Abstract
This study investigated the wear of carbide tools used in friction drilling, a nontraditional hole-making process. In friction drilling, a rotating conical tool uses the heat generated by friction to soften and penetrate a thin workpiece and create a bushing without generating chips. The wear of a hard tungsten carbide tool used for friction drilling a low carbon steel workpiece has been investigated. Tool wear characteristics were studied by measuring its weight change, detecting changes in its shape with a coordinate measuring machine, and making observations of wear damage using scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive spectroscopy was applied to analyze the change in chemical composition of the tool surface due to drilling. In addition, the thrust force and torque during drilling and the hole size were measured periodically to monitor the effects of tool wear. Results indicate that the carbide tool is durable, showing minimal tool wear after drilling 11000 holes, but observations also indicate progressively severe abrasive grooving on the tool tip.