HYPERLOX^®

Smooth flow of chips

Grey cast iron (GG), cast iron with vermicular graphite (GGV) or cast iron with spheroidal graphite (GJV) are, beside aluminium, important materials used in the manufacture of high-performance combustion engines. However, the advantages offered by these materials suffer on the other hand through the extreme requirements in connection with processing these extremely abrasive materials.

In times where engine performance is increasing ever more but where engines at the same time shall be lighter in weight and petrol saving, optimised materials are much in demand: for example, in the automotive industry high-strength cast iron materials like GGV and GJV have established themselves, capable of easily managing the stringent requirements in connection with brake discs or direct injection diesel engines or turbocharged petrol engines. At the same time the requirements regarding the tools used are increasing very significantly, since high-tech cast iron is extremely abrasive so that, for example, conventional car-bide drills coated with TiAlN wear out all too quickly.

Reliable process drilling with supernitrides

Modern coating solutions offer tremendous production benefits in such cases. Manfred Weigand, Product Manager Round Tools at CemeCon: “Machining of cast iron is a demanding application to which we have adapted our heavy duty supernitride HYPERLOX^® specifically for drilling operations. Dependingon customer requirements, the thickness or finish of the coating is precisely matched to the types of drill and drill geometry used. With HYPERLOX® we are able to coat carbide drills ranging from 1 to 32 mm in diameter and of course also those items with a cooling channel”.

The high degree of wear protection for the drills is guaranteed by HYPERLOX^® among other things by its composite structure which exhibits an extremely high share of aluminium thereby ensuring hardness. On the other hand the coating material HYPERLOX^® is particularly tough. At the same time the coating exhibits extremely low friction levels – removing the chip from pocket holes or through-holes is effected without any problems.

Manfred Weigand: „Regardless of whether the grey cast iron materials GG25, GG27 or GGV need to be machined – through the CemeCon Supernitrides ALOX^® SN² or HYPERLOX^® the users attain an exceptional level of dimensional accuracy while at the same time maintaining an excellent surface quality. Thus our coatings are providing a new impetus regarding economy and processing quality”.

Source: FACTS 29 page 19

Extremely biting

The row of teeth flash for a second before they bite their prey… Some-thing directly from a horror film, nevertheless, it happens daily in the production halls around the world: Namely, when hobs, for example, produce starter ring gears for the deployment in automobile industry or gear-wheels in high-performance gearboxes. With CemeCon coatings, these hobs can retain their bite for a longer period.

Up to two billion gear wheels worldwide are manufactured and installed in gearboxes each year. Such numbers can be achieved only with the help of manufacturing organization with such capability and exceptional tools, or hobs, as they are called. This is because a torque of more than 700 Nm in the luxury class cars requires complicated geometries, which must be produced with highest precision: Switch-precision and quietness are the pre-requisite, the users will not pardon the smallest of error there. Reduced production times are a pre-requisite as well while chipping these high-tech gearboxes. In order to achieve this, feed rate and cutting rate are increased in the production, which puts a lot of pressure on the tool and coating. High-performance coating materials like HYPERLOX^® by CemeCon provide the head start exactly where standard-coated tools have been “losing teeth” since long.

Enormous demand for coating service

HYPERLOX^® and HYPERLOX^® BLUE are characterized by increased hardness and durability with an excellent adhesive strength. CemeCon has been optimizing the chipping of gear-wheels for many years using the coating system adapted to the hobs, which also includes a pre-treatment customized to cogging process. In the course of the year 2004, supply of hobs for the coating service saw development in such high magnitude that made it necessary to enhance the capacities and further optimize the existing processes. If ten manual operations were required for each hob till now, the number could successfully be reduced to three by using a new space concept, together by selecting an adequate crane and construction of different hoisting device. Manfred Weigand, product management round tools with CemeCon: “In the background of the challenge to coat approximately 500 tools each week and limit the cycle times, we had numerous tasks at hand. Thus, we had to create higher blasting, cleaning and capacities for coating removal in order to optimize the pre-treatment and coating of hobs.”

Result is a fully integrated production line, which handles all the working operations related to hobs for coating removal directly. Blasting plants and an additional cleaning plant are arranged in star-like form around a new crane. The coating area is directly connected, where two new CC800/9^®XL further heat up the coating service for hobs.

Source: FACTS 28 page 3