Nanocomposite‐Beschichtungen auf CBN‐Werkzeugen

Nanocomposite coatings on CBN‐tools CBN (cubic boron nitride) cutting materials are often used to improve the properties of cutting tools. This allows new applications and processes, which are not possible with common cutting materials (e.g. hard metals). Today CBN cutting materials are mostly coated to estimate the wear by an optical evaluation. Coatings on CBN cutting materials for enhancement of the tribological properties are normally not used. For improvement of the properties of used CBN tools during the cutting process a coating technology was developed. This technology combines the advantages of CBN cutting materials with the excellent properties (e.g. hardness, temperature stability) of nanostructured materials. Investigations with different coating systems and pre‐treatment processes were done to test the CBN cutting tools. These investigations have been shown, that nanocomposite coatings can be used to enhance the tool life of CBN cutting tools. Important for an increase in the tool life is a very good coating adhesion, which can be reached by special adhesion layers and an optimized coating structure.     

Boron containing combination tool coatings—characterization and application tests

The requirements for durable tool coatings continuously increase. In many cases, tool coatings combining different phases or several layers could provide an improvement in tool life. The broad range of mechanical properties of materials in the B–C–N and Ti–B–N ternary systems, from very soft to superhard, presents many possibilities to generate various combination coatings. Such coatings were prepared using reactive sputter techniques with different target materials. An outstanding example is a superhard 3 μm thick coating system with a 0.5 to 0.8 μm thick cBN top layer deposited on cutting inserts. Soft coatings like hexagonal boron nitride were found to be essential for machining operations under dry conditions. The coatings were characterized with respect to hardness, abrasive wear rate and friction coefficients. The correlation between properties and composition was revealed. Application test results of B–C–N and Ti–B–N coating systems on tools obtained under near production conditions will be reported. Specifically, turning tests performed with cemented carbide cutting inserts coated with a superhard coating system with a cBN top layer will be discussed.     

A comparative machining study of diamond-coated tools made by plasma torch,microwave, and hot filament techniques

An effective metal-cutting tool is usually a combination of a hard coating and a tough substrate. The successful deposition of diamond outside its thermodynamic stability range has stimulated the development of a new class of cutting tools: those with diamond-coated inserts of any desired style and edge geometry. The successful implementation of diamond coatings also expedited similar research in the deposition of cubic boron nitride. This paper presents superhard coating tools, with emphasis on diamond-coated WC-Co tools, the corresponding deposition of technologies and the foreseen metal-cutting applications.     

Thick c-BN coatings - Preparation, properties and application tests

Due to the outstanding properties of cubic boron nitride (c-BN) - c-BN is the second hardest of all known materials, has a high wear resistance and a high thermal stability - this material is very promising for a broad range of applications, especially for cutting tools, both as bulk and as a coating material. The state-of-the-art is the use of sintered cutting inserts with c-BN grains. Such c-BN grains are synthesized in an expensive high-pressure-high-temperature process.The requirements for cutting tools continuously increase in production engineering and this leads to a strong demand for new super hard tool coatings. Cubic boron nitride coatings could be an attractive solution. Unfortunately, the preparation of thick c-BN coatings, on the μm scale, is difficult, due to some serious drawbacks and has been successful only in the last years for a few research groups worldwide.PVD processes allow the preparation of c-BN films thicker than 2 μm on silicon and 1 μm c-BN top layers on pre-coated cemented carbide cutting inserts. Measurements of mechanical properties like hardness and Young's modulus reveal that the properties of the c-BN coatings, with hardness of about 60 GPa, are nearly identical to those of c-BN bulk material.Results of systematic turning and milling tests of different coatings in combination with a c-BN top-layer on cemented carbide cutting inserts will be presented in detail. The new results confirm the high potential of c-BN coatings on cutting tools.     

COATING THICKNESS EFFECTS ON THE LIFE OF TITANIUM NITRIDE PVD COATED TOOLS

The influence of coating thickness on the life time of titanium nitride (TiN) PVD coated high speed steel (HSS) cutting tools has been studied using planing and turning as machining test methods. The thickness of the coating was found to have a significant effect on tool life. In the planing tests a coating thickness of 2-3 μm was found to give the longest tool life. In the turning tests the tool life increased as the coating thickness increased, up to the maximum 6.0 μm thickness tested.

The chemical composition of the cutting fluid was also found to affect the tool life. The life of the coated tools was shorter in planing tests when using cutting fluids which contained EP (extreme pressure) -additives, sulfur additives showing shorter life than chloride.additives.     

A comparative research on magnetron sputtering and arc evaporation deposition of Ti-Al-N coatings

Ti-Al-N coating has been proven to be an effective protective coating for machining applications. Here, the differences of cubic Ti-Al-N coatings with a similar Ti/Al atomic ratio of 1 deposited by magnetron sputtering and cathodic arc evaporation have been studied in detail. Main emphasis was laid on the characterization of thermal stability and cutting performance. Both coatings during annealing exhibit a structural transformation into stable phases c-TiN and h-AlN via an intermediate step of spiondal decomposition with the precipitation of c-AlN, however, a difference in decomposition process. Compared to sputtered coating inserts, an increase of tool life-time by 42% is obtained by evaporated coating inserts at the higher speed of 200 m/min, whereas the similar cutting life is observed at the speed of 160 m/min. It is attributed to the better stability of evaporated coating due to its later structural transformation at elevated temperature. A post-deposition vacuum annealing of both coated inserts in their corresponding temperature range of spiondal decomposition improves their cutting performance due to an increase in hardness arising from the precipitation of coherent cubic-phase nanometer-size c-AlN domains. Additionally, the sputtered coating behaves in worse oxidation resistance due to its more open structure. These behaviors can be understood considering the difference in microstructure and morphology of as deposited coatings originating from adatom mobility of deposited particles, where arc evaporation technique with higher ion to neutral ratio shows higher adatom mobility.     

Machining of high performance workpiece materials with CBN coated cutting tools

The machining of high performance workpiece materials requires significantly harder cutting materials. In hard machining, the early tool wear occurs due to high process forces and temperatures. The hardest known material is the diamond, but steel materials cannot be machined with diamond tools because of the reactivity of iron with carbon. Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is the second hardest of all known materials. The supply of such PcBN indexable inserts, which are only geometrically simple and available, requires several work procedures and is cost-intensive. The development of a cBN coating for cutting tools, combine the advantages of a thin film system and of cBN. Flexible cemented carbide tools, in respect to the geometry can be coated. The cBN films with a thickness of up to 2 µm on cemented carbide substrates show excellent mechanical and physical properties. This paper describes the results of the machining of various workpiece materials in turning and milling operations regarding the tool life, resultant cutting force components and workpiece surface roughness. In turning tests of Inconel 718 and milling tests of chrome steel the high potential of cBN coatings for dry machining was proven. The results of the experiments were compared with common used tool coatings for the hard machining. Additionally, the wear mechanisms adhesion, abrasion, surface fatigue and tribo-oxidation were researched in model wear experiments.     

The study of wear of cutting tools of cBN-based composite material and the influence of tool wear on cutting forces in turning hardened steels

The paper presents some findings of the investigation of finish turning of KhVG hardened steel using a cutting tool with an insert made of a cubic boron nitride based composite (cBN-Si₃N₄ system). The behavior of tool wear throughout the machining time as well as the influence of the tool wear on cutting force components and resulting cutting force have been clarified.     

Tribology of cutting by tools equipped with cBN-based PSHM

Mechanisms of the contact interaction between the cutting tool equipped with cBN-based PSHM and the material machined in the cutting zone have been considered. The influence of the thermobaric conditions of loading on the tool (cutting temperature and contact stresses) on the mechanisms has been discussed.     

The study of the influence of cutting conditions on machined surface roughness in turning hardened steels with cutting tools of cBN-based composite

The paper presents some findings of the investigation of finish turning of KhVG hardened steel using a cutting tool tipped with a round insert made of a composite based on cubic boron nitride (cBN-Si₃N₄ system). Based on the analysis of machined surface roughness, the cutting conditions have been found which ensure a stable interaction between the cutting tool and the workpiece.     

The Influence of Crucible Material on Aluminum Composition

The freezing point of aluminum is one of the ITS-90 defining fixed points widely used for thermometer calibration. However, long-term investigations have revealed slow temperature depressions of the aluminum freezing temperature and alterations of the metal structure that are probably due to metallic contamination caused by the partial dissolution of crucible material. The objective of this work was to study the interaction of liquid aluminum with graphite and boron nitride in order to select a nonreactive material. Two crucibles made of high purity graphite and boron nitride were filled with Al of 6N5 purity; then, 40 melting-freezing cycles were carried out. The total time of contact between aluminum in the liquid phase and the crucible was 240 h. After that, the composition of Al, graphite, and boron nitride was studied and the results were compared with the analysis of the initial samples. The Al ingot in contact with boron nitride was found to be contaminated by boron.     

Improving accuracy of profile hydro-abrasive cutting of plates of hardmetals and superhard materials

The authors discuss the potential of using hydro-abrasive cutting for machining various tool composites such as hardmetals, cutting ceramics, superhard materials based on cubic boron nitride. The problems relating to the process are studied. The multicut machining mode is shown to be appropriate for achieving accurate profile cuts on hardmetals using a variable cutting feed. The paper outlines the promising avenues for further research in order to establish a pattern of variation of machined surface quality versus cutting conditions and type of abrasive to be used.     

用立方氮化硼刀具对硬质合金材料进行延性超精密加工

对单相晶体结构和硬质合金的粘合特性的理论分析表明，对其进行延性超精密加工是可行的，并在普通加工中心上通过对切削力的监控，用立方氮化硼刀具实现了对硬质合金材料的延性超精密加工．研究结果显示，在用不同刀具进行的切削中，刀具的磨损都非常小；在对硬质合金的延性超精密加工中获得了纳米级表面粗糙度的平滑表面和层状切屑。     

PVD‐Schutzschichten für Werkzeuge des Präzisionsblankpressens

PVD protective coatings for precision molding tools Precision glass molding (PGM) is a replicative hot forming process for the production of complex optical components, such as aspherical lenses for digital and mobile phone cameras or optical elements for laser systems. The efficiency and thus also the profitability of the PGM depend on the unit price per pressed component, which correlates primarily with the service lifetime of the pressing tools. To increase tool lifetime, the tool surfaces are coated with protective coatings based on precious metals or carbon using physical vapour deposition (PVD). The PVD coating technology enables the deposition of thin coatings, which also follow more complex surface geometries and achieve a high surface quality. PVD coatings are also commonly used to protect tools from wear and corrosion. This paper presents two chromium‐based nitride hard coatings produced by an industrial PVD unit and investigated for their applicability for PGM. Two different coating architectures were implemented, on the one hand a single coating chromium aluminium nitride (Cr,Al)N coating and on the other hand a nanolaminar CrN/AlN coating with alternating layers of chromium nitride and aluminium nitride. The latter is a coating consisting of hundreds of nano‐layers, only a few nanometers thick. Both coatings, (Cr,Al)N and CrN/AlN, each have a thickness of s ～ 300 nm in order to follow the tool contour as closely as possible. The properties of the coating systems, which are of particular relevance for PGM, are considered. These include on the one hand the adhesion of glass, the roughness and topography of the surface and the adhesion between the coating and the tool material. In addition, the barrier effect of the coatings against diffusion of oxygen was investigated. In order to reproduce the thermal boundary conditions of the PGM, thermocyclic aging tests are performed and their influence on the different properties is described.     

Modelling the orthogonal machining process using coated carbide cutting tools

In this paper finite element methods were used to determine the influence of various coated and uncoated tungsten carbide cutting tools on the machining of a nickel-based super alloy Inconel 718. Disposable coated and uncoated carbide inserts were used both experimentally and as FEA models to study how the stress distribution within different coatings and carbide grades compared to each other, under a range of cutting conditions. Simulation of an orthogonal metal cutting process was performed using FORGE2, an elasto-visco plastic FEA code. All FE models were assumed to be plane strain. The results include the stress and temperature distributions through the primary shear zone, the chip/tool contact region and the coating/substrate boundaries. The tool wear and stress results from the FE modelling agree favourably with those obtained from experimental work.     

Characterization of tool wear when machining alloy 718 with high-pressure cooling using conventional and surface-modified WC–Co tools

Coolant supplied by high pressure into the cutting zone has shown the lower thermal loads on the tool when machining difficult-to-cut materials as the Alloy 718. In this study, we investigate how the combination of high-pressure cooling and tool–surface modifications can lead to further improvements regarding tool life. The general approach is to enhance the coolant–tool interaction by increasing the contact area. Therefore, we machined cooling features into flank and rake faces of commercially available cemented tungsten carbide inserts. In this way, the surface area was increased by ~ 12%. After the cutting tests, the tools were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Compared with conventional tools, the tool modifications reduced the flank wear by 45% for the investigated cutting parameters. Furthermore, we were able to significantly increase the cutting speed and feed rate without failure of the tool. The investigated surface modifications have great potential to enhance the productivity of metal cutting processes.     

Study of deformation zone effects of low,conventional, high and very high speed machining

The paper deals with cutting speed in range 3 m?min^‐1 up to 2200 m?min^‐1 and its complex impact mainly on chip macroscopic shape, chip microstructure, chip compression, tool wear, tool life and machined surface quality and interprets and compares the effects regarding low, conventional, high and very high speed machining based on the dry turning of carbon steel by sintered carbide coated by titanium nitride and ceramic cutting inserts. The deformation zone response for different cutting speeds at the tool‐chip‐workpiece interfaces and their effect on tool wear were studied. The extensive (so called complete) experiments within wide range of values and large number of measurements were carried out. The formation of secondary chip occurring in high speed turning is reported. Moreover, the paper analyses the total machining time involving tool replacement time in terms of high speed machining regarding the obtained experimental results.     

Study on the influential process parameters in machining the austempered ductile iron

Since the machinability data on grade 3 austempered ductile iron is scarce, this experimental work mainly focuses on the impact of machining parameters on cutting force and surface roughness while turning the above work material with cubic boron nitride and tungsten carbide inserts. Parameters like depth of cut, cutting speed and feed were considered in this study when analyzing the machinability of austempered ductile iron. Austempered ductile iron was turned with CBN and coated WC inserts. The response surface methodology was utilized to design the experiments and optimize the cutting parameters for the work material by each of the above inserts. The cubic boron nitride insert performs well as compared to the coated tungsten carbide for turning the austempered ductile iron and it has been concluded by taking lower force and higher surface finish in to consideration. The optimum parameters for turning austempered ductile iron with the cubic boron nitride insert is as follows: 174 meter/minute cutting speed, 0.102 millimeter/revolution feed and depth of cut of 0.5 millimeter.     

Investigation of contact stresses and their influence on the physics of cutting of 45 steel by cutting tools of high-speed alloys

The influence of shear stresses on the physical processes proceeding on the surface of contact of a cutting tool with a chip removed has been investigated. The mechanisms of appearance of contact layers and the dependence of the lengths of the elastic and plastic parts of these layers on the normal and shear stresses in the contact zone have been considered. It was established that a natural “white” layer formed in the process of cutting plays a protective role and, as a consequence, decreases the rate of wear of the tool. __________ Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 184–187, November–December, 2005.     

Spanende Bearbeitung von Hartlegierungen – Drehen und Schleifen. Teil II: Drehen von Hartlegierungen

Metal Cutting of Hard Alloys – Turning and Grinding. Part II: Turning of Hard Alloys Turning tests were carried out on selected hard alloys on iron (FeCr12C2.1, FeCr13Nb9MoTiC2.3, FeCr14Mo5WVC4.2) and cobalt basis (CoCr29W5C1.3) in a cutting speed range of between v_c = m/min and 180 m/min. Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) turned out to be a suitable tool material. Subsequent examinations focused on evaluating the mechanisms of chip formation, cutting tool wear and surface integrity of the workpiece. During turning of hard alloys the formation of chips is primarily influenced by the ductility and fracture toughness of the work material. While a ductile matrix enables the formation of highly deformable chips, the chips stemming from martensitically hardened alloys show low deformation. As the cutting depth increases shear and segmented chips are chiefly produced. Type and arrangement of the hard phases play a significant role. Adhesion is the main wear mechanism impacting the cutting face of the tool. Particularly, strong adhesion effects will arise during the machining of the work hardening alloy on cobalt basis. A high cobalt content of the metallic bonding phase of the PCBN cutting tool appears to be a disadvantage with this type of work material. When machining alloys on iron basis adhesion is promoted by the mechanical linking of alloy-specific hard phases to the cutting material binder. Abrasion primarily acts on the flank. The hard carbides of the work material produce typical grooves in the cutting edge zone of the tool. The flank wear increases as the carbide content goes up. As the cutting speed rises the tool wear ascertained passes through a minimum. Whereas the formation of built-up cutting edges predominates at lower speeds, a thermal softening of the PCBN binder takes place and is dominating at high cutting speeds. The location of the wear minimum depends not only on the cutting temperature but also on the strain hardening capability of the metal matrix. Raising the cutting speed will cause the cutting force to continuously reduce. The highest cutting forces are found for the Co-based alloy. The passive forces develop in line with cutting tool wear and vary with content and hardness of the hard phases involved. The selected process parameters also affect the surface near zone. With low cutting speeds and process temperatures the surface is mainly stressed mechanically. Carbides break or detach from the surrounding matrix. If the cutting speed and process temperature are increased the eutectic carbides (M₇C₃) are deformed together with the metal matrix. Microhardness profiles are indicative of near-surface strain-hardened zones after cutting of the Co-based alloy. Fe-based matrices do not show hardness changes worth mentioning. Although there are no new hardened zones noticeable even at maximum cutting speed, the matrix is nevertheless influenced thermally so that residual stresses will develop in the machined surface layer. In the lower cutting speed range the surface quality is characterized by flakes and material squeezing (Co-based alloy) and by spalling (Fe-based alloy). Only if the cutting speed is raised, a minor roughness is detected due to a potential deformation of eutectic hard phases.