Properties of a Tool Produced by Powder Metallurgy

Abstract

To minimize the manufacturing costs of parts with specified operational properties, the machining processes must be optimized. Cutting accounts for at least 70% of such processes. To that end, tool materials with distinctive properties may be developed and utilized. Analysis of manufacturing components—in particular, power components in gas-turbine engines—shows the need for higher quality of the machined surfaces and more efficient use of expensive equipment with numerical and adaptive control systems, so as to ensure a wide range of cutting conditions, including high-speed cutting. To obtain products that are domestically and internationally competitive, we need to optimize cutting processes, in which the tool is the weakest link in the technological chain. Defects of the cutting tool impair the productivity and product quality. In the present work, the wear of cutting tools produced by the sintering of high-speed steel powder is studied. Tool materials based on high-speed steel with additional alloying by titanium carbide (carbide steel) are shown to be highly wear-resistant. They may be classified as a new category of self-organizing tool materials. The results indicate the expediency of additional alloying by two methods to modify the tool friction and wear: (1) alloying with compounds that considerably reduce the self-organization by decreasing the frictional coefficient at working temperatures; (2) alloying to expand the range of self-organization. Both methods result in lower frictional forces and temperatures, as confirmed by the change in wear resistance and frictional characteristics. The wear resistance of such tools is found to be 2–3.5 times that of regular high-speed steel tools.