TINALOX^® SN²

From 6 to 90 with SN²

Precision processing of hard materials much stresses the tools being used: high-strength types of steel demand everything from these tools and has to be paid for in most cases through strong wear on the tools. In order to render such processing more economic, more and more tool manufacturers are relying on high-performance coating materials – like supernitrides from the SN²-class provided by CemeCon.

Inside processing with micrometer accuracy is as such already a challenge for tools and machines. And when also extremely hard materials need to be processed, the combined expertise is much in demand: then tool manufacturer and coating professionals will optimise the solutions which are customised with respect to the specific task – frequently with enormous performance increases:

Process optimisation through SN²

At the company Helmut Christmann GmbH from the Swabian town of Birkenfeld there were difficulties regarding processing stability when precision processing boreholes in precision machined subassemblies made of X153CrMoV12-(1.2379) steel.

Helmut Christmann, Managing Director of Christmann GmbH: “With the tools used to date it was absolutely not possible to precision machine more than six boreholes in one go in this highly wear-resistant type of steel – absolutely inadequate for efficient production. For this reason we talked to the company Wohlhaupter GmbH as one of our tool suppliers. And they had a solution”.

In the development department of the company Wohlhaupter the engineers from Wohlhaupter adapted together with the experts from CemeCon both tools and coating for this particular application – among other things for the miniature turning out cutting edges of the DigiBore tools.

“The results were overwhelming” says Dipl.-Ing. Holger Rabe, head of project management for indexable inserts at Wohlhaupter. “Through the improved process thanks to the SN² coating we can now precision process instead of six bores in the past, now a total of 90 with a single turning out cutting edge tool. And this at the highest precision of 2 µm in a single work step”

Micrometer accurate precision processing in a single work step

Such results have at all only become feasible mostly owing to the extremely smooth surfaces of the TINALOX^® SN² coating material. The TINALOX^® SN² material allows for perfect removal of the chips and permits, owing to its high degree of toughness combined with very high hardness, reliable processing of steel or cast-iron, for example. The coating material is the ideal solution for the applications run at the company Christmann GmbH – proven in an impressive way through the enormously extended service life and the resulting production cost savings”.

Source: FACTS 29 page 3-4