Research Projects

The global manufacturing sector - which spans automotive, aerospace, medical, construction, and other industries - relies extensively on cutting tools and machine tools for component fabrication. According to recent analyses by Market Research Future, the global cutting tool market is projected to reach approximately USD 31 billion by the year 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.20% between 2022 and 2030. Among the most widely used materials for cutting inserts are tungsten carbide (WC) with cobalt (Co) alloys, valued for their exceptional hardness, wear resistance, and toughness. Traditionally, cutting tool inserts are fabricated using powder metallurgy (PM), followed by sintering and polishing/coating. PM methods, while effective, involve costly molds and tooling that are not economically viable for low-volume or custom production runs. Moreover, design flexibility is limited—particularly for internal geometries that are critical to heat management, including cooling and coolant supply, damping and vibrational behavior, lightweight design and topology optimization, as well as functional integration. Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have enabled the fabrication of highly complex geometries that were previously unachievable through traditional PM techniques. Nonetheless, the integration of WC–Co materials into AM processes is fraught with difficulties such as microstructural inhomogeneities, Co evaporation and carbon loss, increasing brittleness and the formation of thermal cracks, high residual stresses, due to steep thermal gradients and mismatched thermal expansion coefficients, leading to cracking, formation of the brittle η-phase, negatively affecting mechanical properties. Given these challenges, this project proposes a comprehensive approach aimed at Development of WC-6Co carbide cutting inserts with enhanced in-service heat dissipation and real time temperature monitoring via Material Extrusion based Additive Manufacturing with the following important four phases of implementation with extensive numerical simulation, development of material extrusion based additive manufacturing (AM) technology, machining and additive manufacturing experimentation and subsequent material characterization such as microstructure, density, mechanical properties, SEM, EDS, XRD, etc. 1. Phase One - Design Optimization with open cellular structures through finite element-based machining simulation 2. Phase Two – Extrusion based Additive Manufacturing (AM) Technology Development and ink for the extrusion of WC-Co and optimization of the AM process parameters to achieve the optimized microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties for the WC6%Co. 3. Phase Three - Development of a High-Temperature Sensor (Up to 900 °C) and IoT integration for the wireless the data transmission 4. Phase Four – Machining Performance Evaluation This integrated design-to-fabrication approach aims to establish a novel pathway for additive manufacturing of WC–Co-based, design-optimized cutting tools with real-time temperature monitoring. The enhanced inserts are expected to improve machining performance—reducing tool wear, cutting forces, and chatter—while offering greater design flexibility. Real-time temperature data enables intelligent decision-making for cutting fluid application (flood, MQL, nMQL), potentially reducing synthetic fluid usage by targeting critical temperature zones. The study also provides fundamental insights into the tribological behavior of WC–Co at room and elevated temperatures against nickel-based alloys. The developed high-temperature sensor, with microsecond response time, can be extended to broader engineering applications and, when integrated with IoT, supports data-driven decisions aligned with Industry 4.0—contributing to the digital transformation of the global and Indian machine tool industries and improving the quality of machined components.