The objective of the present work is to carry out analytical and finite element analysis for commonly used coating materials for micro-milling applications on high-speed steel substrate and evaluate the effects of different parameters. Four different coating materials were selected for micro-milling applications: titanium nitride (TiN), diamond-like carbon (DLC), aluminium titanium nitride (AlTiN) and titanium silicon nitride (TiSiN). A 3D finite element model of coating and substrate assembly was developed in Abaqus to find the Hertzian normal stress when subjected to normal load of 4 N, applied with the help of a rigid ball. The radius of the rigid ball was 200 µm. For all the coating materials, the length was 3 mm, the width was 1 mm, and the thickness was 3 µm. For the high-speed steel substrate, the length was 3 mm, the width was 1 mm, and the thickness was 50 µm. Along the length and width, coating and substrate both were divided into 26 equal parts. The deformation behaviour of all the coating materials was considered as linear-elastic and that of the substrate was characterized as elastic-plastic. The maximum normal stress developed in the FEA model was 12,109 MPa. The variation of the FEA result from the analytical result (i.e., 12,435.97 MPa is 2.63%) which is acceptable. This confirms that the FEA model of coating-substrate assembly is acceptable. The results shows that the TiSiN coating shows least plastic equivalent strain in the substrate, which serves the purpose of protecting the substrate from plastic deformation and the TiSiN of 3 micron thickness is the most optimum coating thickness for micro-milling applications.
Keywords: coating; delamination; micro-milling; substrate; tool failure; wear.