Papers by Author: Fang Hong Sun

Abstract: This paper presents a study of the influence of cutting conditions (cutting velocity, feed, cutting depth and lubrication) on turning TC11 (Ti-6.5Al-3.5Mo-1.5Zr-0.3Si) titanium alloy. Taguchi methodology design was adopt for carrying out experiments. Turning process parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were varied to study their effect on process responses such as cutting force (Ft), surface roughness (Ra) and temperature on cutting zones (T). Minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) technology was adopt to increase the lubricating and cooling effect. Meanwhile, CVD diamond coating was deposited on the cemented carbide insert to reduce its friction with workpiece and increase its wear resistance. From the analysis of orthogonal tests, depth of cut contributes the most for the main cutting force and cutting temperature, while feed rate had the most significant effect on surface roughness on the workpiece. MQL can reduce the cutting temperature at the cutting zones, especially for the uncoated cutting inserts whose temperature decreases by an average of 60~80°C. The cutting force, surface roughness and cutting temperature of CVD diamond coated inserts were all higher than those of uncoated tools, especially with MQL lubrication. Considering the cutting efficiency and cost, the optimal parameters in the turning process of TC11 for minimizing the cutting force, surface roughness and cutting temperature are obtained as Vc=115m/min, f=0.08mm, a_p=0.5mm under MQL lubricating with uncoated cemented carbide as the cutting tool.

Abstract: In the present study, high-quality chemical vapor deposition (CVD) micro-crystalline diamond (MCD) film was successfully deposited on the surface of the Φ0.5 mm×120 mm tungsten wire using a special designed graphitic jig for supporting the substrate and a two-step deposition procedure for guaranteeing the uniformity of as-deposited diamond film. It is proved that as-deposited film indeed presented much more uniform thickness than that obtained using a conventional jig described in the previous literature, and a very thick WC interlayer spontaneously formed between the substrate and the diamond film, which together with as-deposited MCD film have significant effects on mechanical properties of the wire. Generally speaking, the coated wire remains extremely high surface hardness of the MCD film and considerable toughness of the substrate, along with favorable film-substrate adhesion. It is recognized that these the coated tungsten wires have broad application prospects, but the technologies for depositing diamond films that are thick enough on even longer and thinner wires still need further investigation.

Abstract: The present study reports the influence of graphene layers on the tribological performance of CVD diamond films when they are used as the solid lubricants. Friction tests are conducted on a ball-on-plate friction tester, where the stainless steel is used as the counterpart material. The CVD diamond film sample is a typical microcrystalline diamond (MCD) coating which is deposited on a flat tungsten carbide substrate using the hot filament chemical vapor deposition method (HFCVD). Besides the MCD sample, a polished MCD film (pMCD) and a polished tungsten carbide (pWC) are also adopted in frictional tests, aiming at illustrating the influence of the surface morphology, as well as the physical property, of the sample on the lubricative effect of graphene layers. The experimental results show that graphene layers can effectively reduce the coefficient of friction (COF), regardless of the samples. The MCD sample presents the lowest stable COF, which is 0.13, in dry sliding period when the graphene flakes are sparyed on the sliding interface; while the pMCD and pWC samples exhibit slightly higher COFs, which are 0.16 and 0.18, respectively. Comparatively, the COFs of these three samples obtained in dry sliding process without graphene are 0.20, 0.25 and 0.64. In additon, the MCD sample exhibits a much longer stable dry slidng process which is more than 5000 cycles. Comparatively, the other two tribo-pairs only exhibit a stable low-COF dry sliding period for around 2000 cycles. The reduction of COF could be attributed to the graphene flakes adhered on the sliding interface. It forms a layer of solid lubricative film with extremely low shear strength and significantly decreases the interactions between two contacted surfaces. The rugged surface of the MCD film provides sufficient clogging locations for graphene flakes, which allows the generated lubricative film enduring a long sliding duration. It can be arrived from this study that the tribological properties of the MCD film could be enhanced by simply adoping graphene layers as a solid lubricant. Furthermore, an improved performance of a variety of MCD coated cutting tools or mechanical components could be expected when they are utilized with graphene layers.

Abstract: Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), which are widely used in the aerospace and some other new-tech industries, are considered very difficult to machine due to the material anisotropic and inhomogeneous features. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond films are suitable as protective coatings on cutting tools for machining advanced composite materials, owing to their extremely high hardness, favorable wear resistance, low friction coefficient and high thermal conductivity. Among different types of diamond films, the fine grained diamond (FGD) film can provide much more favorable environment for machining CFRP due to the small grain size, low surface roughness and the retentivity for the sharpness of the cutting edge. In the present study, aiming at drilling CFRP, FGD films of different thicknesses are deposited on Φ3 mm drills by controlling the growth time, adopting the common-used hot filament CVD (HFCVD) technology. It can be directly proved by deposition experiments that overlong growth time can induce spontaneous film delamination and removal before the cooling stage, probably as a result of the excessive residual stress concentrated on the complicated surfaces. As demonstrated by the cutting tests, with increasing the growth time, the main failure mode of the FGD coated drill changes from film delamination to flank wear/tipping to film delamination, and the maximum tool life exists when the growth time is moderate, because the flimsy film cannot provide sufficient protective effects on the film-substrate interface and even hasn’t totally cover the substrate, while there’s relatively higher residual stress in the film that is too thick, and such the residual stress can significantly deteriorate the film-substrate adhesion. Moreover, during the life cycle of each FGD film, relatively shorter growth time often means the slightly better hole quality, attributed to the retentivity of the initial shape of the uncoated drill that is optimal designed for machining CFRP, especially the weaker passivation of the cutting edge.

Abstract: In the process of HFCVD diamond film growth on the multitudinous micro end mills, the uniformity and stability of the temperature distribution have a vital importance on the quality of film. So a new method by using the finite volume is proposed to analyze the importance of different disposition parameters on the uniformity of substrate temperature field. These parameters are filament diameter (d), filament-substrate distance (H), filament separation (S) and filament length (L). The mono-factor method are used to optimize the best parameter combination. The simulation results show that the optimized parameters are d=0.65mm, H=10mm, S=27mm and L=160mm.

Abstract: The uniform temperature flied of substrates is a key factor to deposit high-quality diamond films on milling tools by the hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD). In this study, a 3-D computational model is established to simulate the temperature distribution on the substrates. Thereafter, the influence of the rotational speed of worktable n and the water flux of water-cooled worktable Q are investigated. The simulation results show that the increasing of the rotational speed of worktable is suitable to grow homogeneous diamond films and gently decrease the even temperature of seals. What’s more, the deceasing of the water flux will significantly increase the overall temperature of seals.

Abstract: In the present study, the long-duration frictional and wear performance of the MCD/DLC (Micro-crystalline Diamond / Diamond-like Carbon) bilayered film are investigated under water-lubricating conditions. All friction tests are carried out on a rotation “ball-on-plate” tribotester where the MCD/DLC is slid against with a Φ 6.0 mm Si₃N₄ ball and the whole sliding contact is immersed in deionized water during the sliding process. A full factorial experimental plan is conducted with four sliding velocities ranging from 0.126 to 0.503 m/s and four normal loads from 2 to 8 N. The duration of each sliding process is 24 h. For the sake of comparability, conventional MCD and NCD (nanocrystalline Diamond) films are also adopted under each sliding condition. The results show that the stable coefficient of friction (COF) of MCD/DLC film is ranging from 0.025 to 0.12 under the water-lubricating condition, comparable with the NCD film but much lower than that of single-layered MCD film; in contrast, the top-layered DLC film does not show beneficial effect on enhancing the sliding stability of single-layered diamond films. Moreover, its specific wear rate is estimated at the level of 10^-8 mm³N^-1m^-1, higher than that of MCD or NCD films. The sliding interface is under boundary lubrication condition, high normal load causes more prominent mechanical interactions between two contacted surfaces and thus produces a smoother and cleaner equilibrium sliding interface, which finally results in the decreasing tendency of stable COF as the load rises. Comparatively, the sliding velocity does not exhibit evident influence on the stable COF of the MCD/DLC film.

Abstract: The substrate temperature distribution in hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) diamond films growth on drill tools in large quantities are simulated by the finite volume method (FVM), adopting a detailed 3-D computational model corresponding with the actual reactor. Firstly, the correctness of the simulation model is verified by comparing the temperature data obtained from the simulation with that measured in an actual depositing process, and the results show that the error between them is less than 3%. Thereafter, the influences of several parameters are studied, including the filament separation (D), the length of the filament (L) and the filament-substrate distance (H). The simulation results show the three parameters have different effects on the distribution of temperature field. The influence of D is the greatest, L is followed and then H. The simulation has important theoretical guidance on both the development of HFCVD deposition equipment using for the diamond coating on tools with complex shapes in large quantities and the research of related production process.

Abstract: The tribo-map of typical CVD diamond film exhibiting the interaction between the wear rate, friction coefficient and friction conditions would help optimize the working parameters of CVD diamond film coated tools and wear-resistance components. The tribological behaviors of CVD diamond films sliding against Si₃N₄ balls were studied by conducting a group of tests on the ball-on-plate type reciprocating friction tester under several sliding speeds and normal loads in the ambient air. The examined MCD films and NCD films were deposited on square flat WC-Co substrates. The worn surfaces on the diamond films were observed by SEM and the wear volumes of diamond films were measured by surface profilometer. The results indicated that the influences of the sliding speeds and normal loads on the friction coefficients for both MCD films and NCD films were obvious. When the load was 6 N, MCD film obtained the lowest friction coefficient of 0.11 at the sliding velocity of 0.2 m/s, while for NCD film the minimum value was 0.07 as the sliding speed was 0.13 m/s. The wear rate of the MCD film decreased as the load improved, while for the NCD film, the tendency was just the opposite. The influence of sliding speed on the wear rate of the MCD films was not distinct, while for the NCD films, the sliding velocity greatly affects their wear rate. The wear rates of most NCD films were around 0.2×10^-7 mm³/Nm, while those of the MCD films fluctuated from 0.6×10^-7~1.6×10^-7 mm³/Nm. To elucidate the effect of operating environment on wear mechanism of diamond/ Si₃N₄ tribo-pair, the tribo-map was developed.

Abstract: Diamond-coated drawing dies are considered as ideal drawing dies for their unique characteristics, such as high hardness, wear resistance and low friction. To utilize the superior characteristics of diamond coatings, the FEM simulation is used to simulate the copper strip cold drawing process. The stress and the drawing load are predicted. The influence of parameters of drawing process on the drawing load is investigated. The optimal parameters are obtained.