Machsync

Only replying on one kind of coating cannot meet the requirements of various mechanical properties, and each cutting method and workpiece material has a suitable type of tool coating, therefore, the tool coating can be classified complexly, common ones are Tin, TiCN, AlTiN, etc. Each of them has different hardness, thickness, friction coefficient, heat-resistant temperature, and coating color. In contrast, coated tools have better comprehensive performance, so suitable coating is very important for tools.

As mentioned above, each cutting method and workpiece has its suitable coating material. Not all coatings are suitable to apply on each cuttings. Is it correct? From picture (1), there are three different coating materials, TiN, TiCN and AlTiN. We use the same tool to plate three different materials to cut the Case Hardening Steels, which can be found from picture (2) shows that the bending force of TiN gradually became larger when the number of manufactures increased, on the other hand, the difference of the other two coatings was not large.

From the pictures, when processing the first workpiece, the curves and polar plots generated by tools of these three coatings are not much different. Until 400 workpieces are processed, it can be seen from the photo below that the tool with Tin coating has have changed when cutting which also has great difference from the other two. It is not only the issue from tool-wear, but also the quality of workpiece is damaged at this time.

This shows that the same tool with different coating materials will have a great impact on cutting. Although the variation may be slight at the beginning of processing, it may have the variation in quality after the process of mass production. If the variation in quality is found after the processing is completed, huge costs cannot be completely avoided. Not only the finished product will be scrapped, but more time and labor costs for testing. With the assistance of smart cutting, errors can be detected early and adjusted to optimize the process and maximize benefits.

Main image photo by adobestock

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