Advanced Cutting Tool

Materials

(i) Development And Application Of Advanced Tool

Materials
(a) Coated carbides
The properties and performance of carbide tools could be substantially
improved by

• Refining microstructure
• Manufacturing by casting – expensive and uncommon
• Surface coating – made remarkable contribution.

Thin but hard coating of single or multilayers of more stable and heat and wear resistive
materials like TiC, TiCN, TiOCN, TiN, Al2O3 etc on the tough carbide inserts (substrate) (Fig.
3.3.4) by processes like chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD)
etc at controlled pressure and temperature enhanced MRR and overall machining economy
remarkably enabling,

• reduction of cutting forces and power consumption

• increase in tool life (by 200 to 500%) for same VC or increase in VC
(by 50 to 150%) for same tool life

• improvement in product quality

• effective and efficient machining of wide range of work materials
• pollution control by less or no use of cutting fluid

through

• reduction of abrasion, adhesion and diffusion wear

• reduction of friction and BUE formation
• heat resistance and reduction of thermal cracking and plastic

deformation
The cutting velocity range in machining mild steel could be enhanced from 120 ~ 150 m/min to
300 ~ 350 m/min by properly coating the suitable carbide inserts.

About 50% of the carbide tools being used at present are coated carbides
which are obviously to some extent costlier than the uncoated tools.

Different varieties of coated tools are available. The appropriate one is selected depending upon
the type of the cutting tool, work material and the desired productivity and product quality.

The properties and performances of coated inserts and tools are getting
further improved by;
Δ Refining the microstructure of the coating
ΔMultilayering (already upto 13 layers within 12 ~ 16 μm
Δ Direct coating by TiN instead of TiC, if feasible
Δ Using better coating materials.
(b) Cermets

These sintered hard inserts are made by combining ‘cer’ from ceramics like TiC, TiN orn ( or )
TiCN and ‘met’ from metal (binder) like Ni, Ni-Co, Fe etc. Since around 1980, the modern
cermets providing much better performance are being made by TiCN which is consistently more
wear resistant, less porous and easier to make. The characteristic features of such cermets, in
contrast to sintered tungsten carbides, are :

• The grains are made of TiCN (in place of WC) and Ni or Ni-Co
and Fe as binder (in place of Co)

• Harder, more chemically stable and hence more wear resistant

• More brittle and less thermal shock resistant
• Wt% of binder metal varies from 10 to 20%
• Cutting edge sharpness is retained unlike in coated carbide

inserts
• Can machine steels at higher cutting velocity than that used for
tungsten carbide, even coated carbides in case of light cuts.

Application wise, the modern TiCN based cermets with bevelled or slightly rounded cutting
edges are suitable for finishing and semi-finishing of steels at higher speeds, stainless steels but
are not suitable for jerky interrupted machining and machining of aluminium and similar
materials. Research and development are still going on for further improvement in the properties
and performance of cermets.

(c) Coronite

It is already mentioned earlier that the properties and performance of HSS tools could have been
sizeably improved by refinement of microstructure, powder metallurgical process of making and
surface coating. Recently a unique tool material, namely Coronite has been developed for
making the tools like small and medium size drills and milling cutters etc. which were earlier
essentially made of HSS. Coronite is made basically by combining HSS for strength and
toughness and tungsten carbides for heat and wear resistance. Microfine TiCN particles are
uniformly dispersed into the matrix.

Unlike a solid carbide, the coronite based tool is made of three layers;
• the central HSS or spring steel core
• a layer of coronite of thickness around 15% of the tool diameter
•a thin (2 to 5 μm) PVD coating of TiCN.
Such tools are not only more productive but also provides better product
quality.
The coronite tools made by hot extrusion followed by PVD-coatring of TiN or TiCN
outperformed HSS tools in respect of cutting forces, tool life and surface finish.

(d) High Performance ceramics (HPC)

Ceramic tools as such are much superior to sintered carbides in respect of hot hardness, chemical
stability and resistance to heat and wear but lack in fracture toughness and strength as indicated
in Fig. 3.3.6.

Through last few years remarkable improvements in strength and toughness and hence overall
performance of ceramic tools could have been possible by several means which include;

• Sinterability, microstructure, strength and toughness of Al2O3

ceramics were improved to some extent by adding TiO2 and MgO
• Transformation toughening by adding appropriate amount of partially
or fully stabilised zirconia in Al2O3 powder
• Isostatic and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) – these are very effective
but expensive route

Comparison of important properties of ceramic and tungsten

carbide tools

Through last few years remarkable improvements in strength and toughness and hence overall
performance of ceramic tools could have been possible by several means which include;
• Sinterability, microstructure, strength and toughness of Al2O3
ceramics were improved to some extent by adding TiO2 and MgO
• Transformation toughening by adding appropriate amount of partially
or fully stabilised zirconia in Al2O3 powder
• Isostatic and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) – these are very effective
but expensive route
Fig. 3.3.6Comparison of important properties of ceramic and tungsten
carbide tools
• Introducing nitride ceramic (Si3N4) with proper sintering technique –
this material is very tough but prone to built-up-edge formation in
machining steels
• Developing SIALON – deriving beneficial effects of Al2O3 and Si3N4
• Adding carbide like TiC (5 ~ 15%) in Al2O3 powder – to impart
toughness and thermal conductivity
• Reinforcing oxide or nitride ceramics by SiC whiskers, which

enhanced strength, toughness and life of the tool and thus productivity spectacularly. But
manufacture and use of this unique tool need specially careful handling

• Toughening Al2O3 ceramic by adding suitable metal like silver which

also impart thermal conductivity and self lubricating property; this
novel and inexpensive tool is still in experimental stage.

The enhanced qualities of the unique high performance ceramic tools, specially the whisker and
zirconia based types enabled them machine structural steels at speed even beyond 500 m/min and
also intermittent cutting at reasonably high speeds, feeds and depth of cut. Such tools are also
found to machine relatively harder and stronger steels quite effectively and economically.

The successful and commonly used high performance ceramic tools have
been discussed here :

The HPC tools can be broadly classified into two groups as :

Nitride based ceramic tools
Plain nitride ceramics tools

Compared to plain alumina ceramics, Nitride (Si3N4) ceramic tools exhibit more resistance to
fracturing by mechanical and thermal shocks due to higher bending strength, toughness and
higher conductivity. Hence such tool seems to be more suitable for rough and interrupted cutting
of various material excepting steels, which cause rapid diffusional wear and BUE formation. The
fracture toughness and wear resistance of nitride ceramic tools could be further increased by
adding zirconia and coating the finished tools with high hardness alumina and titanium
compound.

Nitride ceramics cannot be easily compacted and sintered to high density. Sintering with the aid
of ‘reaction bonding’ and ‘hot pressing’ may reduce this problem to some extent.

SIALON tools

Hot pressing and sintering of an appropriate mix of Al2O3 and Si3N4 powders yielded an
excellent composite ceramic tool called SIALON which are very hot hard, quite tough and wear
resistant. These tools can machine steel and cast irons at high speeds (250 – 300 m/min). But
machining of steels by such tools at too high speeds reduces the tool life by rapid diffusion.

SiC reinforced Nitride tools

The toughness, strength and thermal conductivity and hence the overall performance of nitride
ceramics could be increased remarkably by adding SiC whiskers or fibers in 5 – 25 volume%.
The SiC whsikers add fracture toughness mainly through crack bridging, crack deflection and
fiber pull-out

Such tools are very expensive but extremely suitable for high production
machining of various soft and hard materials even under interrupted cutting.
Zirconia (or Partially stabilized Zirconia) toughened alumina (ZTA)
ceramic

The enhanced strength, TRS and toughness have made these ZTAs more widely applicable and
more productive than plain ceramics and cermets in machining steels and cast irons. Fine powder
of partially stabilised zirconia (PSZ) is mixed in proportion of ten to twenty volume percentage
with pure alumina, then either cold pressed and sintered at 1600 – 1700oC or hot isostatically
pressed (HIP) under suitable temperature and pressure. The phase transformation of metastable
tetragonal zirconia (t-Z) to monoclinic zirconia (m-Z) during cooling of the composite (Al2O3 +
ZrO2) inserts after sintering or HIP and during polishing and machining imparts the desierd
strength and fracture toughness through volume expansion ( 3 – 5%) and induced shear strain
(7%). The mechanisms of toughening effect of zirconia in the basic alumina matrix are stress
induced transformation toughening as indicated in Fig. 3.3.7 and microcrack nucleation
toughening.
The method of crack shielding by a transformation zone

Their hardness have been raised further by proper control of particle size and sintering process.
Hot pressing and HIP raise the density, strength and hot hardness of ZTA tools but the process
becomes expensive and the tool performance degrades at lower cutting speeds. However such
ceramic tools can machine steel and cast iron at speed range of 150 – 500 m/min.

Alumina ceramic reinforced by SiC whiskers

Version 2 ME, IIT Kharagpur

The properties, performances and application range of alumina based ceramic tools have been
improved spectacularly through drastic increase in fracture toughness (2.5 times), TRS and bulk
thermal conductivity, without sacrificing hardness and wear resistance by mechanically
reinforcing the brittle alumina matrix with extremely strong and stiff silicon carbide whiskers.
The randomly oriented, strong and thermally conductive whsikers enhance the strength and
toughness mainly by crack deflection and crack-bridging and also by reducing the temperature
gradient within the tool. After optimization of the composition, processing and the tool
geometry, such tools have been

found to effectively and efficiently machine wide range of materials, over wide speed range (250
– 600 m/min) even under large chip loads. But manufacturing of whiskers need very careful
handling and precise control and these tools are costlier than zirconia toughned ceramic tools.

Silver toughened alumina ceramic

Toughening of alumina with metal particle became an important topic since 1990 though its
possibility was reported in 1950s. Alumina-metal composites have been studied primarily using
addition of metals like aluminium, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, iron and silver. Compared to
zirconia and carbides, metals were found to provide more toughness in alumina ceramics. Again
compared to other metal-toguhened ceramics, the silver-toguhned ceramics can be manufactured
by simpler and more economical process routes like pressureless sintering and without
atmosphere control. All such potential characteristics of silver-toughened alumina ceramic have
already been exploited in making some salient parts of automobiles and similar items. Research
is going on to develop and use silver-toguhened alumina for making cutting tools like turning
inserts.. The toughening of the alumina matrix by the addition of metal occurs mainly by crack
deflection and crack bridging by the metal grains as schematically shown in Fig. 3.3.8. Addition
of silver further helps by increasing thermal conductivity of the tool and self lubrication by the
traces of the silver that oozes out through the pores and reaches at the chip- tool interface. Such
HPC tools can suitably machine with large MRR and VC (250 – 400 m/min) and long tool life
even under light interrupted cutting like milling. Such tools also can machine steels at speed
from quite low to very high cutting velocities (200 to 500 m/min).

Fig. 3.3.8Toughening mechanism of alumina by metal dispersion.

(e) Cubic Boron Nitride

Version 2 ME, IIT Kharagpur

Next to diamond, cubic boron nitride is the hardest material presently available. Only in 1970
and onward cBN in the form of compacts has been introduced as cutting tools. It is made by
bonding a 0.5 – 1 mm layer of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride to cobalt based carbide
substrate at very high temperature and pressure. It remains inert and retains high hardness
anfracture toguhness at elevated machining speeds. It shows excellent performance in grinding
any material of high hardness and strength. The extreme hardness, toughness, chemical and
thermal stability and wear resistance led to the development of cBN cutting tool inserts for high
material removal rate (MRR) as well as precision machining imparting excellent surface integrity
of the products. Such unique tools effectively and beneficially used in machining wide range of
work materials covering high carbon and alloy steels, non-ferrous metals and alloys, exotic
metals like Ni-hard, Inconel, Nimonic etc and many non-metallic materials which are as such
difficult to machine by conventional tools. It is firmly stable at temperatures upto 1400o C. The
operative speed range for cBN when machining grey cast iron is 300 ~ 400 m/min. Speed ranges
for other materials are as follows :

• Hard cast iron (> 400 BHN)

: 80 – 300 m/min
• Superalloys (> 35 RC)
: 80 – 140 m/min
• Hardened steels (> 45 RC)
: 100 – 300 m/min

In addition to speed, the most important factor that affects performance of cBN inserts is the
preparation of cutting edge. It is best to use cBN tools with a honed or chamfered edge
preparation, especially for interrupted cuts. Like ceramics, cBN tools are also available only in
the form of indexable inserts. The only limitation of it is its high cost.

(f) Diamond Tools

Single stone, natural or synthetic, diamond crystals are used as tips/edge of cutting tools. Owing
to the extreme hardness and sharp edges, natural single crytal is used for many applications,
particularly where high accuracy and precision are required. Their important uses are :

• Single point cutting tool tips and small drills for high speed machining
of non-ferrous metals, ceramics, plastics, composites, etc. and
effective machining of difficult-to-machine materials

• Drill bits for mining, oil exploration, etc.

• Tool for cutting and drilling in glasses, stones, ceramics, FRPs etc.
• Wire drawing and extrusion dies
• Superabrasive wheels for critical grinding.

Limited supply, increasing demand, high cost and easy cleavage of natural diamond demanded a
more reliable source of diamond. It led to the invention and manufacture of artificial diamond
grits by ultra-high temperature and pressure synthesis process, which enables large scale
manufacture of diamond with some control over size, shape and friability of the diamond grits as
desired for various applications.

Polycrystalline Diamond ( PCD )

The polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools consist of a layer (0.5 to 1.5 mm) of fine grain size,
randomly oriented diamond particles sintered with a suitable binder (ususally cobalt) and then
metallurgically bonded to a suitable substrate like cemented carbide or Si3N4 inserts. PCD
exhibits excellent wear resistance, hold sharp edge, generates little friction in the cut, provide
high fracture strength, and had good thermal conductivity. These properties contribute to PCD
tooling’s long life in conventional and high speed machining of soft, non-ferrous materials
(aluminium, magnesium, copper etc), advanced composites and metal-matrix composites,
superalloys, and non-metallic materials. PCD is particularly well suited for abrasive materials
(i.e. drilling)

and reaming metal matrix composites) where it provides 100 times the life of carbides. PCD is
not ususally recommended for ferrous metals because of high solubility of diamond (carbon) in
these materials at elevated temperature. However, they can be used to machine some of these
materials under special conditions; for example, light cuts are being successfully made in grey
cast iron. The main advanatage of such PCD tool is the greater toughness due to finer
microstructure with random orientation of the grains and reduced cleavage. But such unique
PCD also suffers from some limitations like :

• High tool cost

• Presence of binder, cobalt, which reduces wear resistance and
thermal stability
• Complex tool shapes like in-built chip breaker cannot be made
• Size restriction, particularly in making very small diameter tools
The above mentioned limitations of polycrystalline diamond tools have been
almost overcome by developing Diamond coated tools.
Diamond coated carbide tools

Since the invention of low pressure synthesis of diamond from gaseous phase, continuous effort
has been made to use thin film diamond in cutting tool field. These are normally used as thin
(<50μm) or thick (> 200μm) films of diamond synthesised by CVD method for cutting tools,
dies, wear surfaces and even abrasives for Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM) and grinding. Thin
film is directly deposited on the tool surface. Thick film ( > 500μm) is grown on an easy
substrate and later brazed to the actual tool substrate and the primary substrate is removed by
dissolving it or by other means. Thick film diamond finds application in making inserts, drills,
reamers, end mills, routers. CVD coating has been more popular than single diamond crystal and
PCD mainly for :

• Free from binder, higher hardness, resistance to heat and wear more
than PCD and properties close to natural diamond
• Highly pure, dense and free from single crystal cleavage
• Permits wider range of size and shape of tools and can be deposited
on any shape of the tool including rotary tools
• Relatively less expensive

However, achieving improved and reliable performance of thin film CVD diamond coated tools;
(carbide, nitride, ceramic, SiC etc) in terms of longer tool life, dimensional accuracy and surface
finish of jobs essentially need :

1. good bonding of the diamond layetr

2. adequate properties of the film, e.g. wear resistance, micro-
hardness, edge coverage, edge sharpness and thickness uniformity
3. ability to provide work surface finish required for specific
applications.

While cBN tools are feasible and viable for high speed machining of hard and strong steels and
similar materials, Diamond tools are extreemly useful for machining stones, slates, glass,
ceramics, composites, FRPs and non ferrous metals specially which are sticky and BUE former
such as pure aluminium and its alloys.

CBN and Diamond tools are also essentially used for ultraprecision as well as
micro and nano machining.