SOFT PHYSICAL VAPOR-DEPOSITION COATINGS - A NEW COATING FAMILY FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE CUTTING TOOLS

The joint effort of a cutting tool manufacturer and a coating speciali st has led to the development of a cutting tool coating based on a sof t solid lubricant (patents pending). It is applied by an advanced sput tering technique as a very thin uniform coating with a good adherence to the tools. It has a low coefficient of friction and a low affinity to alloy materials such as aluminium, titanium and precious metals. Th ese factors and others allow machining at high spindle speeds and feed rates with an excellent workpiece surface finish. Values can be maint ained which are far superior to even those permitted for cemented carb ide tools. In some cases productivity and tool life can be increased b y a factor of up to 20.