Combined Lubrication of Surface Texturing and Copper Covering for Broaching Tool

Broaching is widely used in the aerospace field owing to its high efficiency and heavy load. However, heavy-load cutting causes intense squeezing and friction in the tool-chip contact area, resulting in a lack of lubrication. Therefore, three textures (i.e., micro-pit, stripe, mesh) are prepared on the rake face of broaching tool with a laser processing technique to improve cutting performance. Afterward, textures are covered with copper using the reciprocating rotational friction to enhance the wettability and heat dissipation capacity of the broaching tool. Experiments approve that striped textures covered with copper reduce the cutting force by 14.6% and the cutting temperature decreases from 90.13 to 76.9 ℃, compared with non-textured cutting teeth. Obtained results indicate that the wettability of cutting fluid on the tool surface is significantly improved due to the capillary force of micro-pores generated by the copper covering, especially in the direction to the cutting edge. Furthermore, the copper debris absorbs heat quickly in the cutting areas and is subsequently taken away by chips and cutting fluids, thereby reducing the cutting temperature.