Tool makers discuss the future of indexable carbide inserts

Indexable carbide insert (ICI) cutters play a key role in the gear manufacturing process. Cemented carbide insert cutting tools are widely used in precision machining and pre-grinding applications due to their high cutting speed, short cycle times, enhanced coatings, custom configurations, and a wide range of sizes and processing capabilities. They continue to expand their unique properties and are widely used in the tool market. All these technologies will be displayed at the 29th IMTS exhibition in Chicago from September 10th to 15th. At this time, the audience will witness the progress of the tooling system in the machining center and use the double-headed hob and various new coatings to reduce the manufacturing cost. And materials to increase production efficiency.

At the IMTS show, tool makers will discuss the development of gear technology in depth. Representatives from Ingersoll, Gleason, Sandvik, Seco Tools and Banyan Global Technology will talk about hard-to-find indexing. The future of quality alloy inserts, that is, as the manufacturing industry focuses on shortening the machining time and increasing the cutting speed, the use of high-speed steel (HSS) cutting tools should be reduced in the future.

Expand business operations

While selling a conventional series of indexable tools with a module number of 5 to 25, many tool makers are expanding to larger and smaller tooling businesses. Today's manufacturing industry must increase the tool production series, to a certain extent, caused by the changing market segmentation. For example: The energy, mining, and heavy industry sectors are constantly changing. In order to provide tool/workpiece clamping systems to these markets, manufacturers have realized that improving flexibility is the hard truth.

“We usually produce carbide blades and cutters with a modulus of 6 or more,” said Frank Berardi, product manager for gear processing at Ingerthor. "Depending on the diameter of the gears and cutters, we can make smaller products. In the high-end market, there is almost no limit. For example: We have already produced a milling cutter head with a modulus of 100 for offshore oil drilling rigs."

“Senko can provide roughing cutters with a module number of 1 to 30, finishing cutters with a module number of 6 to 24, and a gear hob with a module number of 6 to 24,” explains Alessandro Manta, International Application Specialist, Power Transmission Department, Seco Tools, Sweden. Say.

“Although we have not set any limits, we are still bound by the specific limitations of carbide inserts and machine tool technology. With regard to practical limits, we can manufacture tools with a module size of 1 to 50,” said Banyan Global Technology's executive vice president of sales. President Darryl Witte said.

Sandvik Coromant's range of gear cutting tools is relatively complete, covering a module range of 4 to 40. “There are three different categories in this series,” said Kenneth Accavallo, industry and application specialist for Sandvik Coromant. "Our CoroMill 176 full-tooth hob has a module range of 4 to 8; a CoroMill 177 hob has a module range of 8 to 18; a disc cutter has a module range of 8 to 40."

"If the modulus is not in the range of 5 to 25, then a lot of research is needed when quoting and designing an indexable tool," said Michael Tennutti, senior project manager at Gleason.

Small module gear. Ingersoll is currently developing carbide blade series hobs with a module range of 4 to 6 and is planning to reduce to module 3. Berardi said: “We think this is a very important market segment, because there are a lot of gear applications within this specification range, because the small profile, the challenge is to need a sturdy design, user-friendly. Prototype testing has yielded good results and is expected to be available soon."

While the indexable blade tool system is limited to around 3 modules, Ingersoll is providing other solutions of smaller specifications. “We already have a ChipSurfer milling cutter line. The milling cutters are equipped with replaceable carbide inserts and are ground to the finished spline involute size,” Berardi said. “We have been very successful in processing small splines at 16/32 NDP and below.”

"Sandvik Coromant is planning to release modulus 3, modulus 9 and modulus 10 next year," Accavallo said. "The entire product range will cover modules 3 to 10. In addition, through the innovation of the InvoMilling method, we will be able to provide a more complete product range by using five-axis machine tools and standard tooling production gears. Using a small indexable tool system, It is difficult to machine gears with a module less than 2.5 or a diameter saving of 10. Sandvik Coromant is developing products that can mill smaller splines and racks, but current hob products are limited."

Banyan has been discussing small pitch cutting.

"We already have sophisticated solutions for milling single- and multi-tooth splines, and we are developing a revolutionary method for dense-tooth indexable hobbing," Witte said. "To date, we have only splined cutters and no hobbing hobbers. In the next few years, almost every cutter supplier will introduce some gear solutions with a modulus of 1 or less. Tolerance and accuracy issues, because the finer gears have a smaller tolerance range, and indexable tools also have reproducibility and very tight tolerance limits, regardless of the shape of the teeth."

Gleason does not have too many development plans for the smaller module series. “Currently, the range of blade sizes for smaller modules is limited by factors such as the blade size, the holes that need to be locked and positioned, and many development plans have been shifted from indexable tool development to overall tooling solutions,” says Tennutti. "Currently, there are small-size tools on the market that can be used to screw carbide inserts into the body post for thread milling and machining involute splines."

"A module of less than 6 usually requires high-quality direct surface treatment, which is difficult to achieve with indexable tools," Manta said. “We will always face quality issues, but it is not easy to be better than the overall tool and because of the cost-effectiveness of small-size tools.”

Large module gear. “Big gear has always been the top priority for our development of an indexable gear tool production line,” Berardi said. The main reason is that large gear tools are easier to adapt to the application of indexable tool systems. For large gears, the overall hard alloy is usually too costly, so if possible, choose to use a solution that can be indexed carbide. The gearwheel can replace high-speed steel (HSS) with indexable cemented carbide, which can greatly improve the production efficiency.

Berardi said: “In a case study: With 181 teeth and an ultra-large diameter gear with a module of 20, customers used a high-speed steel hob to complete the gear machining with two passes, and the processing time took a total of 70 hours. Ingersoll's indexable carbide blade finishing hob has completed two pass finishing operations in just six hours...a total saving of 64 hours, is simply incredible, and the quality of AGMA 10 Like or better than high speed steel, Ingersoll has always been concerned about the rapid growth of mining, heavy industry, shipbuilding, railways and oil and gas industries."We have a long history of providing cutting tools for the wind power industry, although growth has slowed in recent years, but This is still a very important customer area,” added Berardi.

“It is no longer a secret that the national and local reduction of production tax plans promoted the growth model inside and outside the wind energy market. The mining industry, agriculture and other energy industries have played an important role in the growth of our business. These industries are still It's our focus for the next two years," added Banyan's Witte.

Coating/Material Technology

In addition to the continuous development of new tool models, cutting tool technology has also made progress in new coatings and materials, which will help reduce manufacturing costs. Sandvik is constantly developing optimized materials for gear milling. "Our goal is to find substrates and coatings that can use higher cutting speeds and/or longer tool life, which ultimately helps our customers reduce manufacturing costs," Accavallo said.

Grenson's Tennutti agrees with this statement. He pointed out: "These inserts use a coating and can produce more products with each index. These coatings can withstand at higher speeds. At high temperatures, the longer the blade has been used, the more advanced the coating is being used, namely the AlCroNite coating. The future development of the coating will continue to enhance the performance of the blade."

“For Seco Tools, coating is one of the main investments. Duratomic coating is one of our most successful products. Duratomic coating has changed the market landscape and the development of this product has far-reaching significance. Manta added.

"The coating technology is constantly improving and it does not appear to be stagnating for decades. The most interesting technique is to improve the adhesion of the coating by adopting new PVD technology," Witte said.

Berardi of Ingersoll said: “Since the coating we are using has an oxidized protective layer treated with PVD (physical vapor deposition), its abrasive wear resistance, heat resistance and chemical resistance are related to high temperature CVD. (Chemical Vapor Deposition) The treated coatings are similar, and by using low-temperature PVD treatment, the blades have higher toughness and better wear resistance. In addition, the surface treatment before and after the coating significantly improves the performance of the tool. The adhesion of the layers, the reduction of the crack source position, the reduction of the frictional force, or the smoothness of the surface of the workpiece, the different surface treatment methods all contribute to the increase of the production efficiency.

Custom blade configuration

Although standard cutting tools have been able to produce products that meet the requirements, many companies continue to innovate custom tool system solutions in order to stand out from the crowd. Ingersoll’s Berardi said: “Ordering blades has become a major highlight of Ingersoll. Through our long history of development, we have accumulated a lot of innovative blade designs, including blades for tangential installation. Gear tools systems with indexable cemented carbide inserts are the first choice possible, and we will continue to focus on slot development as much as we focus on material development.We think they are about blade performance, part quality and tool life. The entire tool aspect is equally important."

Tennutti said: “The contours of the blades can be made in any shape that is used on existing integral hobs or milling centers. These blades can be used to machine undercut tooth profiles, full crown fillets, semi-topped or Curve-shaped contours, etc. Obviously, there is no limit compared to the current high-speed steel cutting tools. Therefore, the greatest advantage of using carbide inserts is the ability to use higher cutting speeds, thereby significantly reducing the cutting cycle time."

Sandvik's Accavallo said: "Sandvik's modern blade manufacturing technology and tool manufacturing process are all capable of manufacturing and measuring gear tools with small tolerances. This way, while maintaining the quality of gears, it can also be used at a higher level. Cutting speeds and feed rates. Smaller tolerances allow less grinding allowance, which increases production efficiency while reducing overall production costs."

Banyan’s Witte said: “In the calculation of process improvement, custom machine tools and tool systems are always the dominant factor. When the balance of manufacturing is constantly changing, many tool manufacturers are stepping into the stable gear market. Several specially selected geared background manufacturers have mastered the gear toothing expertise to design the best gearing solutions.These solutions are mainly centered on custom parts and some customers started using it ten years ago. Customized solutions, some customers are using newer methods and improved solutions, are designed to greatly reduce costs, improve efficiency and processing accuracy."

The Ascendant New Technology

At the IMTS show, it is likely that some of the highlights of future indexable carbide tools will be exhibited. The tool system/workpiece clamping system will once again debut at the Chicago show and become the flagship product, and all exhibitors plan to exhibit their latest products/equipment.

"The future trend of indexable tools may evolve from the use of a single type of indexable insert to multiple types of inserts. These inserts can have a variety of insert types and have the ability to index. This is for smaller modules. Rack-like milling and the use of smaller-pitch modulus hobs have an advantage," said Gnutsen's Tennutti.

“Because most cases are hobbing multi-tooth large modulus gears, multi-threaded hobs are very advantageous. Today, multi-threaded indexable hobs have a place in the industry. We look forward to seeing customers have more of these hobs. With more interest, we will present double-headed hobs on IMTS for everyone to review,” he added.

Sandvik said that InvoMillling and uP-Gear technologies have raised gear production to a whole new level. Using these methods, manufacturers save time and money. With uP-Gear technology, the cost of machine tools is no longer higher than the cost of traditional five-axis machine tools, and the tool cost is lower than the use of special spiral bevel gear machining tools. Most importantly, the machining time is greatly reduced compared to the endmill milling process. Similarly, using standard or class-standard tool systems, InvoMilling technology achieves high processing flexibility while ensuring high productivity and low cost. These methods can replace existing solutions, the most concern is that this will have a profound impact on future indexable cutting tools. Accavallo said.

Accavallo added: "At IMTS, Sandvik will exhibit a new product, CoroMill 172, which can process gears and splines on multi-tasking machines, machining centers and turning centers. At Sandvik Coromant "Smart Hub" is the smart corner where you can see the entire product line of hobbing machines, such as hobs, roughing disc cutters, semi-finishing disc cutters and finishing disc cutters."

Witte said: "We are in the process of developing a rotary hob line. We plan to publish a preliminary plan on IMTS. Banyan's indexable hob is different and developed by gear engineers who produce gear applications. We have also seen the grouping. The huge push of tools (dual and triple tools) and will showcase our latest technology for medium-pitch parts."

“We will be exhibiting our extended product range of hobs, gear milling machines and forming machines, and will also introduce some surprising new products and solutions,” said Berardi of Ingersoll.

Manta said that Seco Tools will also exhibit its first double-headed hob at IMTS. IMTS will also provide exhibitors with an opportunity to highlight their new and proven cutting tool solutions. "The indexable cemented carbide solutions continue to occupy a place in this market. In the future, we will strive to develop more products for the highly specialized cutting tool industry and help our customers increase their competitive strength."