• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.66-71
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• 2008

Diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings could be good candidates as solid lubricants for cutting tools in dry machining of aluminum alloy. In this work, DLC thin films were produced as a friction reduction coating for WC-Co insert tip using the plasma immersion ion beam deposition (PIIED) technique. DLC coatings were also coated on $Al_2O_3$ specimens and high temperature wear tested up to $400^{\circ}C$ in dry air to observe the survivability of the DLC coating in simulated severe cutting conditions using a pin-on-disc tribotester with Hertzian contact stress of 1.3GPa. It showed reduced friction coefficients of minimum 0.02 up to $400^{\circ}C$. And cutting performance of DLC coated WC-Co insert tips to Al 6061 alloy were conducted in a high speed machining center. The main problems of built-up edge formation in aluminum machining are drastically reduced with improved surface roughness. The improvements were mainly related to the low friction coefficient of DLC to Al alloy and the anti-adhesion of Al alloy to WE due to the inertness of DLC.