The hottest tool bag to respond to the challenge o

In response to the challenge of new materials, the tool package

has witnessed the smooth introduction of new and improved workpiece materials in recent years. Notable examples of these materials are high silicon aluminum alloy used to reduce the weight of engines, nodular cast iron and steel with light weight and high strength, and duplex stainless steel, which widely replaces ordinary carbon steel and has a longer service life. In the aviation industry, special superalloys are replacing the traditional Inconel 718, which is widely used. A new superalloy that resists deformation at higher temperatures has been introduced. It not only reduces weight, but also meets the strength requirements of jet engines. In the rapidly growing medical equipment industry, new corrosion-resistant alloys for replacing body parts have emerged

new materials offer many advantages, but they also have disadvantages. Usually, every development in metallurgy leads to new workpiece materials with improved performance, reduced weight or longer service life, while bringing about problems such as reduced machinability and unexpected tool wear patterns

recently, tool manufacturers have begun to raise these issues by designing tool packages for the processing of specific groups of workpiece materials. Taking the turning tool bag as an example, we can see that this kind of tool bag usually has a series of materials and chip breaking groove tool bar and blade combinations that can effectively process all or most of the operations and working conditions of the target workpiece materials. The tool bag may be pre assembled into standard products or assembled according to the requirements of common products provided by the supplier. In each case, an important supporting element is the use of guidance documents that provide detailed guidelines for specific applications

advantages

a good example of a preassembled turning tool package is the yamako tool package for superalloy processing. The advanced cutting materials and chip breaking grooves contained in it are specially developed for the processing of superalloys and titanium alloys, and are not recommended for other materials. In addition, this tool pack provides its own independent manual with complete application and operation instructions. As proved by a large number of production applications, the correct use of special tools for machining superalloys will produce a tool life that is about 100% higher than the results obtained with the best tools previously used

for customers, the main advantage of this tool pack is' focus'. The tool bag contains all the cutting materials and chip breaking grooves required to provide optimal performance under almost any turning condition for a particular workpiece material group. The attached application guide tells customers that in terms of efficacy: here is the processing performance of materials; Here is how to deal with the tool design. Those characteristics can be tested by tensile test; Here is how to use these tools effectively. Like the earlier core blade packages for general turning, today's special turning tool packages for specific material groups are of great help in preventing incorrect tool selection and application. They are also at least 30% more productive than the best standard tools. Turning tool kits also provide an important advance advantage to tool buyers. Instead of selecting time-consuming and possibly less than optimal results from ordinary tool samples, he can take advantage of a specially developed and thoroughly tested tool package for the entire range of applications and obtain optimized performance results for a specific material group

reducing inventory demand is a further advantage of turning tool packages. For example, Yamaguchi's tool kit for superalloys can actually cover 100% of the application needs. Once the customer gets the tool bag, he can simplify the inventory and rest after he is sure that his needs are met. No additional tools are required. Furthermore, the enhanced tool pack minimizes inventory problems and application errors

one of the most noteworthy new and more difficult automotive workpiece materials is ductile iron. Ten years ago, automobile manufacturers were almost exclusively processing with gray cast iron. Today, with the emphasis on the effect of weight reduction on combustion economy, grey cast iron parts are widely replaced by ductile iron with better strength but lighter weight. Like other new materials with high strength and low density, nodular cast iron has the characteristics that make it difficult to machine and requires a special tool scheme. Shangao's answer is tx150 material, which is a special formula for the effective processing of nodular cast iron and provides a tool life 30% to 500% higher than the previous best blade material. Tx150 material can cover 80% of ductile iron turning applications, and actually as a turning tool package, it contains all the required blade grooves and independent application manuals. To meet the needs of some customers, the tx150 package can be regarded as a high-speed cutting material for high-speed applications

another group of automotive materials that combine higher strength and lighter weight is hardened alloy steel. Traditionally, the finishing of these materials is grinding, because the machining with hard alloy blades will be officially implemented on March 25 this year, which is limited due to low cutting speed and poor tool life. Now, the turning tool package featuring PCBN (polycrystalline cubic boron nitride) blades makes it possible to complete these hard turning processes with 5-10 times the processing time cycle and 5-100 times the tool life. Compared with grinding, PCBN hard car also provides considerable cost savings

two key points

two developments in particle size make it possible to develop non-standard blade materials and chip breaking grooves for the tool industry that can effectively deal with today's new and more difficult workpiece materials. First, the industry now has a better understanding of the tool wear and failure mechanism for processing workpiece materials such as stainless steel, ductile iron and high silicon aluminum alloy. That is mainly due to the progress of optical microscopy and the development of applications such as electron microscope scanning. However, another important factor is the 'teamwork' of tool suppliers and the careful study of tool wear mechanism by users

five years ago, it was usually considered 'inconvenient' for technicians of tool companies to conduct tests in automobile factories. However, in the past three to five years, it has become obvious that real progress can be made only through the cooperation between tool manufacturers and tool users in new difficult to machine materials. Today, car manufacturers and other manufacturers want tool companies to become 'partners' and help solve their problems. The tool community has responded. For example, in Sangao, we now routinely carry out multi-objective tests on the materials provided by customers on our own equipment, rather than just doing simple tests on the customer's site. The reason is simple. The more you know about the tool failure mode, the better performance you will put into the blade

due to the development of cemented carbide tool materials, today's tool processing efficiency is also higher. First, better quality control technology minimizes defects in the manufacturing process. In addition, developments such as cobalt rich areas, better sintering methods and improved edge dressing techniques, including honing, have improved tool reliability, resulting in better toughness with the same or increased wear resistance and more free cutting angles. These grooves were impossible five to ten years ago, because the carbide driven needle and the driving needle should coincide at that time, which was too brittle to resist cracking. On the contrary, today's cemented carbide with better toughness can provide a large free cutting angle, allowing a higher metal removal rate even in the case of the most difficult new materials and the increase of tool life

forward looking

turning tool packages now appear, accounting for a considerable part of the whole lathe tool sales, and it can be expected that with the continuous emergence of new and more difficult workpiece materials, its proportion will increase faster

from a worldwide perspective, the emergence of parts with better strength and lighter weight and new industries are driving the development of new processing materials and the demand for special tools for processing them. For example, today's tool companies must cater to the needs of worldwide manufacturers that significantly use more ductile iron and difficult to machine superalloys than they did just five to ten years ago. The rapidly growing medical equipment industry is only one example of the new requirements for special tools that can effectively process new types of materials

the main demand source of other special tools is a large number of OEM manufacturers -- three major industries, transportation machinery, machine tool manufacturers and similar industries that consume a lot of blades. These manufacturers are increasingly demanding new blade materials and groove shapes that can improve the processing of new materials. For example, a manufacturer of transportation machinery and equipment may replace gray cast iron with nodular cast iron when manufacturing a special pulley, which will require the latest special tools to process nodular cast iron. On the other hand, machine tool manufacturers may need new blade materials and grooves suitable for spindles made of high-strength steel

in addition, considerable demand for special tools comes from small parts suppliers - processing workshops. These manufacturers may never be able to confirm what kind of workpiece materials will be processed on the machine tool. Turning tool packs can now be equipped with them. They can process steel parts today, cast iron tomorrow, and even when wood and plastic can detect the torque at a fixed angle. These tool packages also eliminate the trouble of tool selection, because they easily provide and specify the correct tools for known workpiece materials and applications

from the perspective of tool companies, the main new burden imposed by the growing demand for dedicated tool packages lies in investment resources and innovative skills. However, today's more obvious focus and market segmentation also provide important new opportunities. For Sango and other cutting tool suppliers of a full range, the challenge to beat competitors is to develop excellent advanced workpiece materials that can better process new groups. That means rapid growth in the right positioning market for tool suppliers. It also means a big competitive advantage for tool users. (end)