Applications cutting-tool materials

Carbon Steels and Low—Medium Alloy Steels. Plain carbon steels, the most common cutting tool materials of the nineteenth century, were replaced by low—medium alloy steels at the turn of that century because of the need for increased machining productivity in many applications. Low—medium carbon steels have since then been largely superseded by other tool materials, except for some low speed applications. 

In comparison with the use of diamond as a cutting tool material, the consumption of diamond for non-cutting applications is small. Nevertheless, high-quality-single crystal industrial diamond is often the only suitable material for specific tasks, due to its outstanding mechanieal, optical, electrical, chemical or thermal properties. 

Tungsten carbide is a major industrial material used extensively in cemented carbides for cutting tools. Its main CVD applications are as follows ... 

The performance of a tool material in a given application is dictated by its response to conditions at the tool tip. High temperatures and stresses can cause blunting from the plastic deformation of the tool tip, whereas high stresses alone may lead to catastrophic fracture. In addition to plastic deformation and fracture, the service life of cutting tools is determined by a number of wear processes, some of which are shown in Figure 2. 

Chemical routes involving the use of tungsten salts have been reported. W2C was claimed to be formed by the pyrolysis of an organometallic complex containing cyclopentadiene and carbonyl groups.8 The W2C formed was useful for ceramic applications such as wear resistant surfaces and cutting tools. The same phase was also prepared by the reduction of WC14 with sodium triethylborohydride.9 The material was formed as 1-5 nm-sized crystallites as shown by SEM and TEM. 

Applications Wear parts, precision parts Cutting tools, wear parts, ball bearings, seals, engine parts (valves, turbo charger rotors) Mainly used for evaluation of materials, prototypes with simple geometries, cutting tools... 

Miao H, Qi, L, Cui G (1995) Silicon Nitride Ceramic Cutting-Tools and their Applications. In Low IM, Li XS (eds) Advanced Ceramic Tools for Machining Application - II Key Engineering Materials 114, Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland, p 135... 

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