Cutting tool is a tool that directly completes machining. To improve the quality and efficiency of machining, it is inseparable from the continuous progress of cutting tool technology. There are three development directions for the progress of tool technology: improving reliability, processing new engineering materials and meeting the requirements of green cutting.
Tool technology dedicated to improving reliability
Under the background of manufacturing industry pursuing high-speed and efficient processing, the requirements for high removal rate of cut materials are also constantly improving. This requires that the tool has high reliability, which is manifested by high strength and hardness, and can withstand high temperature and wear.
The reliability of cutting tools has a certain relationship with factors such as tool material, structure, cutting parameters and machining objects. Therefore, high reliability tool technology is a comprehensive technology involving various basic technologies such as tool material, surface coating, tool structure, tool monitoring, tool handle, tool safety technology and so on. How to maintain the reliability of cutting tools in the process of high-speed and efficient machining is a thorny challenge in the manufacturing industry. Sometimes it is necessary to design special cutting tools to realize the use of different types of cutting tools for different processing materials and processing occasions.
Cutting tool technology applied to new engineering materials
The continuous emergence of new engineering materials has put forward new tests for tool technology, especially composite materials.
Composite materials have the characteristics of high specific strength, high specific stiffness and designability, and have been applied in many fields. For example, in the large aircraft manufacturing industry, it has become one of the most important structural materials.
The processing of composite materials is quite different from that of metal materials. For example, the processing process of CFRP composites is shear removal, rather than extrusion removal like metal materials, which requires the development of new tool technology to meet the emerging processing needs of new composite materials.
In the process of CFRP drilling, in addition to the traditional defects of metal material drilling, such as hole size, roundness, position, perpendicularity error, etc., there are also some defects unique to composite material drilling due to structural reasons, such as inlet stripping and delamination, outlet delamination, interlayer delamination, tearing and burring, fiber extraction on the surface around the hole, etc. Among them, delamination is the most important and common punching defect. In the future, hole machining and milling of composite materials will become important technical research topics.
Tool technology meeting the requirements of green cutting
The so-called green cutting is a comprehensive tool technology aimed at protecting the environment, reducing consumption and saving resources in modern cutting processing. For example, dry cutting and MQL cutting belong to the category of green cutting.
To meet the requirements of green cutting, it is necessary to optimize the tool technology from the aspects of tool material preparation, tool structure design and forming, tool surface coating, tool application, waste tool recycling and other links. The key technologies of green cutting tool design mainly include green material selection technology, removable design technology and recyclable design technology.
For example, the internal cooling hole cutter can use high-pressure gases such as dry ice and liquid nitrogen to cool down, replacing the traditional coolant, which is more practical and more environmentally friendly. For another example, the preparation process of diamond tools is complex and costly, and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be produced in the cutting process; If carbon nitride is used to replace diamond to make cutting tools, it not only has stable chemical inertia, but also its hardness is very close to diamond, which can play a good substitution effect.
