Technologies of Coatings and Surface Hardening for Tool Industry

Dear colleagues,

The innovative coating and surface hardening technologies developed in recent years allow obtaining practically any complex of physical–mechanical and crystal–chemical properties of the metalworking tool surface layer. Today, the scientific approach related to the improvement of the operational characteristics of the tool surface layers produced from traditional materials in the tool industry, following the creation of new instrumental materials, is an extremely costly and sufficiently long-lasting process. Different technological techniques, such as coatings (physical and chemical methods), surface hardening and alloying (chemical-thermal treatment, implantation), a combination of the listed methods, and other solutions are used for this. Further, diversified energy sources (vacuum arc, laser beam, etc.) and varied working mediums (vacuum, gas–vapor medium, liquid solutions, etc.) can be used for coating and surface hardening.

The high efficiency of this approach may be explained by the fact that under the diversified operating conditions of the metalworking tool, in all cases, the most loaded is its surface layer. First, precisely its properties define the workability of the tool piece during the machining of a part. It is evident that there is no all-purpose method for coating and surface hardening: Everything is very particular for each type of tool piece and its operating conditions.

It should additionally be emphasized that the metalworking tool as an object of research was not chosen accidentally. Production experience shows that even with the use of the most advanced machine tools, it is not possible to achieve high technical and economical rates of the machining process of the part with a low work resource of the tool. Diverse conditions of the tool operation bring on diverse injuries and failures of the technological system. At the same time, the wear rate of the tool is significantly higher than the wear rate of the machine tool parts and units. Therefore, the operational ability of the technological system as a whole depends precisely on the used metalworking cutting and die tool. The roles of the tool multiply when it comes to machining composite materials, high-hardened steels, chrome-nickel, titan, or other hard-to-machine alloys.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a review of the current state of the research and developments in the field of coatings and surface hardening technologies for cutting and die tools that can ensure a substantial increase of the work resource and reliability of the tool, an increase in productivity of machining, accuracy, and quality of the machined products, reduction of the material capacity of the production, and other important manufacturing factors. In so doing, the main emphasis should be on the results of the engineering works that have had a prosperous approbation in laboratory or real manufacturing conditions.

Some of the topics of particular interest to the Special Issue are as follows:

• Development of the self-adapting in the process of contact interaction with the machining material coatings through the formation of solid lubricants based on oxides and other compounds;
• Development of coatings and processes of the surface hardening of the tool intended for formation of hard-to-process materials such as composite materials, high-hardened steels, chrome–nickel, titan, and other alloys with unique properties;
• Application of diverse concentrated flows of energy (vacuum arc, laser beam, etc.) for implementation of new processes of coating and surface hardening of the tool, including combined processes;
• Original technology equipment and setups for coatings and surface hardening of the tool, including low-temperature techniques;
• Study of the influences of the physical–mechanical and crystal–chemical properties of the surface layer transformed by coatings and surface hardening on the stress–strain state and character of the tool wear in the conditions of action of the various heat and force loads;
• Certification and testing methods for the tools after coatings and surface hardening; Successful experience of the leading production enterprises in the introduction of the innovative technologies of coatings and surface hardening of the cutting and die tool.

Prof. Dr. Sergey N. Grigoriev
Guest Editor

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