Increasing the life of high-speed steel cutting tools

Abstract

The paper describes work on determining the rational area of use, mastering of production operations, and introduction into the plants of the industry of various methods of increasing the life of high-speed tools. Among these methods are carbonitriding, treatment of the tool by shock cooling and by application of a magnetic field, and the application of wear resistant coatings by the method of cathodic-ionic bombardment. The article briefly characterizes each method. Experience in the introduction of the carbonitriding process has shown that the greatest increase in life is obtained for relatively large cutting tools such as hubs and large diameter drills. The effectiveness of shock cooling depends to a great degree upon the original structure of the tool material and upon the requirements imposed on it in service (for stability). Experience in the magnetic treatment of drills and end mills up to 30mm in diameter has shown that the life of a magnetically treated tool with subsequent demagnetization increases by 1.2-1.4 times and without demagnetization by 1.7-2 times. The effectiveness of magnetic hardening depends not only upon the correctly selected strength of the magnetic field and time of application, but also upon the time of postmagnetic aging. Wear resistant coatingsmore » applied by the cathodic-ionic bombardment method increases by 2-5 times the life of a cutting tool. However, careful preparation of the tool surface is required as well as careful control of the temperature and thickness of the coating.« less