The Ceratizit Group has won the FEDIL business federation’s “Process” 2020 Innovation Award for developing a new process for additively manufacturing with tungsten carbide-cobalt. This advancement adds a host of new possibilities for cemented carbide components.

Ceratizit’s new process will allow cemented carbide component manufacturers to leverage the same benefits of additive manufacturing as shops working with plastic, steel and other materials.

“Additive bar peeling inserts manufacturing of carbide products provides us with more flexibility in terms of implementing customer requirements and opens new design possibilities, which we can use to offer our customers highly optimized, individual solutions in minimum time,” says Ralph Useldinger, Ceratizit’s head of R&D. This also includes active support in optimizing product design.

Ceratizit points to the time and cost savings during the critical ramp-up of products in small batches and during manufacturing of high-complexity prototypes as the chief benefits of cemented carbide additive manufacturing. Producing the geometry directly from the design software allows for swift planning and implementation of projects, without needing production-intensive shapes and dies or the expensive, diamond-tipped tools necessary to machine carbide parts.

The company also draws Carbide Milling Inserts attention to the wider range of shapes possible through additive manufacturing due to the direct production of free-form contours and geometries impossible or unfeasible with traditional manufacturing processes. These include structures with undercuts or areas inaccessible to cutting tools such as cavities and channels inside the finished body. Additive manufacturing of cemented carbide thus enables a higher degree of component complexity as well as a deeper level of integration while at the same time reducing the number of assemblies and individual components.

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Walter’s FW4 and MW4 positive wiper geometries are designed for longitudinal turning and facing. They combine a “wiper effect” Carbide Milling Inserts and the wear-resistant Walter Tigertec Gold grades.

The curved wiper cutting edge makes the wiper action universal across various material groups such as steels, stainless steels, cast irons or even super alloys. The wiper action can reportedly be used to reduce machining time by using double the feed rate, while imparting the same surface finish. According to Walter, feedrate increases of up to 300% were successfully utilized, in some cases.

The FW4 universal wiper geometry with a narrow chip breaker, which generates short chips, is for finishing operations. The machining parameters for the FW4 geometry are a feed of 0.0012"-0.020" and a cutting depth of 0.004"-0.100". The primary application is turning steel, stainless steel and cast iron (ISO P, M and K workpiece groups), and the secondary application bar peeling inserts is turning super alloys (ISO S workpiece group).

The MW4 universal wiper geometry features an open chip breaker groove and longer radius wiper cutting edge for high feeds is for medium machining. The machining parameters for the MW4 geometry are a feed of 0.005"-0.022" and a cutting depth of 0.020"-0.180". The primary application is turning steel and cast iron (ISO P and K workpiece groups), and the secondary application is turning stainless steel and super alloys (ISO M and S workpiece groups).

Because of the wiper edge’s curved design, improved surface quality, productivity and process reliability are achieved even when the machine tool is not aligned 100% precisely, such as if the turret is slightly offset. The new chip breakers also increase the chip breaking range, resulting in less machine downtime caused by the creation of bird nests.

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Walter USA introduces its Tiger·tec Gold physical vapor deposition (PVD) grade WSP45G, a new generation of indexable carbide inserts for milling that dramatically expands capabilities for slotting, shoulder and copy milling. The new grade can efficiently process demanding machining applications such as interrupted cuts and difficult materials.

This new grade is now reportedly capable of longer tool life, greater reliability and approximately 30% greater performance in stainless steels (ISO M) and heat-resistant super alloys (ISO S), and up to 75% greater performance in steels (ISO P) than comparable grades. With the launch phase Carbide Drilling Inserts now complete, the PVD-grade WSP45G Tiger·tec Gold can be used universally in all standard Walter milling cutters.

According to Walter, the key to the grade’s performance is its next generation coating technology and its special layer structure. The gold-colored ZrN top layer is said to facilitate exceptional low-friction characteristics as well as excellent wear detection, thus making it possible to utilize the full potential of the indexable insert to extend tool life. Next, multiple layers of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) increase the inserts temperature resistance.

All are applied on top of a TiAlN base layer and a premium carbide substrate as a foundation, greatly slot milling cutters increasing the overall wear resistance. These properties make the new inserts ideal for challenging conditions, such as interrupted cuts, long overhangs with a tendency to vibrate or wet machining.

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