TECHNICAL PAPER Thermal behavior analysis of coated cutting tool using analytical solutions Gabriela C. Oliveira 1 • Ana Paula Fernandes 1 • Gilmar Guimaraes 1 Received: 31 January 2017 / Accepted: 8 June 2017 Ó The Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering 2017 Abstract Nowadays, almost all cutting tools are coated due to improvements in manufacturing processes. The two main reasons are: (1) coatings allow a cut with less friction and less wear resulting in longer tool life and (2) thermal barrier effect, since the contact between workpiece–tool– chip occurs in the coating and not in the tool material (substrate). This paper analyzes, the thermal effect of the coating without considering the tribological effect. The thermal behavior with three types of coating: cobalt (Co), titanium nitride (TiN), and aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) on a ISO K10 carbide insert of 3 mm thickness was investi- gated. This paper investigates the behavior of inserts with coatings of thickness of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 lm in a one- dimensional transient thermal model proposed for a mate- rial composed of two layers. A constant heat flux simulates the heat generated in the tool–piece–chip interface for coated and non-coated inserts. The solution of the diffusion equation is obtained using the Green function method. The effect of the coating can then be calculated by analyzing the evolution of the temperature at the cutting interface in contact with the heat flux and the evolution of the tem- perature at the coating–substrate interface. It can be con- cluded that coatings have thermal barrier effect, although for coatings of 2 lm thickness, this influence is very small and produces temperature reduction of up to 14%. For thicknesses greater than 5lm, the effect becomes consid- erable depending on the coating–substrate pair. In the case of TiN carbide, the temperature reduction is 26, 34, and 41% for the thicknesses of 5, 10, and 20 lm, respectively. Keywords Cutting tool coating  Cutting temperature  Analytical solution  Heat conduction 1 Introduction The study of the thermal and mechanical behaviors is extremely important in manufacturing processes. Tools are fundamental for the success of any manufacturing process, both as to the quality of the finished material and the economy in the supply chain. The technological evolution of tool production led to the development and application of coatings on tools to facilitate cutting by acting on the tribological mechanisms. With the advance in coating deposition technology, there has been a tremendous growth in automotive and aerospace industries and the precision tool sector (Du et al. [3]). One of the main functions of the coating is to reduce tool wear. The thermal insulation characteristics is another desired effect. Nowadays, virtually, all cutting tools are coated. Rech et al. [14] claims that application of a layer of a different material (coating) on the tool material (substrate) changes the thermal behavior of the coated tool. The difficulty in the thermal analysis of the effect of coatings is due to the great difference in dimensions: the coating thickness varies from 1 to 20 lm and the tool thickness of the order of 3 mm. Thermal analysis of the influence of these coatings has been made by several authors, using thermal models with numerical, analytical, and experimental solutions, such as the works of Grzesik et al. [6]. Technical Editor: Francis HR Franca. & Gilmar Guimaraes gguima@ufu.br Gabriela C. Oliveira gabriela_costadeoliveira@hotmail.com 1 School of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Uberla ˆndia, Av. Joa ˜o Naves de A ´ vila, 2121, Campus Santa Mo ˆnica, Uberla ˆndia, MG, Brasil 123 J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. DOI 10.1007/s40430-017-0848-z