The chain is not stronger than the weakest link 02:18

Regardless of operation, PCBN-grade, workpiece material or stability of the setup, the most important thing to start with before developing an operation is to make sure that the conditions are the best possible. Conditions of tool holders are one of the things that are too often ignored at customers when there are tool life issues.

The tool holder below is one example what was found at a customer where they had problems with breakage of solid triangular inserts when clamping them. Just a quick look into the machine showed this holder which has severe damages probably due to a collision of some kind. The tool life problem was solved just by changing the tool holder to a new one. The whole matter was finished with an education of the machine operators regarding hard turning, PCBN inserts, how to use them and so on.

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Stefan G Larsson Fritz Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340572 Mobile +46761367807 email:stefan.g.larsson@secotools.com

Turning of Aluminium Alloy component 23:24

The main alloying element in Aluminium alloys is Silicon, and the more Silicon is added, the more abrasive the material becomes. This means that the cutting speed has to be adjusted based on the Silicon content.

General recommendations for PCD are:

• Low Silicon (< 8%) Cutting speed 600 – 2,500 m/min
• Medium Silicon (8 to 15%) Cutting speed 450 – 1,300 m/min
• High Silicon (> 15%) Cutting speed 100 – 1,000 m/min

Seco Tools have a range of PCD-grades covering these alloys, from general grades for the low Silicon alloys to grades better suited to handle the abrasiveness of high Silicon alloys.

PCD05 is a grade that has superior performance in machining of these high Silicon Aluminium alloys. It is a small grain size grade with excellent edge toughness and wear resistance.

In a recent project, a high Silicon Aluminium alloy component was machined. The application included axial turning and facing with a RPGW0803M0F-LF insert at the following cutting data:

• Cutting speed 150 m/min
• Feed rate 0.3 mm/rev
• Depth of cut 0.5 mm

The result shows the superior performance of PCD05. Tool life was doubled, and the surface of the component was also more shiny, which was important for the customer.

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Henrik Sandqvist Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS Shanghai CO., Ltd. Building 4, No 797, Puxing Road, Pujiang Town, Minhang District, Shanghai 201114, China Office: +86 21 5426 5849 Mobile: +86 185 1520 6942 e-mail: henrik.sandqvist@secotools.com

H-groups in Seco Material Groups (SMG) 03:24

Since many years, Seco Tools have divided many of the common workpiece materials in to specific groups based on the material type. These major groups were then divided into subgroups which used to be based on the difficulty to machine. But a couple of years ago it went through a huge makeover and all the subgroups were separated based on their type of material. This was done to improve the logic in the split between the material groups. During this work, a number of new major groups were also added.

The major groups are now:

• Steels, ferritic and martensitic stainless steels – P
• 10 subgroups
• Hard materials – H 
• 8 subgroups 
• Austenitic and duplex stainless steels – M 
• 5 subgroups
• Cast irons – K 
• 7 subgroups
• Non-ferrous metals – N
• 4 subgroups
• Superalloys and titanium – S
• 6 subgroups 
• Other difficult materials – Various
• 6 subgroups
• Polymers and composites – Tx
• 8 subgroups
• Graphite – GR 
• 1 subgroup 

This means that the materials in their un-hardened state can be found in the sub-P-groups, but after hardening they will be found in the corresponding sub-H-group. The cutting data recommendations will also change due to this and will be fully reflected in MyPages in both Suggest and Product Search.

For hard turning applications, the major groups are the H-groups where every group has a reference material with reference hardness, as you can see in the table below. The H-groups H3-H12 corresponds to at least one of the P-groups. H3 corresponds to P2 and P3, H5 corresponds to P4 and P5 and so on. H11 corresponds only to P11 and H12 corresponds only to P12.

This means that most of the common steels that are hardenable or considered to be hard and abrasive are found in both P- and H-groups. However, the manganese steels and hard irons are only found in the H-groups H21 and H31 since they do not have a purely soft state.

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Stefan G Larsson Fritz Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340572 Mobile +46761367807 email:stefan.g.larsson@secotools.com

Machining a CV joint – full of intermittent challenges! 02:22

One of the most vital parts in the drive line on a front wheel driven car, and some rear driven cars with individual suspension, is the CV joint. The design of the component makes it possible to keep a constant velocity of the drive wheel regardless of steering angle of the wheel, hence the name – CV joint. There are two main types – the inner CV joint which is the one closest to the gearbox and the outer CV joint closest to the wheel hub.

Focus in this post is on the outer CV joint which contain three main parts that are all hard turned and contain very heavy interruptions. Machining of the housing has been shown in an older post https://cbnexpert.blogspot.se/2016/02/secomax-ch3515.html.

One of the latest successes we have on these components is on the ball cage where we tripled the tool life. We lost 8s of cycle time but that was not a problem at this customer. The increase in tool life was valued much higher by the customer.

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Stefan G Larsson Fritz Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340572 Mobile +46761367807 email:stefan.g.larsson@secotools.com

Secomax™ The HPT grade chain 23:00

It can be difficult to define application area just by looking at a drawing

It isn´t just the level of interruptions that’s defining an application area. It´s many other process factors that will affect the choice of PCBN grade. A drawing on the finished part explains just the properties of the component. Factors like Machine tool, clamping, workpiece stability, variations from the green turning, workpiece stability, etc. are factors that actually can “move” an application from what on the drawing looks like a H05 application to a H15 and in some extreme cases from H05 to H25.

 Example: Large variation from the green turning on a Pinion “moved” the application from what on the drawing looked as a H05 to in the reality a H25 application. (From CH0550 to CH2540)

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Per Ola Jönander Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340818 Mobile +46703163555 email:perola.jonander@secotools.com

Positioning of grades 00:26

The premium hard part turning grade chain that have been introduced by Seco Tools cover most applications in the H05-H35 area, but for low cutting speed applications it is also complemented by the existing and well proven grades CBN010 and CBN150.

When to implement which grade is not easy to show by a simple translation table. The application and the complete setup have to be studied based on component, clamping, tooling, machine conditions and so on, to be able to decide the optimal choice of grade.

If the setup is weak, the risk of micro vibrations is bigger and therefore a tougher grade is needed. If a component has been transferred from grinding to hard turning, the component tends to be less gentle to the cutting edge at interrupted cuts. For example, holes and similar may not be designed with chamfers, which would be much more forgiving for the cutting edge and an even tougher grade is needed due to the increased stress levels at the cutting edge.

For more information, please contact your local Seco representative, or our Advanced material (PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC) team.

Author: Stefan G Larsson Fritz Product Specialist SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340572 Mobile +46761367807 email:stefan.g.larsson@secotools.com

CH2540 will replace CBN160C 22:50

28 standard items of CBN160C will be outgoing during 2016.

These items will be replaced by CH2540.

Outgoing date;

•  1 pcs 2016-06-30 (low sales – will not be replaced)
• 13 pcs 2016-10-31
• 14 pcs 2016-12-31

Internally communicated in SECO-Change of no 11-0012.

If You have issues replacing existing CBN160C business with the successor CH2540 or some other standard grade, pls contact Your local SECO representative, or our Advanced Mtrl team.

Author: Eva Söderberg Administration SECOMAX PCBN/PCD/CERAMIC SECO TOOLS AB 737 82 Fagersta, Sweden Office +4622340491                         Mobile +46702784500                         email:eva.soderberg@secotools.com