19. 19. Surface Treatment

  • Hard coating High speed cutting and hard-to-machine material cutting are the recent technology. To meet this tendency, the hard layer coating by vapor deposition over tool's surface has become popular. There are two coating methods, CVD and PVD. PVD is mainly used for tap. ■Physical Vapor Deposition

Inside of the container of high vacuum, are vapor deposition materials heated. And we vapor-deposit particles ionized by electric discharge on tool's surface. Due to its low reaction temperature (lower than 500˚C), PVD makes little change in shape and hardness of HSS tools. We have adopted iron plating method, and are coating thin layer (1-4um) over our HSS and carbide tools. The layer processed by this method is very high in its adherence and its wear resistance.

■The features and classification of coating

Classification Titanium nitride aluminum

Titanium nitride (TiN) Titanium carbonitride (TiCN) Chromium nitride (CrN)

Features (TiAIN) Vickers Hardness

Wear resistance Good Excellent Excellent Normal

Welding resistanceGoodGoodGoodExcellent
Heat resistanceGoodNormalExcellentExcellent
Acid resistanceGoodNormalExcellentGood
SlipperyGoodExcellentGoodExcellent

Blue Dray

Color Gold Violet Silver

Violet

Carbon SteelsCarbon SteelsStainless SteelsCopper
Aluminum forgingHard SteelsCast Irons

Stainless Steels Workpiece materials Aluminum forging Cast Irons Brass Bronze Note: Evaluation (tri-level) of characteristic features is just comparative of these four coatings, TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, and CrN, in the table. These coatings have great advantages of wear resistance, welding resistance, and friction reduction. The values of vickers hardness are also higher than the heat treatment or nitriding of HSS cutting tools from the table.

■Comparison between bright and TiN coated

Tapping condition

Tap : F-SL P2 M6×1 Work piece : Ck45 (213~222HB) Hole size : 5mm Tapping Length : 14mm (through hole) Cutting Speed : 30m/min Fluid : Water Soluble cutting oil Machine : CNC tapping machine

■Comparison between bright and TiCN coated

Tapping condition

Tap : N-RS G7P M6×1 Work piece : Aluminum alloy die casting (Si = 12%) Hole size : 5.54mm Tapping Length : 14mm (through hole) Cutting Speed : 15m/min Fluid : Water Soluble cutting oil Machine : CNC tapping machine

F-SL designF-SLN-RS designN-RS design
(Bright)(TiN coated)(Bright)(TiCN coated)