Exhibition report

Citation

(1998), "Exhibition report", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 50 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1998.01850aab.017

Exhibition report

Exhibition report

Tooling '97

More than 240 companies exhibited at the latest exhibition devoted to tooling and workholding, many showing new products. Castrol Industrial UK provided the main lubricant presence.

Al-TiN

Thin (up to 0.02mm thick) hard coatings applied by physical vapour deposition (PVD ) are widely used to reduce friction and resist wear on all types of tooling.

As well as the familiar, attractive gold coloured titanium nitride (TiN) coating for cutting tools several stands were showing aluminum titanium nitride (Al-TiN). This coating is harder than titanium carbonitride (TiCN) at 450HV_0.05 but has the ductility of TiN. Its high resistance to oxidation and high temperature allows tools with the coating to be used without a coolant in dry machining. The coating is described as shielding the underlying high speed steel, allowing it to survive higher temperatures than any other PVD coating. Tests reported by Presto Engineers Cutting Tools with a 10mm 4 flute end mill (Plate 1), using a high in-feed to induce early failure, machined 1.97 metres with TiCN compared with 4.1 metres with Al-TiN, an increase of 108 per cent. In many situations the new coating is claimed to achieve equivalent results dry as any other coating bathed in coolant.

Plate 1 Al-TiN (aluminium titanium nitride coated) milling cutters featuring high resistance to oxidisation, allowing use without coolant

Note the black coloured Al-TiN coating is not the same as the bronze coloured titanium aluminium nitride (TiAlN) coating. TiAlN is a softer (2,600 HV) material which has a poorer bond strength, higher friction coefficient against steel and a rougher as-deposited surface finish.

PVD and CVD

Following the recent takeover by Berna of Switzerland, Multi-Arc (UK) Limited plans to set up a Bernex chemical vapour deposition (CVD) equipment in 1998 which will allow it to include titanium carbide (TiC) and alumina in its range of coatings applied in the UK. A low temperature CVD system is planned for 1999 to enable the deposition of diamond-like coatings. A new coatings plant is shortly to be opened in Mansfield to serve South Yorkshire and the Midlands.

Multi-Arc has become the only UK PVD coating company to be awarded the SBAC TS 157 Aerospace Quality Assurance Accreditation for providing coatings for aerospace components. This is in addition to the existing ISO 9002 and Rolls-Royce approvals. Its Ion Bond arc evaporated coating system can apply coatings at temperatures as low as 180°C, although higher temperatures are preferred where acceptable. The high energy generated by the process creates intermixing of deposited metal ions at the surface of the component, resulting in good coating adhesion.

Typical applications are on high speed and carbide cuttings tools, forging and extrusion dies, plastic and glass moulds, wear parts and medical instruments and implants.

Tecvac Limited, a Wallwork Heat Treatment company since its merger earlier this year, exhibited current production TiN parts (Plate 2), TiCN with superior resistance to high shock, and chromium nitride (CrN) which is ideally suited to non-ferrous applications. Silver coloured CrN is also preferred for metalforming tools and dies because of its good surface finish, lower friction, and its lower internal stresses which allow coatings to be deposited with thicknesses up to 0.02mm. Tecvac offers a re-coating service for re-ground tools when TiN or TiCN is used on high speed steel. A stripping service is also available. Tecvac asserted that a £50 TiN coating on a £400 hob could enable the production of as many gears as £2,500 spent on uncoated hobs.

Plate 2 PVD TiN coated tools

The Fraisa super high speed steel tools made by powder metallurgy and what was claimed to be the world's first four element TiAlCN coating, Unicut 4X, were on show. The UK distributor, Jemtech (UK), also showed the Blaser Swisslube range of metalworking fluids.

Coated carbide

Stellram Cuttech Limited, a business unit of one of the world's leading producers of tungsten carbide powders, Teledyne Advanced Materials, offers the latest technology in cutting tools. Specialising in turning, milling, drilling and threaded tools, Stellram aims to meet the demand for every greater cost savings and higher machining performance from a wide range of tools and processes.

Challenging the performance of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) for roughing high silicon aluminium and general purpose non-ferrous and non-metallic materials with heavy depths of cut, Stellram's new TDC 21+ diamond coated carbide insert features multiple cutting edges and excellent chip control geometries.

With the OctoCool range of face milling cutters Stellram introduced the first eight-sided milling insert cutter body that has through coolant. This provides highly effective swarf management for face milling, chamfering and slotting using successive passes up to 3.5mm deep, with 90° side wall. Available from 25 to 100mm diameter, with between two and seven teeth, these robust cutters feature thicker inserts to provide high orders of shock relief when milling at up to 0.45mm feed per tooth. Flat top, chipforming and faceted inserts are also available.

Stellram's ­45 geometry inserts for economic roughing and semi-finishing milling operations have two effects. They increase the helix angle to the cutter and the large ground wiper areas with reinforced inclined cutting edges ensure softer cutting. The insert reduces "suction effects" on a workpiece by its action and thus improves surface finish.

Insert material grades include X500, a universal TiC-TiN coated grade which increases tool life between two and three times, and MP 91M, a totally new TiN-TiCN-Al₂O₃ coated grade that resists breakage and thermal cracking when wet milling in tough or heavy interrupted cutting conditions. Grades X44 and SF30 are available to special order.

A short hole, high rigidity drill designated Posidrill II (Plate 3) with high through-the-tool coolant flow to the Stellram PFZ grade TiC-TiN coated indexable WCMT Trigon-style inserts virtually eliminates the onset of chipping in the centre of the insert when used for heavy stock removal. Posidrill IIs are available from 17.5 to 59mm diameter.

New inserts for turning, threading and milling include CFZ, a new high wear resistance threading grade for very high surface speeds giving up to 300 per cent performance increases over existing grades when cutting high and low carbon steels.

Two new chip control geometries, 2N and 4M, for turning applications are for intermediate to light roughing operations and medium to rough applications respectively. Both have positive cutting actions in negative rake holder with the 2N being a double-sided insert which is ideal on "sticky" materials that have a tendency to create edge build up. 4M geometry inserts are single sided giving maximum support under heavy feed rates and depth of cut at feed rates up to 1.1mm/rev.

Plate 3 Stellram's new Posidrill II features Trigon style inserts

The NL30 new NitroLok general purpose grade of insert is also introduced in a variety of turning geometries. It features an "enriched" substrate with low deformation properties and fracture resistance. The multi-layer coating includes aluminium oxide and will machine steel and stainless steel at very low speeds due to its excellent heat and wear resistance.

Ceramic tool inserts

NTK Technical Ceramics has introduced a range of mixed ceramic grades designed for use in turning hardened surfaces. The grain structure is refined for optimum performance. A TiN coated grade gives extra wear resistance (Plate 4). A new cubic boron nitride (c-BN) insert with a ceramic binder has been produced with a 1.5mm edge length for hard turning steels up to 65 HRC and for high speed cutting of cast iron. Cubic boron nitride is extremely hard, chemically inert and exhibits high resistivity and thermal conductivity.

Lubricants

Australian owned Applied Chemicals exhibited a pet goldfish named Elsie, because the name sounded like LC, the abbreviation for lethal concentration and to draw attention to its non-hazardous, oil-free Irmco pressing lubricant. Irmco is a water soluble polymer-based lubricant which thickens when heated. In addition to performing well as a press tool lubricant it gives longer cleaning bath lives, easy removal from pressed parts and greatly reduced disposal problems. Archorlube, a green semi-paste and another product new to the UK market, is a specialist tapping and drilling lubricant for those difficult operations. The Metacut range of water extended metal working coolants was also on show. Plate 4 NTK's new SP2 range of ceramic inserts and holders

The familiar WD-40 maintenance spray which combines displacing water from surfaces, penetrating rusty parts, lubricating, cleaning away dirt and protecting against corrosion was on show along with 3-in-One, the ubiquitous multi-purpose oil.

Castrol Industrial (UK) focused on new products and services which address the important environment and health and safety issues along with higher performance and overall cost reduction. To help its customers meet the requirements of the international standard for environmental systems, ISO 14001, Castrol has made substantial investments in producing new user and environmentally friendly products. Its seminar "Cost reduction with environmental care" identified elimination of tramp oil in cutting coolant emulsions as the way to keep oil mist in the operator area to a minimum, and well below the current UK guideline concentration of 5mg/m³ (1mg in the USA). All the raw materials in Castrol's range of low mist soluble oils were screened to ensure that the final products were tramp oil rejecting. In a trial with an automotive manufacturer the oil mist concentration was halved to 0.4mg/m³ without sacrificing tool life or surface finish. Alusol C is a recently launched soluble cutting fluid for aluminium which not only has a very high level of lubricity but also rejects tramp oil.

Syntilo GX and XPS chlorine-free fully synthetic cutting fluids are safety impact. There are no phenols, nitrites or boron present and the products are resistant to bacterial and fungal infections.

Tooling '97 shared the week at the NEC with: Computers in Manufacturing (CIM); Manufacturing Week; Inspex (the biennial gathering of the UK's quality control industry); and the newly-launched Pre-owned Production Equipment (PPE ­ a complementary show to Tooling '97 featuring used, re-built and retro-fitted production machinery).

Contacts

Presto Engineers Cutting Tools Limited, Penistone Road, Sheffield S6 2FN. Tel: 0114 234 9361; Fax: 0114 234 7446.

Multi-arc (UK) Limited, No. 1 Industrial Estate, Medomsley Road, Consett, Co. Durham DH8 6TS. Tel: 01207 500823; Fax: 01207 590254.

Tecvac Limited, Main Street, Stow cum Quy, Cambridge CB5 9AB. Tel: 01223 811870; Fax: 01223 811258.

Jemtech (UK) Limited, Bellbrook Industrial Estate, Uckfield, East Sussex TN21 9DD. Tel: 01825 761711.

NTK Cutting Tools, 7-9 Garrick Industrial Estate, Hendon, London NW9 6AQ. Tel: 0181 202 2151; Fax: 0181 203 8717.

Applied Chemicals Limited, Applied House, Wilsons Lane, Coventry CV6 6JA. Tel: 01203 368800; Fax: 01203 366639.

WD-40, PO Box 440, Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes MK11 3LF. Tel: 01908 560808.

Castrol UK Limited, Burmah Castrol House, Pipers Way, Swindon SN3 1RE. Tel: 01793 452319; Fax: 01793 491442.