Cutting Behavior of Al_0.6CoCrFeNi High Entropy Alloy

There is an increased interest in high entropy alloys as a result of the special possibilities of improving the mechanical, physical or chemical characteristics resulting from metallic matrices made of different chemical elements added in equimolar proportions. The next step in developing new alloys is to determine the cutting conditions to optimize manufacturing prescriptions. This article presents a series of tests performed to estimate the machining behavior of the Al_0.6CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy. The effects of temperature during machining, wear effects on the cutting tool, evolution of the hardness on the processed areas, cutting force components and resultant cutting force for high entropy alloy (HEA) in comparison with 304 stainless steel, scrap aspect and machined surface quality were analyzed to have an image of the HEA machinability. In terms of cutting forces, the behavior of the HEA was found to be about 59% better than that of stainless steel. XRD analysis demonstrated that the patterns are very similar for as-cast and machined surfaces. The wear effects that appear on the cutting edge faces for the tool made of rapid steel compared to carbide during HEA machining led to the conclusion that physical vapor deposition (PVD)-coated carbide inserts are suitable for the cutting of HEAs.