ASSESSMENT OF ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE AND WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-SPEED STEEL CIRCULAR-SAW BLADES THROUGH ION-IMPLANTATION

During the ion implantation process ions are formed in the ion source, extracted and accelerated towards the component surface through a vac uum system. They become buried within the substrate and do not form a discrete coating layer at the energies used in the current study. For certain applications, ion implantation techniques have been beneficial in terms of improving corrosion, wear and fatigue resistance and also for increasing fracture toughness and surface hardness. The present p aper assesses the effectiveness of ion implantation as a means of enha ncing the performance and wear characteristics of high speed steel cir cular saw blades. Simulation techniques have been developed to evaluat e the performance and life characteristics of circular saw blades thro ugh testing segments that contain representative teeth removed from a full blade. Results indicate that in terms of both performance and wea r the application of ion implantation treatments has minimal effect un der normal operating conditions. Improvements were observed at higher cutting speeds, but under these conditions other advanced surface engi neering treatments were shown to be more successful.