Insights into plastic deformation and binder lamella orientation in hardmetal turning inserts

This paper studies the underlying mechanisms to binder phase lamella formation (in WC/WC grain boundaries) in hardmetal inserts used in face turning. A distribution of lamellae orientations has been quantified for used turning inserts as well as pristine inserts and coupled to the direction of the applied stress, calculated by FEM. Furthermore, more detailed FEM calculations on the micro scale have been used to examine a suggested theory of lamella formation based on shear stresses.