Industries in upheaval: Drive turnaround changes machining tasks

Electric drives are increasingly replacing traditional combustion engines. As a result, many engine components are no longer needed. They are being replaced by completely new components made from materials that are sometimes difficult to machine—with corresponding new requirements for cutting tools. Thanks to high-performance coatings from CemeCon, tool manufacturers can face these challenges with confidence.

The move away from conventional drives is becoming increasingly apparent—especially in the automotive industry. However, electrification has long since penetrated far more areas: Two-wheelers, construction machinery, motorized work equipment or industrial trucks such as telescopic handlers and forklifts are also gradually being equipped with electric drives. A far-reaching structural change that undoubtedly poses challenges for the machining industry. Because wherever a combustion engine is replaced by an electric drive, other components are installed. Changing shapes and modern materials are placing fundamentally new demands on processes and tools.

New materials—new challenges—new opportunities

In the past, the majority of machining tasks involved aluminum, cast iron and steel components for engine blocks, cylinder heads or crankshafts for combustion engines. Today, typical components of electric drive systems—motor housings, battery frames or components for thermal management—are increasingly made of aluminum and magnesium alloys. These materials are challenging to machine and are often thin-walled and therefore very sensitive to vibration. The mixed machining of different material combinations, such as aluminum motor housings with pressed-in steel bushings, is particularly complex.

For toolmakers, this new variety of materials means that many previous solutions will soon be obsolete. However, this does not have to jeopardize their own economic success—it can be consolidated and even expanded with coordinated, specialized precision tools. “Tailor-made coating technologies are a good way forward here,” says Inka Harrand with conviction. The experienced product manager for cutting inserts at CemeCon explains the target-oriented approach: “To ensure maximum performance, we first identify the right coating material. Then we tailor the coating precisely to the tool, component geometry, material and machining situation. With our highly developed processes, we make a decisive contribution to maximum precision and flawless surface finishes in every specific application.”

Using coatings of the future today

CemeCon offers the perfect answer to the special requirements that modern lightweight materials—aluminum and magnesium alloys—place on cutting tools during machining. The HiPIMS coating AluCon® for round tools and cutting inserts, for example, has already proven itself in an exceptionally wide range of applications. With its smooth coating, which is only 2 µm thick, it is extremely effective in preventing built-up edges from occurring in the first place. At the same time, the high hardness and nanocrystalline structure of AluCon® enable outstandingly long tool life and high cutting speeds when machining aluminum—for battery housings, for example.

Another important component to be machined is the scroll compressor. It is a central element of the temperature management in electric vehicles and was previously mostly made from heavy iron materials. With the switch to aluminum, the compressor is a current prime example of the change in materials due to the demand for lightweight construction. Tools with adapted CemeCon diamond coatings from the CCDia® series are an ideal solution here. They enable precise, reliable, highly efficient and economical machining of the aluminum alloys with increased silicon content from which the complex-shaped components are manufactured today.

Other future-proof coating solutions are also already tried and tested. For the demanding mixed machining of aluminum-steel components, for example, CemeCon offers InoxaCon® and InoxaCon® Plus tool coatings with high wear resistance. The characteristic red-gold HiPIMS coating material with its balanced ratio of hardness and toughness combined with very high temperature resistance is predestined for high-performance applications in this area.

Active partnership right from the start

“If you rely on the right partner, your range of tools can hold its own in the dynamic competition in the long term,” summarizes Manfred Weigand, CemeCon Product Manager Round Tools. “Our material expertise, which has grown over decades, our close cooperation with users and the efficiency of our own coating center make us an active, strategic ‘ally’ in tool development.”

This is expressly about an active partnership: Through early consulting, engineering and process support as early as the development phase, the optimal coating becomes an integral part of the overall concept of the ‘precision tool of the future’.