Specialty tool coatings

Traditionally, polycrystalline diamond PCD cutting tools have been utilized in such instances. PCD is a composite of diamond particles sintered together with a metallic binder. Diamond is the hardest, and therefore the most abrasion resistant, of all materials.

As a cutting tool material, PCD has good wear resistance but it lacks chemical stability at high temperatures and dissolves easily in iron. In addition, PCD tools are geometrically limited in structure, and may be too rough or unrefined for the optimal machining of the wide range of non-ferrous materials. Finally, PCD cutting tools can also be quite expensive. As an alternative, plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition PACVD can be used to apply crystalline diamond structures in varying thickness and roughness.

This can be highly advantageous for machining fiber-reinforce plastics, graphite, non-ferrous materials and ceramics. The diamond coating extends tool life while also improving cutting quality and surface finish. With the PACVD coating process, a carbide cutting tool is sequentially coated by two different gasses in a heated vacuum container assisted by plasma.

Each alternating cycle that built the atomic layer on the surface and the number of cycles thus controls the thickness of the final coating. In comparison, a diamond coating reaches a hardness of GPa. Once you are into to the carbide, the wear is accelerated further. So, a thicker coating normally gives a longer tool life, which then lowers manufacturing costs.

With this approach to machining, carbide tools can be coated to enable the cutting of graphite workpieces with better quality and substantially greater speeds. Combined with significantly extended tool life, this allows even sophisticated workpieces and fine structures to be produced with a single cutter in a single clamping, which can help to eliminate cost-intensive reworking procedures. Compared to about 60 holes drilled with untreated tooling, approximately holes were drilled with the PACVD-based diamond coating.

Finally, in the machining of ceramics, typically for the dental industry, both PACVD-based diamond coatings can substantially boost production and extend tool life while improving the surface quality of the workpiece. As an example, when a micro ball nose end mill tool was used to machine a zirconium oxide workpiece for a dental application, a PACVD-based diamond coating produced about finished parts, compared to about parts for an untreated tool.

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Storage Tanks SPC is an established manufacturer of high performance, tank linings, which are used by leading tank owners, operators, and coating contractors. Industrial SPC manufactures coating systems designed for excellent industrial protection with focus on edge retention, flexibility, adhesion and ease of application. Accept Cookies.