In the modern world, the techniques, tools, and materials reach different levels to meet end-needs. When it comes to mold making, it takes a long time to select the right materials, tools, processes, and machines for product development. Plastic injection mold makers face huge challenges in the construction of mold, because the quality of mold affects the entire process of production.
In today’s world, continuous innovation and new procedures started to manufacture quality tools with improving the life of cutting tools. The automotive and machine-building industries are making a way to decrease the operation cost and increase the quality of machine parts to boost productivity. It helps to improve the quality and high tolerance of parts as the demand for high tolerance parts is increasing day in and day out.
In modern manufacturing, mold making requires two main materials for drill, end mill, and insert cutter:
1) Carbide
2) High-Speed Steel (HSS).
In this article, carbide has high-lightened to emphasize:
What are Carbide and Coated Carbide Inserts?
Carbide is any group of compounds made up of carbon and other substances such as metal, silicon, or boron. There are a number of carbide compounds in this group: Calcium Carbide, Iron Carbide, Aluminium Carbide, Silicon Carbide, Tungsten Carbide. It is used to make hard tools like a durable cutter, which is easy to chip and fracture.
Coated Carbide Inserts work well with ferrous materials, such as steel or stainless steel, iron, and cast iron.
In manufacturing, carbide is the most important step in mold making. Because cemented carbide powder is used to make a cutting tool for the injection mold. Metal injection mold needs cemented carbide powder during the sintering process to turn into inserts. The cemented carbide inserts are coated in one or two layers applied by CVD or PVD for increasing wear resistance of the inserts. This tool is mandatory in the injection molding industry, known as coated. The coating on the tools and machines ensure to improve the wear resistance properties.
Coated Tools:
Coated tools consist of high strength and toughness, because of the abrasive and chemical reactions. It has lower friction, high heat resistance, and high cutting speed. It guarantees longer tool life. There are a few materials coated on carbide inserts.
- Titanium Nitride (TiN)
- Titanium Carbide (Tic)
- Titanium Carbonitride (TicN)
- Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3)
- Diamond Coating
Techniques/Design Used For Coated Materials:
- Chemical Vapour Disposition (CVD)
- Physical Vapour Disposition (PVD)
PVD and CVD are the main techniques of the coating process for carbide inserts. Both are beneficial for machining materials for chip cutting edge.
Features of Carbide Inserts:
Three main features of carbide inserts are here:
1) SUBSTRATE MATERIAL:
The grade of substrate use depends on the needs of the application. It’s important to improve substrate materials. The coating on the carbide inserts is obtained from CVD. Chemical reaction on any application brings it to its substrate surface. This coating has unique properties to use in a few items such as diamond carbide.
Coating of Substrate Grade:
It is coated with a thin layer, from 3 to 20 microns. A coating comprises many sub-layers involving titanium nitride, aluminium oxide, and titanium carbon. This thin layer helps in improving the performance of complex parts.
2) COATING:
The coating on carbide inserts is used in the industry as a cutting tool. PVC coating is the most used method to produce large-scale industrial geometrical complex tools such as reamers, ends, drills, tape, form tools etc. It’s a complex coating used in hard parts to produce quality tooling.
Coating of Carbide Inserts:
It’s finest to use a coated insert while cutting metal or steel alloy at high-pressure. Titanium can work with ferrous material, but at low coolant pressure. This works well with a few ferrous materials:
- Steel
- Stainless Steel
- Iron
- Cast Iron
- Titanium
3) INSERT GEOMETRY:
Mold designs made to meet the geometric needs of the product. Indexable type inserts are used for both one or more single point cutting tools. The product develops itself inside the cover to form a final shape. Extra features can be added to design the undercut. It takes unique consideration of the process of coating and coating materials on the specification of each application. Some indexable carbide inserts characteristics in a milling tool:
- Tolerance ability.
- Shapes, sizes, and types.
- Wall thickness
- Edge cut preparation
- Cutting point configurations
- Clarity and Facet sizes
Different types of cutting tools are used in experiments to produce components. There is a huge demand for quality and durable products and thermal metal spraying in the market. Likewise, manufacturers expect quality components, high productivity, and longer life of cutting tools to meet the consumer’s need.
