plastically moved downwards and will soon leave the edge as the adjacent parts of the edge
already have. b) Cross section of the plastically deformed edge showing signs of adiabatic shear.

24

GEAR SOLUTIONS

JUNE 2008

5: Tool Wear

Taking orthogonal cutting as a model the general characteristics of a

worn HSS cutting tool are schematically illustrated in Fig. 4. Primarily,
depending on cutting operation, cutting parameters, work material,
and tool material, the performance of the tool is limited by nose wear,
flank wear, crater wear, edge chippings, or combinations of these.
Depending on the same parameters, the wear either occurs gradually
by abrasive or adhesive wear, through plastic deformation, by more
discrete losses of material through discrete fracture mechanisms, or
by combinations of these.
Fig. 4 shows illustrative micrographs from scanning and optical
microscopy (SEM and OM, respectively) of used HSS tools will be
used to demonstrate the wear mechanisms.

6: Wear Mechanisms of Uncoated Tools

6.1: Abrasive Wear

Abrasive wear dominates the flank and crater wear of the HSS tool
edge seen in Fig. 5. The grooved pattern is a combination of the
scratching action of hard particles in the work material, and the
protection against scratching offered by the hard phases in the tool
material. Behind large tool carbides, seen in the chip flow direction,
there are typical ridges of protected tool material. The individual abrasive scratches are too small to be resolved in the picture.
Abrasive wear is counteracted by a high yield strength (high hardness) and large carbide volume of the HSS.
6.2: Adhesive Wear
When viewed in low magnification the dominating wear mechanism
of the milling tooth of Fig. 6 appears to be abrasive, i.e. a ploughing action of hard constituents in the work material (carbon steel).
However, higher magnification (Fig. 6b) reveals that it is rather a combination of abrasive and adhesive wear. This adhesive component,
often referred to as mild adhesive wear, is a tearing of superficial
HSS material by high shear forces resulting in a slow drag of the
surface layer and removal of small fragments in the direction of chip
flow.
If the tool is used to its upper limit of heat resistance, severe adhesive wear may result as a large-scale plastic flow of surface material
in the direction of the chip flow (see Fig. 7).
Adhesive wear dominates the flank and crater wear of HSS tools
if the edges reach high temperatures, i.e. at high cutting speed.
Adhesive wear is further promoted when cutting chemically aggressive materials.
Both mild and severe adhesive wear are primarily resisted by the
HSS material through its high yield strength at elevated temperature
(high hot hardness)

gearsolutionsonline.com

A
Fig 9. Small (a) and somewhat larger (b) edge chippings due to local overloading and fatigue of
hob teeth.

Fig 11. a) The lateral compressive stresses state present in most PVD coatings will generate
interfacial stresses S. At the top of e.g. grinding ridges this stress is a tensile lift off stress that
may reach the same order of magnitude as the residual stress [12]. Such ridges can result from
rough grinding. b) TiN coating detachment along grinding ridges of a HSS cutting tool.

25 m

Fig. 10. Metallographic cross-sections through surface finished HSS materials. a) Superficial layer
of untempered martensite due to excessive heat generation during finishing. b) Properly surface
finished HSS.

Fig. 12. Microscopic fatigue cracks observed on the rake face close to the edge of a hob tooth
that has been cutting in carbon steel. b) Close up of a). Note that the direction of the cracks
coincide with the direction of surface finishing.

Custom Bevel Gear Manufacturing

Per your SPECIFICATIONS and/or sample
providing inverse engineering to make a clone of your sample

Spiral Bevel Gears: 66" PD

Straight Bevel Gears: 80" PD
Spurs-Helicals-Spline Shafts
Gearbox Repair/REBUILDs

IN-HOUSE STEEL MATERIAL WAREHOUSE

FULL HEAT TREATING SERVICES
EDM WIRE BURNING

BREAKDOWN SERVICES

gearsolutionsonline.com

JUNE 2008

GEAR SOLUTIONS

25

6.3: Large-Scale Plastic Deformation

Sometimes the HSS tool edge is loaded beyond its yield strength and
deforms by large-scale plastic deformation (see Fig. 8), resulting in edge
blunting.

ceramic coatings for HSS tools [9]. A thin (1-10 m) PVD coating will
primarily protect the cutting edge in two ways:
Acting as a shield against abrasive and mild adhesive wear;
Reducing the tool temperature by reducing the friction between tool
and work material, especially between chip and rake face.
The coatings combine a superior hardness (abrasive wear resis-

6.4: Fatigue and Fracture

Macroscopic fracture of the whole tool can occur, but is a rather scarce
event. More common is localized chippings of the tool edge (see Fig. 9).
Note that the chippings in (a) seem to be initiated by grinding marks running parallel to the edge.

7: Wear Mechanisms of Coated Tools

Since the late seventies, when the TiN-coating was introduced on HSS
metal cutting tools, PVD coating has become standard in tool wear protection, and today coating centers offer a considerable number of thin

Fig. 13. Coating detachment of hob tooth used for making gears of carbon steel. a) Coating
fracture due to thermal softening of the substrate. b) Removal of small coating fragments and
initial wear of the underlying HSS material. The thickness of the fragments is the same as the
original coating thickness.

Fig. 14. Successive wear of TiN-coated hob teeth revealed by SEM and etched metallographic
cross-sections. a) Overview of one tooth from a used tool. b) Initial stage of edge chipping and
thermal softening of the coating substrate on the rake face. c) Close up of edge chipping in crosssection. Note cracks running from both rake and clearance face d) Final stage of severe crater
wear. The etching in b) and c) reveals superficial thermal effects.

#F-2750

26

GEAR SOLUTIONS

JUNE 2008

gearsolutionsonline.com

tance) with relatively low chemical reactivity

with metallic materials (low solubility), the latter
giving protection against the welding mechanism that is the prerequisite for adhesive wear.
Consequently, most of the common PVD coatings of today fail by fatigue and discrete delamination/detachment rather than removal by slow
gradual wear [9]. Once the coating is removed
the wear mechanisms of coated tools are the
same as those of uncoated, although more
severe because more severe cutting parameters
are normally used for coated tools.

Hardness [HV]

Hard particles

Ductility

Work harden

C-steels

Work material

200 - 250

Cementite

Yes

Yes

Cast irons

200 - 250

Cementite

g-steels

180 - 250

Yes

Yes

Al-alloys

100 - 150

Oxides, AlFeSi

Yes

Ti-alloys

200 - 350

Yes

Yes

Ni-based alloys

200 - 350

Yes

Yes

Yes

Table 1. Work materials and their nominal properties related to tool wear in metal cutting.

7.1: Coating Removal Due to Poor Substrate

Preparation
There are primarily two ways by which failure
in HSS substrate preparation can occur: The
surface temperature during grinding/polishing
reaches above the austenitization temperature
resulting in a brittle interlayer of untempered
martensite (see Fig. 10); or the resulting substrate surface is too rough (see Figs. 11-12).
Used as substrate for PVD coating, the
untempered martensite in Fig. 11a would constitute a brittle interlayer inferior to coating
adhesion. PVD coatings on HSS tools possess
internal compressive stresses of the order of
1-5 GPa. Typically, TiN deposited on HSS has a
lateral compressive residual stress of around 4
GPa. This stress acts positively for the coating
cohesion, but negatively on its adhesion to the
substrate. In combination with a rough substrate, excessively high compressive stresses
may cause spontaneous detachment without
any external loads [10, 12]. The reason is that
lateral compressive stresses in the coating
combined with a rough substrate will generate
tensile stresses across the coating/substrate
interface, as illustrated in Fig. 11a [12]. If such
a system is externally loaded, coating detachment is facilitated along regions of maximum
tensile stress, i.e. along the coarse ridges on
the tool of Fig. 11b. These ridges are the result
of a too-rough grinding process/incorrect grinding parameters.
Another example of topographically induced
coating failure is shown in Fig. 12, where it also
is indicated that cracks nucleated in the coating may spread to the underlying HSS material.
Through fatigue they may later cause edge chippings and large-scale edge fracture.
7.2: Coating Removal Due to Thermal
Softening of the Substrate
Once the HSS substrate material reaches a
temperature level of excessive softening, it fails
to resist the contact pressure and the brittle
coating fractures (see Fig. 13a). Note the dark
etching contrast underneath the coating, which

gearsolutionsonline.com

JUNE 2008

GEAR SOLUTIONS

27

reveals thermal softening due to over tempering. The coating fractures

and individual fragments are then detached in the form of small fragments (see Fig. 13b).

8: Distribution and Evolution

of Edge Wear

Fig. 15. Tool wear evolution. The three ovals represent initial, steady state and catastrophic tool
wear, respectively. Influence of tool surface preparation and coating is also indicated.

Fig. 16. Reducing the

size of the microstructure
constituents and improving
the cleanliness improves the
hardness/toughness ratio.

Fig. 17. Four point bend strength of AP 2023 illustrating the influence of surface condition on
strength.

The macroscopic wear pattern of a cutting tool edge was illustrated in

Fig. 4. The mechanisms described above will eventually cause wear that
exceeds the worn-out criteria, either as a certain width of the flank, the
rake face, or as a certain edge blunting. Fig. 14 shows the development
of a large crater in a TiN-coated hob tooth. The work material was carbon
steel, and the wear that eventually controlled tool life occurred on the
rake face.
Initially, the hob teeth suffered from limited edge chipping (Fig. 14b
and c). At the same time, thermal softening of tool material in the rake
face (over tempering revealed by the dark contrast adjacent to the coating) reduced the load bearing capacity of the coating, which failed by
cracking and brittle fracture (Fig. 14b), cp. Fig. 13. Once the coating was
removed, a large crater was rapidly developed in the unprotected HSS by
severe adhesive wear (Fig 14d).
Irrespective of the location of the critical wear, its evolution can be
illustrated as in Fig. 15. An initial wear, often involving tip blunting through
minor fractures (chipping), is followed by a linear, steady-state wear
regime dominated by abrasive and adhesive wear. A gradual tip blunting
is one of the reasons behind a successively increasing edge temperature
and, eventually, a situation of accelerated wear through edge fracture or
severe plastic deformation is reached.
It is also indicated in Fig. 15 that a smoothening of the tool surface
and sharpening of the edge will prolong tool life. This is further accentuated by coating. However, the improved wear resistance obtained by
coating is often used to increase the productivity rather than to obtain a
longer tool life.
Table 2 summarizes the wear mechanisms of HSS cutting tools.
Normally the tool suffers from a combination of two or more of these
mechanisms, and it can be difficult to judge which is dominating. It is
also indicated in the table how the different wear mecha-nisms result
from a combined effect of properties of work and tool materials as well
as cutting parameters.

9: Toward Better Performance

of HSS Cutting Tools

9.1: Improving the HSS Material

From the demonstrated mechanisms of wear of HSS cutting tools we
can draw the conclusion that hardness, heat resistance (hot hardness),

Wear mechanism

Cause of wear

Counteractive tool properties

Abrasive wear

Hard particles or other hard phases in the work material

remove material by a ploughing action.

High matrix hardness, large volume of hard

phases, hard coating

Mild and severe adhesive wear

High cutting speed generates high tool surface temperatures that facilitate strong adhesion between work and tool
materials. The worst situation prevails for tough, ductile and
chemically reactive work materials with low thermal conductivity.

Smooth surface, sharp edge, high hot hardness,

high thermal conductivity, chemically inert
(anti sticking) coating

Plastic deformation

High cutting speed generates excessive edge temperatures in

combination with high loads.

High hot hardness, high thermal conductivity.

Fracture and fatigue

Interrupted cutting, especially in combination with high cutting speed and use of cutting fluid, a tough and ductile work
material. Use of insufficiently sharp tool edges.

Smooth tool surface, high fracture toughness promoted by a defect free HSS with a
fine grained structure of both matrix and hard
phases

Table 2. Common wear mechanisms of HSS cutting tools, their cause and how to fight them.

28

GEAR SOLUTIONS

JUNE 2008

gearsolutionsonline.com

and fracture toughnessboth macroscopically and microscopicallyare

the prerequisites of high tool performance. Recent HSS development has
focused on the homogeneity and cleanliness of the HSS steel. Through PM
technology it is possible to obtain a fine grained, homogeneous structure.
However, the authors think that it is possible to further improve the hardness/toughness ration demonstrated in Fig. 2b. By further reducing the
size of the matrix grains and hard phase particles down to the nanometer
range (applying nanotechnology) a further step is possible, as illustrated
by the general hardness/toughness relation given in Fig. 16.
9.2: Improving the Surface Integrity
Another means to further improve HSS tool performance is to improve the
surface finish, i.e. avoiding deterioration of the superficial HSS material by
excessive heat generation. The macroscopic strength and the resistance
to edge chipping of HSS materials (Fig. 14.c) is very sensitive to surface
defects generated by the surface preparation (see Fig. 17) and, consequently, the surface of the cutting tool edge must be accurately prepared
in order to avoid premature failure. A smooth tool surface contributes to
the resistance against micro cracking and to avoid premature detachment
of coatings as demonstrated in Fig. 11.

About the authors:

Sture Hogmark is at the The ngstrm Laboratory
University [www.uu.se], Sweden. Mikael Olsson is
University [www.du.se], also in Sweden. Both are
in materials science. Published courtesy of the
Manufacturing Engineers, ID#TP05PUB53.

at Uppsala
at Dalarna
professors
Society of

References:
1) Sderberg, S., Wear mechanisms and tool life of hhigh speed steels
related to microstructure , PhD Thesis of Uppsala University, Sweden,
Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 1982
2) Sderberg, S., Jacobson S., Olsson, M., Wear Atlas of HSS Cutting
Tools,Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Tribology
(Eurotrib 89), Helsinki, Finland, Finnish Society for Tribology, 1989
3) Trent, E.M., Metal Cutting. 3rd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heineman, 1991.
4) Alden Kendall, A., Friction and wear of cutting tools and cutting tool
materials, ASM Handbook, Vol. 18, 1992, pp 609-620
5) Holmberg, K., Matthews, A., Coatings tribology, Properties, techniques
and applications in Surface Engineering, Ed: D. Dowson, Elsevier 1994.
6) Alvelid, B., Wisell, H., Wear of HSS in orthogonal milling, Scand. J. of
Metallurgy 9 (1980) 59-67
7) Lim, S.C., Lee, S.H., Liu, Y.B., Seah, K.H.W., Wear maps for uncoated
high-speed steel cutting tools, Wear 170 (1993) 137-144.
8) Lim, C.Y.H., Lim, S.C., Lee, K.S., The performance of TiN-coated high
speed steel tool inserts in turning, Tribology International 32 (1999)
393-398
9) Hogmark, S. Jacobson, S., Larsson, M., Wiklund, U., Mechanical and
tribological requirements and evaluation of coating composites, In
Modern Tribology 2000. Ed. B. Bushan, Vol II, 931-959 CRC Press
2001
10) Le May, I., Principles of mechanical metallurgy, Elsevier 1981
11) Larsson, M., Olsson M., Hedenqvist, P., Hogmark, S., Mechanisms of
coating failure as demonstrated by scratch and indentation testing
of TiN coated HSS - On the influence of coating thickness, substrate
hardness and surface topography, Surface Engineering 16, 5 (2000)
436-444
12) Wiklund, U., Gunnars, J., Hogmark, S., Influence of residual stresses
on fracture and delamination of thin hard coatings, Wear 232 (1999)
262-269

gearsolutionsonline.com

JUNE 2008

GEAR SOLUTIONS

29