When it comes to milling cutters, the extreme impact forces can quickly wear down tools. Especially if you are cutting harder materials like steel and cast iron, then the fatigue on your end mills and drill bits can damage their cutting edges, especially at high speeds. One of the best ways to keep your tools operating for longer periods of time is to use TiAlN coated end mills.
Titanium aluminum nitride or TiAlN is a metastable hard coating material that is added to a variety of cutting tools. This material is extremely hard, even harder than tungsten carbide and high speed steel alloys. This means that it will protect the fine cutting edges of your precision tools from the extreme fatigue of machining.
While adding a coating to the cutting edge of a tool may seem like a way to dull your tools prematurely, you have to understand exactly how these tools are treated. Most fine tool coatings are applied using a process known as physical vapor deposition. The tools are placed in a vacuum chamber and the TiAlN coating is vaporized. The coating then settles back into its solid state, bonding directly to the surface of the cutting tool.
This process ensures that the coating is applied without any bubbles or gaps forming between the tool material and the coating material. In addition to being harder than the tool material, TiAlN coated end mills also have a lower coefficient of friction. This means that they produce less friction from contacting your workpiece. Less friction means less heat and much more efficiently.
Tool lifespan is shortened by a number of different factors. This includes things like cutting speed, tool material, workpiece material, machine type, and cooling systems. Having a TiAlN coated end mill can offer up to ten times the tool life of a non coated tool. With this kind of increased efficiency, TiAlN has quickly become one of the most popular tool coating materials available.
TiAlN coated tools are ideal for a number of jobs that could put other tools at risk. Coated tools, especially tools constructed from carbide, are a great option for high speed machining. This is because carbide itself gets its cutting power from ceramic tungsten carbide, a material with extreme heat resistance. The powdered ceramic is cemented together with a binding metal to produce the raw material that carbide tools are made from.
Carbide is nearly twice as strong and twice as rigid as tools made from steel alloys, which already makes it an excellent material for end mill construction. When combined with a TiAlN coating, solid carbide cutting tools can operate at extremely high speeds and feeds without being damaged by the resulting high temperatures. If you are machining ferrous material like steel or cast iron, TiAlN coated end mills are basically essential if you do not want to deal with the hassle of frequent tool replacements.
If you are interested in finding some high performance TiAlN coated end mills for your shop, then you need to visit www.onlinecarbide.com. Online Carbide is an American manufacturer of solid carbide end mills and drill bits that are designed for high speed, precision machining. Their online store contains a great selection of tools, many of which are available with a plain polished carbide finish or a TiAlN coating. One of the biggest advantages of buying their tools is you are ordering directly from the manufacturer, so you get high quality tools without having to pay extra money to a middleman. If you are interested in seeing the kinds of tools they offer, check out their online store today!
