METHOD FOR WELDING CUTTER SEGMENTS

Abstract: Method for welding cutter-segments characterized by fo­ cusing an electron- or laser-beam on the boundary between a carbon-steel core body (7) and segments (1), the material of which is a Co (cobalt) powder compact, containing diamond- or CBN-grits, which has been sintered to nearly 100% apparent density. The boundary may or may not have Ni (nickel)-filler. In cases of bond materials other than Co, the segment (1) has a structure of double layers (4, 5), one layer of which is com­ posed of a powder compact, containing diamond- or CBN-­ grits, which has been sintered to nearly 100% apparent den­ sity, and the other layer (5) of which is composed of a sintered Co powder compact without any grits. The carbon-steel core body (7) welded by the above-mentioned method is thereafter tempered at 350°-450°C in case it is necessary. A steel core having no slot at its periphery may be used as the core body.

Description: The present invention relates to a method for producing a cutter, and more particularly to a method for welding cutter segments composed of sintered compacts, which comprise diamond- or CBN (cubic boron nitride)-grits, to a core body. EP-A-0 079 243 discloses a composite compact component with a high bond strength between the composite compact and a substrate, comprising a composite compact consisting of a diamond or BN compact containing at least 50% by volume of diamond or BN powder and a base of hard sintered alloy bonded during sintering directly or through an inter-layer to the diamond or BN compact, and a substrate bonded to the base of the composite compact, in which the substrate is a hard sintered alloy or steel which may be the same as that of the base. The base and substrate are bonded through a high strength metal or alloy, as a filler metal, having a melting point of a least the liquidus point of the hard sintered alloy. The component is made by sandwiching the filler metal between the base of the compact and the substrate and then heating and melting the filler metal by an electron or laser beam. This prior art gives no consideration to the selection of materials of the base layer for the purpose of achieving a good welding to the substrate. Fig. 1 shows a conventional method of fixing cutter-segments that contain diamonds onto a core body. A circular blade as shown is mounted on a motor-driven shaft (not shown) by, for example, use of a center hole 2a and is used as a handy cutter, for such operations as (1) cutting bricks, slates and tiles, (2) trimming stone blocks, (3) cutting iron sheets, concrete pipes and concrete blocks, (4) grooving concrete roads, (5) forming curved surfaces on stone blocks, (6) chamfering stone blocks and (7) beveling stone blocks. In Fig. 1, the numeral 2 denotes a steel core, and the numeral 1 is a cutter segment made of a mixture of bond powder, such as Co (cobalt), and diamond- or CBN-grits, which has been compacted and sintered (in most cases, by hot pressing) to nearly 100% apparent density. Such segments are fixed onto the core 2 by brazing to make a cutter blade. The multi-segment circular cutter made by the above conventional process has defects and problems as described below: (a) When this kind of brazed blade is used under such severe conditions as cutting without a lubricant like water (dry condition) along with uneven loading on segments, a concentration of heat at a specific segment can be observed. The heat concentration results in the softening of the solder and consequently tends to result in accidents from detachment of the segment. (b) In the case of the brazing process, a high-frequency electric device or gas burner used as a means of heating will heat not only the brazing boundary but also a large area of the adjacent core 2, causing a metallographic structural change there which induces distortion of the core. This problem, which, in general, is common to the brazing of multi-segment tools made of a circular iron core, becomes particularly serious in the case of small diameter cores such as those for handy or wagon-type portable diamond cutters, because the ratio of heat-affected zone to the total area of the core is fairly large and the ratio of thickness to the diameter of the core is fairly small. In order to prevent this distortion, slots 3 as shown in Fig. 1 are provided to release the local strain and to prevent heat conduction from one segment to the next during the brazing process. It is a commonly-held view of the diamond blade industry that the core for the above-mentioned portable diamond cutter should by all means be provided with slots. These slots, however, result in the disadvantage of weakness of the core design against static or dynamic loads on the core. (c) Heating during the brazing process induces the phenomenon of annealing of the material in a large area of the core 2, which causes degeneration of the resistance of the core against bending stress. With regard to Fig. 2, generally speaking, in all cases of the welding process or the brazing process, the necessary condition for achieving high joining strength is to avoid weakening the structure at any heat-affected zone Y of the segment, metallic joining layer like solder x or heat-affected zone Z of the core. Above-mentioned explanation (a) relates to layer x, and explanation (c) relates to layer Z. Problems (a) and (c) are inherent to the brazing process and problem (b) is inevitable in the case of a high-frequency heating process. It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to overcome the practical disadvantages in the conventional methods of fixing segments onto the core as described above. This invention relates to a method of welding by focusing an electron- or laser-beam, which is a high energy source which can be concentrated on a small, limited area to cause instantaneous and simultaneous melting and solidification, on the boundary of the core and segments. According to this invention, the welding process allows all core metals and segment bond materials to be molten and makes a perfect molten layer alloy (strengthening of X-layer). It does not employ any metal of low melting point and thus does not cause any softening at elevated temperatures, which is always the case when brazing with solder. The joining strength is, therefore, high enough and there is no danger of parting of the segment even in dry cutting use. According to one embodiment of the invention, Co bond powder sintered to nearly 100% apparent density having a dispersoid of diamond- or CBN-grits is used as the material of the segments. The Co powder compact does not show significant change in its metallographic structure even when it is heated up to the melting point of Co (a problem of the Y-layer) and thus no fragile layer is formed in the portion adjacent to the welded layer. With an iron core of low carbon steel used, Co and Fe are easily alloyed and there is no fear of forming a fragile structure judging from the phase diagram of the alloy (a problem of the X-layer). With the core material of low carbon-steel, there is in general no danger of forming a fragile quenched structure in the portion adjacent to the welded layer (a problem of the Z-layer). At the portion adjacent to the welded layer (Z-layer), a quenched structure is formed by rapid cooling. This quenched structure turns to a ductile structure when it is tempered at 350° - 450°C and the stress induced from quenching is released by tempering. Thus a cutter having a strong resistance against bending can be attained. According to the second alternative a double layer segment, one layer of which is composed of a powder compact, containing diamond- or CBN-grits, and the other layer of which is composed of sintered Co powder compact without any grits, is applied to this invention. In this case only the Co powder compact layer is related to welding, and thus the layer containing diamond-or CBN-grits is isolated from the welding process. Therefore, there are many possibilities for the choice of the bond material containing diamond- or CBN-grits. Further, an electron- or laser-beam can perform a weld in which heat is concentrated on a limited area in a short time. Accordingly, distortion of the core, which is inherent to the process of heating a vast ares, as is the case with the conventional brazing process, is not observed at all. Thus a core of strong shape without any slot can be used, allowing to attain a cutter which may be hardly deformed at all by external force. Fig. 1 shows a conventional brazing method for fixing segments; Fig. 2 explains the necessary conditions for the welding of the segment to a core; Fig. 3 shows how brazing strength is affected by the temperature of a cutter for the case of a brazed cutter; Fig. 4 shows a part of a cutter embodying this invention; and Fig. 5 shows another embodiment of this invention. The method of welding of this invention as well as the conventional brazing method is explained below. In the experiments for this invention, an electron-beam was mainly used as the means of welding. It had been confirmed, however, in a preliminary experiment, that welding of a small test piece of Fe to sintered Co powder compact using a YAG laser-beam was very similar to the welding with an electron-beam. The specifications of electron-beam welding of this invention are: 150kV (Voltage), 2.5 mA (Beam current), 1 mm (Width of beam scanning) and 10⁻⁴ mmHg (Vacuum). The electron-beam was focused on a 1 mm-wide band encompassing the boundary line between the core and segments, with or without filler and solder, in such a way that the path of the electron-beam melts and solidifies all metallic materials existing in the band instantaneously. The dimensions and shape of the core are: 92 mm outer diameter, 20 mm inner diameter, and 1.5 mm thickness. Eight slots of 3 mm width are grooved on the core. The core material is SPCC (mild steel). The dimensions and shape of the segments are: 32 mm length, 2 mm thickness and 46 mm radius arc. The segment material is (1) sintered pure Co powder containing diamond grits or (2) double layer composite of sintered (Co + Cu) powder containing diamond grits and sintered Co powder without diamonds. 0.2 mm-thick Ni sheet was used as filler. Sil 103 and Sil 1023 made by NAISU Co. were used as solder. To evaluate the strength of welding, the core was fixed and segments were broken by bending with a torque wrench and the torque required to break the segments was measured. Datum 1 (Conventional method) As is shown in Fig. 3, segments brazed with Sil 103 solder by conventional process show strength of 40 - 110 kg.cm at room temperature, but the strength goes down with the temperature rise up to 250° - 350°C because of softening of the solder. At 350°C the strength goes down to less than 60 kg.cm for all segments. The melting point of Sil 103 is 620°C, and the chemical composition is: Ag 45.3%, Cu 15.6%, Cd 23.8% and Zn bal. Datum 2 Segments made of pure Co bond and a core made of SPCC were welded by an electron-beam. None of the welded areas were broken at 60 kg.cm torque, but the adjacent portions of the core were bent by the 60 kg.cm torque. This shows the welding strength is larger than the strength of the core material. Datum 3 (comparative) Segments made of pure Co bond and a core made of SPCC, with Ni-filler between segments and the core, were welded by an electron-beam. All the portions adjacent to the welded areas bent at 60 kg.cm torque, showing perfect welding strength. Datum 4 In the case of the combination of a double layer segment, having 15% Cu - 85% Co and 100% Co layers, 100% Ni sheet filler and SPCC core, an electron-beam was focused (1) on the boundary between Ni and Co and (2) on the boundary between Ni and SPCC. The thickness of the Ni-filler was 0.2 mm, as was described above. Even in the case of (1), a portion of SPCC became molten. Strength tests were made on the above-mentioned two kinds of samples. The samples made by (1) all broke at 60 kg.cm, whereas the samples made by (2) did not break but, rather, bent at 60 kg.cm torque. In the case of (1), welding heat affects 15% Cu - 85% Co sintered powder compact more severely than in the case of (2), and thus, it seems likely, forms a metamorphic layer which shows fragile strength in the segment. Therefore, we can understand that it is preferable to focus an electron-beam as far from the Cu-Co layer as possible to prevent the degeneration or the weakening of the material of the segment. Furthermore the 33% Cu - 67% Co sintered powder compact is considered to be more likely to generate a metamorphosis of the material due to welding heat, because of the higher Cu content compared with the 15% Cu - 85% Co sintered powder compact, which relates to the problem of the Y-layer in Fig. 2. In the case of combination of a double layer segment having 33% Cu - 67% Co and 100% Co layers, 100% Ni sheet filler and SPCC core, samples of double layer segments having 0.5, 1 and 2 mm thick Co layers were prepared. The thickness of the Ni-filler was 0.2 mm. An electron-beam was focused on the center line of the Ni-filler and welding was performed. The welding strength is shown in the following table. From this, we can say that a Co base layer of at least 1 mm thickness prevents 33% Co - 67% Co sintered powder compact from becoming degenerated due to welding heat. Thus it can be understood that the double layer structure of segments having a Co base layer is effective. Datum 5 Eight arc-shaped segments, which were made of sintered (Co-Cu) powder with diamond grits, and whose dimensions were 2.0 mm thickness and 32 mm length, were brazed with ordinary solder on an SPCC (mild steel) circular disc whose dimensions were 92 mm outer diameter, 20 mm inner diameter and 1.5 mm thickness, by the use of a high frequency electric device. Distortion took place on the SPCC disc. The run-out of the distorted disc was measured at 70 mm diameter. The run-out fluctuated from +0.05 to -0.10 mm. This means the total distortion produced was 0.15 mm. Such a disc of 0.15 mm distortion cannot be employed in actual use at all. By contrast, distortion for a core of the same material and of the same dimensions to which the same segments were welded by an electron-beam remained within +0.01 mm. In addition, it was confirmed that cutters composed of similar segments comprising CBN-grits instead of diamond-grits yield the same effects in the same manner. The above-mentioned method for welding cutter segments with an electron-beams can be summarized as below: (a) As was described above, a mixture of a super-abrasive such as diamond- or CBN-grits, and bond powder such as Co is compacted and sintered (in most cases, hot-pressed) to a nearly 100% density to produce segments of bond matrix containing diamond-or CBN-grits as the dispersoid. Difficult-to-quench steel, i.e. low-carbon steel is used as the core. The circular cutter made with this combination of materials can be safely applied for use where a large bending stress is not inflicted on the core. (b) In the case where a bond material other than pure Co is necessary, for example, to the performance of a handy cutter, double layer segment (with, in the case shown in Fig. 4, a (Cu + Co) bond powder layer 4 and Co powder layer 5 without diamond grits), a 100% Ni-filler 6 and a core 7 made of SPCC are used. (c) A core without slot is used. Fig. 5 shows a circular disc core 8 without a slot. This invention is most suited to the segmented cutter blades mounted on handy or wagon-type portable machines which are used in cutting or working stones, concrete and slate. The above mentioned term SPCC is a symbol used in Japanese Industrial Standards enacted in 1969.

Claims: A method for fixing to a steel core body (8) a segment (1) containing grits selected from the group consisting of diamond, cubic boron nitride and mixtures thereof, and welding said segment to said core body (8) by focusing an electron- or laser-beam on the boundary between said core body and said segment, characterized in that the core body (8) is a low carbon steel core body and that the material of said segment (1) is a cobalt powder compact, containing said grits, which has been formed from 100 % cobalt and has been sintered to nearly 100 % apparent density. A method for fixing to a steel core body (7) a segment (1) containing grits selected from the group consisting of diamond, cubic boron nitride and mixtures thereof, and welding said segment to said core body (7) using a nickel filler (6) by focusing an electron- or laser-beam on the boundary between said core body (7) and said segment (1) characterized in that the core body (7) is a low carbon steel core body and that a double layer segment (4, 5) is used one layer (4) of which is composed of a (Cu+Co)bond powder compact with 15 to 33 % Cu und 85 to 67 % Co, containing said grits, which has been sintered to nearly 100 % apparent density, and the other layer (5) of which is composed of sintered cobalt powder compact without any grits which has been formed from 100 % cobalt and functions as the joining portion for said welding of said layer (4) to said core body (7). The method according to claim 2, which further comprises tempering said core body (7, 8) after said welding step. The method according to claim 3, wherein said tempering step is carried out at temperatures of 350° - 450°C. A cutter made by the method according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the circular steel core body (8) is without any slots at its periphery.

Inventors: KAWAKITA, TAKAO, MIYAO, ICHIRO
Applicants: OSAKA DIAMOND INDUSTRIAL CO.
Application year: 1985
Main classification: B28D1
IPC codes: B28D1, B23D65, B23K31