Wear resistant coatings for tool steels

Abstract

Currently increasing the cutting tools durability is an urgent problem. The high cutting conditions required to improve processing performance place special demands on tool materials. During the cutting process the tool working surfaces are subjected to intense exposure to high contact pressures and temperatures. Interaction with the processed material leads to an intensification of the adhesion, diffusion, and oxidation processes. All this causes rapid wear of the cutting tool. To reduce wear and prevent destruction the tool material must have high hardness, heat resistance, wear resistance, and strength. Hard and super-hard materials are used as tool materials for high-speed cutting, but their production is very expensive. Therefore it is more appropriate to apply coatings on the tool working surfaces in order to form the required properties. The article substantiates the need for the use of wear-resistant coatings on the working surfaces of cutting tools made of tool steels. A number of promising trends in the development of protective coating application technologies for cutting tools have been considered in the review.