Full speed ahead – with Nanosphere Red
LMT newly developed Nanosphere Red coating for solid carbide cutters has passed all tests with flying colours. It is already significantly increasing the tool life of shanked cutters for hardened materials.
High demands are made on precision tools for machining hardened materials: users want maximum machine running times, extended tool life and high cutting and feed rates. These parameters are crucial for increasing productivity. LMT Group development engineers can also take credit here for high-performance coatings that have repeatedly led to enormous improvements in performance. They have made major contributions in this area. New LMT coatings are specially tailored to particular applications. The latest chapter in this LMT success story is known as Nanosphere Red, the coating developed by LMT for solid carbide cutters. Its twolayer, nanostructured design promises significantly increased performance.
Full speed ahead – with Nanosphere Red
“The market is demanding increasingly higher performance,” explains Jana Siouzou, project manager for cutting tools at LMT.However, the parameters tool developers have to work with always remain the same: geometry, cutting material and coating. These need to be perfectly matched if the tool is to achieve the highest possible performance. Although geometries and cutting materials still hold a certain potential for performance increases, it is coatings that are currently providing real quantum leaps in performance. This naturally has consequences for the tools used in mould making. Much tougher demands are made on them, because they have to machine harder materials. “Conventional coatings either fail or don’t do the cutting job properly so that users end up with rejects. Our new coating offers a powerful alternative – as our practical trials with customers in the die and mould making, automotive and plant engineering sectors have clearly demonstrated.” The new Nanosphere Red coating has been available since the beginning of September on solid carbide cutters with diameters 1-20.
The name Nanosphere Red refers to the nanostructured multilayer configuration and the red colour of the coating
Combined protection against wear and heat
Nanosphere Red’s secret lies in its multilayer nanostructured composition and the use of silicon. “The multilayer structure of the coating makes the coating tougher,” explains Philipp Immich, coating developer at LMT Fette. “This structure prevents the inevitable microcracks spreading in the cutting edges. That means the tool is better protected against wear and achieves a significantly longer tool life than conventional coatings.” Additionally, the developers have increased the coating’s red hardness. “The silicon is responsible for that,” says Immich. “In the coating it fuses seamlessly with the structure of titanium, aluminium and nitrogen, in effect transferring its temperature stability to the coating.” As a result, Nanosphere Red can be used at temperatures of up to 1,100 degrees Celsius, while conventional aluminium-nitride coatings stop working at 850 degrees Celsius. These positive effects benefit a new generation of solid carbide cutters that have been especially designed for machining materials hardened to between 54 and 68 HRC. Nanosphere Red thus offers users longer tool life and allows them to use more demanding cutting parameters.Tried and tested under practical conditions
“We are convinced that this new coating will be very well received by users,” says Siouzou optimistically. “In many sectors, die and mould making for instance, workpieces are machined after hardening, because the hardening process can slightly change their shape. If machining is done first, the workpiece has to be processed again after hardening. If a mould is hardened first and then machined, it cuts out a whole work process. That saves time and money,” explains the LMT product manager. This naturally has consequences for the tools used in mould making. Much tougher demands are made on them, because they have to machine harder materials. “Conventional coatings either fail or don’t do the cutting job properly so that users end up with rejects. Our new coating offers a powerful alternative – as our practical trials with customers in the die and mould making, automotive and plant engineering sectors have clearly demonstrated.” The new Nanosphere Red coating has been available since the beginning of September on solid carbide cutters with diameters 1-20.
Nanosphere Red