УПРОЧНЕНИЕ МЕТАЛЛОРЕЖУЩЕГО ИНСТРУМЕНТА ЭЛЕКТРОИСКРОВОЙ ОБРАБОТКОЙ

Abstract

Metal-cutting tools during the machining of parts by cutting experience high strength and thermal loads, causing wear of the cutting edges. Increasing the wear resistance of the cutting edges of a metal-cutting tool is an urgent task. (Research purpose) The research purpose is analyzing the causes of wear of end mills and drills and proposing the most rational method of hardening metal-cutting tools. (Materials and methods) End mills and drills were chosen as the object of research. The BIG-5 installation with the use of electrodes made of hard alloys VK8 and T15K6 was used to harden metal-cutting tools. It was pointed out that relatively mild electrical modes with pulse energy from 0.05 to 0.2 joules are used to harden drills and end mills, the thickness of the applied coating layer in such modes is 10-30 micrometers. (Results and discussion) It was noted that the performed analysis of the applied hardening methods confirmed the feasibility of using electric spark processing for these purposes. The optimal modes of electric spark processing were selected on the basis of previous studies. Comparative tests for wear resistance of samples from materials of end mills (P18) and drills (P6M5) were performed. It was shown that when using electrodes made of T15K6, the wear resistance of the samples increases by 1.85 times for P18 and by 8 times for P6M5. Comparative tests of hardened end mills and drills for wear resistance were carried out. The indicator was the number of processed parts. (Conclusions) The result of using the electric spark processing method to harden the cutting tool was an increase in the life of end mills by 3.8 times, drills by 2.25 times. The productivity of manufacturing parts has increased.