SUPERHARD COATINGS FOR METAL-CUTTING APPLICATIONS

An effective metal cutting tool is usually a combination of a hard coa ting and a tough substrate. The successful deposition of diamond outsi de its thermodynamic stability range has stimulated the development of a new class of cutting tools: those with diamond coated inserts at an y desired style and edge geometry. The successful implementation of di amond coatings also expedited similar research in the deposition of cu bic boron nitride. This paper presents superhard coated tools, with an emphasis on diamond coated WC-Co tools, the corresponding deposition technologies and the foreseen metal cutting applications.