| Abstract: | The joint effort of a cutting tool manufacturer and a coating specialist led to the development of a soft solid lubricant based cutting tool coating (Patents pending!). It is applied by an advanced sputtering technique as a very thin uniform coating with a good adherence to the tools. It has a low coefficient of friction and a low affinity to alloy materials like aluminum, titanium and precious metals. These factors and others allow the machining at high spindle speed and feed rates with an excellent workpiece surface finish. Values can be maintained which are far superior to even those permitted for cemented carbide tools. In some cases, productivity and tool life can be increased by a factor of up to 20. |
