The aim of the present thesis work is to increase the fundamental knowledge of the tribological contact between the cutting tool and the work material in three different cutting operations, i.e. hard milling of cold work tool steels, turning in 316L stainless steel and turning in Ti6Al4V alloy, respectively. The influence of cutting parameters and tool surface topography on the initial material transfer tendency and resulting wear and wear mechanisms were investigated under well controlled cutting conditions. High resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and surface analysis, including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), were used in order to characterize the worn cutting tools on a sub-µm scale and deepen the understanding of the wear mechanisms prevailing at the tool / work material interface. The characterization work includes the analysis of worn tool surfaces as well as cross-sections of these. Also, the back side of collected chips were analysed to further understand the contact mechanisms between the tool rake face and chip.

The results show that the transfer tendency of work material is strongly affected by the surface topography of the rake face and that an appropriate pre- and post-coating treatment can be used in order to reduce the transfer tendency and the mechanical interaction between a coated cutting tool and 316L stainless steel. The continuous wear mechanisms of the cutting tools were found to be dependent on the work materials and the cutting parameters used. In hard milling of cold work tool steels, polycrystalline cubic boron nitride shows a combination of tribochemical wear, adhesive wear and mild abrasive wear. In the turning of 316L stainless steel and Ti6Al4V alloy, using medium to high cutting speeds/feeds, the wear of cemented carbide is mainly controlled by diffusion wear of the WC phase. Interestingly, the diffusion wear processes differ between the two work materials. In contact with 316L stainless steel crater wear is controlled by atomic diffusion of W and C into the passing chip. In contact with Ti6Al4V crater wear is controlled by the diffusion of C into a transfer work material layer generating a W layer and TiC precipitates which repeatedly is removed by the passing chip. The experimental work and results obtained illustrates the importance of in-depth characterization of the worn surfaces in order to increase the understanding of the degradation and wear of tool materials and coatings in metal cutting operations.