Ceramic tools can replace carbide cutters on a scale

In recent years, with the development of materials engineering and the emergence of new materials, the upgrading of materials technology and manufacturing processes for manufacturing processing is imminent. In 2017, the demand for ceramics and cermet tools in China will definitely have a big Upgrade.
In the field of aerospace and large-scale processing, with the deepening of the use of difficult-to-machine materials and the emergence of composite materials, and with the large-scale popularization of CNC machine tools, the popularity of digital intelligent processing technology, high-speed processing and super Long-term processing is becoming more and more absolute. The emergence of ceramic and cermet tools is in line with the urgent need for high-speed and efficient machining in the manufacturing industry. For the "Made in China" in the transition period, after the previous technical accumulation and process exploration, with the "C919 large passenger aircraft" and "Yun-20 strategic transport aircraft" and other domestic large aircraft input and production as the representative In 2017, the demand for ceramic and cermet tools in China will definitely be greatly improved in the demand for material technology and the upgrading of manufacturing processes.
At the same time, with the combination of tool technology and machine tool technology, the aerospace industry is also developing with the mutual promotion of workpiece materials and tool materials. It can be said that the continuous development of tool materials is the driving force for the continuous development of aerospace manufacturing. At present, there are thousands of tool materials widely used in the aerospace industry. According to the tool materials, there are only a few categories: tool steel (carbon tool steel, alloy tool steel, high speed steel), and hard alloy. , ceramic and superhard tool materials. Carbon tool steel is suitable for the manufacture of hand tools, and carbon tool steel T10A and T12A are widely used.
In the aviation industry, cemented carbide tools account for the largest proportion. Carbide tools are the leading tool in aerospace manufacturing, and their application range is quite extensive, which is dominant in CNC tool materials. Cemented carbide has become the main tool material, which enables the cutting process to achieve the transition to the hard alloy era. Due to the different performance characteristics of different grades of cemented carbide, its application range is also different. Cemented carbide can be used not only for the manufacture of a variety of machine-clampable indexing tools, but also for the manufacture of integral end mills, reamers, taps and drill bits. Carbide tools are classified into ordinary hard alloys, coated hard alloys, ultrafine grained hard alloys, and carbon (nitrogen) titanium based hard alloys.
YT type cemented carbide has most of the excellent properties of YG and YW, and is widely used in aviation manufacturing. Coated cemented carbide has higher hardness, wear resistance and heat resistance than the matrix, and is widely used. Ultrafine particle cemented carbide can be used in a wide range of interrupted cutting. Carbon (nitrogen) titanium-based cemented carbide is mainly used for finishing and semi-finishing of continuous surfaces of steel.
With the development of the new technology revolution, it is required to continuously improve the cutting processing productivity and reduce the production cost. Especially the development of CNC machine tools requires the development of new tools that have higher cutting speed and wear resistance than cemented carbide tools. Recently, various new materials with high strength, high hardness, corrosion resistance, wear resistance and high temperature resistance are becoming more and more difficult to cut. According to the literature, such materials have accounted for more than 50% of the total processing in the world. Carbide tools are difficult to handle many of these new materials. On the other hand, the international production of cemented carbide has reached 20,000-25,000 tons. It consumes a lot of metals every year, such as W, Co, Ta and Nb. The mineral resources of these metals are decreasing, and the price is rising. It will not be used for decades, and some resources will be exhausted. Ceramic knives were developed in this context.
As early as 1912-1913, alumina ceramic knives appeared in the UK and Germany, but their production applications began in 1950. Due to its low strength and toughness, it is limited to continuous cutting and finishing in a long period of time, and the cutting speed and feed rate are low. It was not until 1968 that the second generation ceramic tool-composite alumina tool showed a significant improvement in strength and toughness compared to alumina tools, allowing cutting of various workpieces at higher speeds and larger feed rates. Has been widely used. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the third generation of ceramic tools - silicon nitride ceramic tools appeared. These ceramic knives have higher toughness, impact resistance, high temperature strength and thermal shock resistance than composite alumina knives. The output of ceramic blades in various industrialized countries has grown rapidly.
China has started mass production of composite alumina blades since the mid-1960s, with an annual production capacity of 14-15 million pieces. Silicon oxide ceramic blades have been studied since the mid-1970s and cannot meet demand due to poor performance. In recent years, with the deepening of research on the field of high-temperature structural ceramics, the performance of silicon nitride ceramics has been greatly improved, so that silicon nitride ceramic tools have developed rapidly in China.