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Cutting Tool Materials Notes

The document discusses different materials used for cutting tools. It outlines the essential requirements of a tool material including high hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and thermal conductivity. Six common types of tool materials are described: carbon tool steel, high-speed steel, stelite alloys, cemented carbides, ceramics, and diamond. Cemented carbides can operate at much higher speeds than other materials due to retaining hardness up to 1000°C. Inserts and coatings are also discussed to improve tool performance and life.

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Murali
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4K views

Cutting Tool Materials Notes

The document discusses different materials used for cutting tools. It outlines the essential requirements of a tool material including high hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and thermal conductivity. Six common types of tool materials are described: carbon tool steel, high-speed steel, stelite alloys, cemented carbides, ceramics, and diamond. Cemented carbides can operate at much higher speeds than other materials due to retaining hardness up to 1000°C. Inserts and coatings are also discussed to improve tool performance and life.

Uploaded by

Murali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cutting Tool Materials

Introduction
The purpose of the cutting tool is to remove the metal from the workpiece under controlled
conditions. Therefore the tool must be harder than the material which is to be cut. The
cutting tools are made up of different materials.

Essential requirements of a tool material


The cutting tool should possess the following requirements:
1. High hardness,
2. High toughness,
3. High wear resistance,
4. High thermal conductivity,
5. Lower coefficient of friction,
6. Easiness in fabrication and cheap,
7. Tool material must have high hot hardness temperature.
High Hardenss
Tool material must be at least 30 to 50% harder than the work piece material.
High toughness
It should be strong enough to withstand the forces during cutting like bending,
compression, shear etc.
It should be tough to resist shock loads.
It is quite important when tool is used for intermittent cutting.
High wear resistance
It should be sufficient resistance against wear, abrasion and indentation.
High thermal conductivity
It should be able to conduct high temperature.
It should be capable of withstanding the sudden cooling effect of coolant used
during cutting.
Lower coefficient of friction
The co-efficient of friction between the chip and the tool should be as low as
possible in the operating range of speed and feed.
Easiness in fabrication and cheap
It should be easily formed to the required cutting shape.
Hot Hardness
It should have the ability to retain its hardness at elevated temperatures is called hot
hardness.

Types of tool materials


1. Carbon tool steel,

M. Murali Mohan

Cutting Tool Materials


2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

High speed steel (HSS),


Stelite (or) Cast alloys,
Cemented Carbides,
Ceramics,
Diamond.

1. Carbon Tool Steel


It is the oldest of all the tool materials used for general class of work. Carbon tool steel is an
inexpensive cutting tool used for the low speed machining operation. These plain carbon
steels have the composition of 0.6 to 1.5% carbon and very small amount of (less than 0.5
%) Mn, Si. Other metal like Cr, V are added to change the hardness and grain size. High
carbon steels are abrasion resistant and have the ability to maintain sharp cutting edge.
Carbon tool steels possess good machinability. This material loses their hardness rapidly at a
temperature about 250C. Therefore, it cant use high temperature application. Carbon steel
tool is used in twist drills, milling cutters, turning and forming tools, used for soft material
such as brass, aluminum magnesium, etc.
Temperature 450C
Hardness up to HRC 65.
Advantages:
1. Inexpensive,
2. Easily shaped,
3. Easily sharpened,
4. Suited to hand tools, and wood working.
Disadvantages:
1. Limited tool life.
2. Not suited to mass production.
3. Can be formed into complex shapes for small production runs.
4. Usually required hardness is lost as as soon as temperature rises about 200 0c to
2500c.
5. No sufficient hardness and wear resistance.
6. Limited to low cutting speed operation.
7. It does not prefer in a modern machining operation.
Applications:
Used for drills, taps, broaches, reamers.
2. High speed steel (HSS)
This is a high carbon steel with a significant amount of alloying element, such as tungsten,
molybdenum, chromium, etc. to improve hardenability, toughness and wear resistance.
These steels are used for cutting metals at a much higher cutting speed than ordinary
carbon tool steels. It gives a higher metal removal rate. It loses its hardness at a moderate
temperature about 650C. Therefore, a coolant should be used to increase tool life. The high
speed steels have the valuable property of retaining their hardness even when heated to
red heat. It can use many times by re-sharpening.
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Cutting Tool Materials


It can be operated safely at 2 to 3 times higher speeds than those of HCS tools. The most
common HSS is better known by its composition of alloying elements as 18-4-2. i.e., 18%W
+ 4%Cr + 1%V. Suitable for high positive rake angle tools.
Types of HSS:
There are two basic types of HSS. They are
1. Molybdenum (M-series)
2. Tungsten (T-series)
M Series:
It contains 10% molybdenum, chromium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt.
Higher, abrasion resistance
H.S.S. tools are majorly made of M-series.
T Series:
It contains 12 % - 18 % tungsten, chromium, vanadium & cobalt.
It undergoes less distortion during heat treating.
The commonly used grades of HSS are given in Table.

Type
T1
T4
T6
M2
M4
M 15
M 42

Table: Compositions and types of popular high speed steels.


C
W
Mo
Cr
V
Co
0.70
18
4
1
0.75
18
4
1
5
0.80
20
4
2
12
0.80
6
5
4
2
1.30
6
5
4
4
1.55
6
3
5
5
5
1.08
1.5
9.5
4
1.1
8

Rc

64.7

62.4

H.S.S. is available in wrought, cast & sintered (Powder metallurgy) form. It is coated for
having better performance. High speed steels account for largest tonnage. Other highly
tough variety of HSS is Vanadium HSS with 2%V, 6%W, 6%Mo and 4%Cr. It is widely
favoured for tools which have to bear impact loading and perform intermittent cutting.
3. Stelite (or) Cast alloys.
It is a non-ferrous alloy consisting mainly of cobalt, tungsten and chromium.
Other elements are added in varying proportions [Tantalum, Molybdenum and
Boron].
It has good shock and wear resistance and retain its hardness at red heat up to about
9200C.
On account of this property, it is advantageously used for machining materials like
hard bronzes, cast and malleable iron, etc.
Tools made of stelite are capable of operating at speed up to 2 to 3 times more than
those of common HSS tools.

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Cutting Tool Materials


A stelite may contain 40 50% Co, 15 35% Cr, 12 25% W and 1 4% C.
They are weak in tension.
4. Cemented Carbides
The carbide tools are produced by powder metallurgy technique. It consists of tungsten,
tantalum and titanium carbide with cobalt as a binder. Cemented carbide tools are
extremely hard They can withstand very high speed cutting operation. Carbide tool does
not loose their hardness up to 1000 C. with this result, the tools tipped with cemented
carbide tips are capable of operating at speeds 5 to 6 times (or more) higher than HSS tools.
These are also known as cemented carbides or sintered carbides.
The compressive strength is high compared to tensile strength; therefore the bits are often

brazed to steel shanks, or used as inserts in holders. These inserts may often have negative
rake angles. Speeds up to 300 rpm are common on mild steels. Cemented carbide tools are
available in insert form in many different shapes; squares, triangles, diamonds, and rounds.
Types of Cemented Carbides
There are two types of cemented carbides. They are
1. Tungsten type cemented carbides,
2. Titanium-tungsten type cemented carbide.
Tungsten type cemented carbides
These are brittle than titanium tungsten type.
Contains 92 98% tungsten carbide and 2 8% cobalt.
Used for machining brittle materials like cast iron, bronze,
Also used for machining non-ferrous alloys and alloy steels.
Titanium-tungsten type cemented carbide
These are more wear resistant.
Contains 66 85% titanium carbide and 4 10% cobalt.
Used for machining tough materials.
Advantages:
They have high productivity capacity.
They produce surface finish of high quality.
They can machine hardened steel.
Their use leads to reduction in machining costs.
5. Ceramics
Ceramics and sintered oxides are basically made of Al2O3.
Boron nitrides in powdered form are added and mixed with Al2O3 powder and
sintered together at a temperature of about 1700 0C.
These are made by powder metallurgy technique.
It is comparatively cheaper than cemented carbides.
It can withstand up to 1200C.
It is used at very high speeds (500m/min).
It is used for continuous cutting only.
M. Murali Mohan

Cutting Tool Materials


It has very abrasion resistance.
It is used for machining CI and plastics.
It has less tendency to weld metals during machining.
Generally used ceramic is sintered carbides.
Another ceramic tool material is silicon nitride which is mainly used for CI.
Tools made of ceramics are capable of operating at speed up to 4 times more than
that of cemented carbide.
These have low heat conductivity.

6. Diamond.
Diamond has
Extreme hardness
Low thermal expansion.
High thermal conductivity.
Very low coefficient of friction.
Cutting tool material made of diamond can withstand speeds ranging from 1500 to
2000 m/min.
On ferrous metals diamond are not suitable because of the diffusion of carbon
atoms from diamond to workpiece.
Can withstand up to elevated temperature of above 1500C.
A synthetic (manmade) diamond with polycrystalline structure is recently introduced
and made by powder metallurgy process.

Inserts

Cutting tools are often designed with inserts or replaceable tips (tipped tools). In these, the
cutting edge consists of a separate piece of material either brazed, welded or clamped on to
the tool body. The clamping is preferred because after an cutting edge gets worn, the insert
is indexed (rotated in the holder) for another cutting edge. When all cutting edges are worn,
the insert is thrown away.
Inserts are available in various shapes, and are usually mechanically attached by means of
clamps to the tool holder, or brazed to the tool holder. The Strength depends on the shape
of the insert. The various shape of inserts are shown in the figure.

Fig. Various shapes of Inserts.

M. Murali Mohan

Cutting Tool Materials


Common materials for tips include cemented carbide, polycrystalline diamond, and cubic
boron nitride. Tools using inserts include milling cutters (end mills, fly cutters), tool bits, and
saw blades.

Coated Tools
New alloys and engineering materials are being developed continuously. These materials
have high strength and toughness but are generally abrasive ad highly chemically reactive
with tool materials. Machining of these materials will be difficulty and needs to improve the
performance in machining have led to development of coated tools. Coatings are frequently
applied to carbide tool tips to improve tool life or to enable higher cutting speeds. Coated
tips typically have lives 10 times greater than uncoated tips.
Characteristics of Coatings:
Low thermal conductivity.
Little or no Porosity.
High hardness at elevated temperatures.
Chemical stability and inertness to the workpiece.
Good bonding to the substrate to prevent flaking or spalling.
Common Coating Materials:
Titanium Nitride,
Titanium Carbide,
Titanium Carbonitride and
Aluminium Oxide.
Techniques used for coating:
The techniques used for applying coatings include
Chemical vapour deposition (CVD),
Plasma assisted CVD,
Physical vapour deposition (PVD),
Diamond coatings are also in use and being further developed.
Advantages:
Reduction of cutting forces and power consumption.
Increase in tool life (by 200 to 500%) for same VC or increase in VC.
(by 50 to 150%) for same tool life.
Improvement in product quality.
Effective and efficient machining of wide range of work materials.
Pollution control by less or no use of cutting fluid.

M. Murali Mohan

Cutting Tool Materials


The hardness for various types of tool materials, strength and toughness are shown in fig.

M. Murali Mohan

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