Cutting tools are central to machining processes for making industrial machinery, watch components, and car and aircraft parts. Given this diverse applicability, they are in high demand and the subject of significant innovation. Comprising saws, reamers, drills, chasers, cutters, end mills, boring tools, honing tools, combination tools, and gear-cutting tools, the scope and quality of industrial cutting tools is a constant test for innovators. Accordingly, they have focused on improving tool durability, speed, and precision, with tool geometry and application-specific design also in focus.
Newer materials like cermet and polycrystalline diamonds (PCD) are stronger and more durable than the previously preferred High-Speed Steel (HSS) and Cemented Carbide. Creating the coatings that amplify tool strength leverages processes like Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). Adopting Industry 4.0 methods such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in greater efficiency, cost reductions, and increased tool longevity. Additive manufacturing can usher in novelly designed tools. Equally, digitalization has enabled encompassing sustainability in tool design and manufacturing.
The development of carbide cutting tools, now spanning a century, offers vital clues to the expectations from newer technologies. The invention of cemented carbide was a significant milestone in the search for tool-grade materials with the ideal levels of hardness and toughness. Characteristics of tool-grade materials include versatile applicability – they can cut through most metals and metallic alloys and better withstand heat and wear. Some of the breakthrough high-performance materials used for making industrial cutting tools as an improvement on cemented carbide include:
The evolution of these materials is also a response to the application and the work material. For instance, PCD cutting tools are suitable for working on non-ferrous materials like high-silicon aluminum. The advent of carbon composites with laminated structures like Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) has also encouraged further research into tool materials. Developers have also investigated changing the tool geometry – for example, the shape and angle of the cutting edge – for milling or drilling into advanced materials precisely. Additive manufacturing, which involves fashioning 3D-printed cutting tool parts from metal powders, teases the possibility of imaginatively shaping cutting tools with greater complexity.
The wear and tear of cutting tools necessitates frequent repair or replacement. Tools with replaceable cutting tips, called indexable tools, help lower costs and simplify maintenance. The machining scale also matters; micro-drilling tools address reliability issues when machining small parts. On another front, metalworking fluids are invariably required to lower friction and preserve the tool but pose risks to workers’ health and safety. Altering tool composition or design has minimized the use of these fluids.
The heavy use and regular changing of cutting tools raise questions regarding their sustainable use. Using optimized materials that break down less easily reduces the tool replacement frequency. In this regard, AI-enabled sustainable manufacturing approaches like automating the selection of tooling materials, facilitating predictive maintenance, and leveraging sensors to detect tool damage can positively impact the entire cutting tool lifecycle from production to deployment and disposal or reuse. Improving the tools’ energy efficiency is also a step forward from a sustainability perspective.
Despite the ever-growing demand and the continuous development of more productive and longer-lasting cutting tools, the market remains price-differentiated. Crucially, expenditure on cutting tools amounts to only 2-3% of the total production cost. Cutting tools manufacturers have a significant opportunity to evangelize high-tech cutting tools that more rapidly produce better-finished, higher-quality machine parts and yet do not massively increase tooling costs. The shift to custom-designed complex cutting tools can also push manufacturers to take a productivity-first stance when equipping their assembly lines.
Sharpedge Technologies offers state-of-the-art productivity solutions, including cutting tools, in collaboration with world-leading manufacturers that span many industries and applications. To learn more, call us at +91-9822194710 or email connect@sharpedgetech.co.in. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn.
