DIAMOND-COATED BODY WITH INTEGRAL CHIP FORMER

Abstract: The present invention discloses a compound body consisting of a substrate with a surface coating suitable for wear parts and tools applications, comprising a body of wear-resistant material. The body includes top and bottom surfaces and at least one peripheral wall extending therebetween, the intersection of said peripheral wall and at least said top surface forming cutting edge means. The surface coating on said body is a diamond coating of a thickness of 1-30 mu m deposited directly from the gas phase in a reactor by CVD or PVD technique in a manner so as to ensure rigid bonding to said carbide substrate. The top face is provided with an integral chipformer so as to provide chips formed during machining into a desired and controllable configuration.

Description: DIAMOND-COATED BODY WITH INTEGRAL CHIP FORMER. The present invention relates to a diamond coated cutting tool having an integral chip control surface, aimed for cutting Al-alloys containing e.g. Si and Cu as alloying elements and the like. Production of thin coatings of diamond directly from the gas phase by ' CVD or PVD technique is of great interest for coating of cutting tools, drill bits, knives, etc. A number of methods for diamond coating from gas phase has been described, including hot fila¬ ment, microwave plasma, arc discharge plasma, gas flame, hollow cathode and different forms of plasma jets. Usually pure hydrogen with the addition of 0.1 to 5.0 % CH4 is used as gas mixture, but also other hydrocarbon gases can be used as carbon source. In addition, the purity and quality of the diamond film can be controlled by adding other gases, for example, oxygen containing and noble gases. The substrates of interest for diamond coatings in cutting applications include cemented carbides and ceramics such as SiAlON and Si3N and the deposition of diamond on these types of substrates is well known in the art. Cemented carbide coated with diamond is suitably depleted in the surface zone with respect to Co. This can, for example, be obtained by partly carburizing an eta-phase containing body as disclosed in EP 464 012. The diamond layer can applied as a single layer with a thickness in the range 1 - 20 μm or as a multilayer in which one or more diamond layers are combined with layers of other refractory materials. For example, EP 166 708 discloses a multilayer coating with at least two layers of which at least one is of diamond. In case of more than two layers of diamond they separated by non-diamond layers . Between the innermost diamond layer and the substrate there is a non-diamond layer the purpose of which is to improve the adhesion between the diamond layer and the substrate. This intermediate layer is suitably a layer of metals that form stable carbides e g metals from the group 4b to 6b of the periodic system, preferably Ti . The non- diamond layer can be carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides, oxycarbides, oxides and borides preferably of metals in group 4b to 6b of the periodic system and mixtures thereof. Swedish patent application 9302405-7 discloses a body of cemented carbide, Si3N4 or another ceramic material, coated by at least one CVD or PVD diamond or cBN layer and a chromium nitride, -carbide or -carbo- nitride layer. The chromium containing layer is outside the diamond layer. Swiss patent applications 03 267/93-6 and 03 268/93- 8 disclose a diamond coated body with an enrichment of a metal or at least one of B, Si, Ge, S or P. The edges of a cutting tool can be strengthened through the use of chip breakers, i.e. geometrical patterns of various kinds that affect the chip removal. In Int Pat PCT/US91/05630 the application of such patterns for ceramic cutting tools (not coated) is described. According to the present invention there is now provided a diamond coated body for chipforming machining of metal workpieces, comprising opposed top and bottom surfaces and peripheral walls extending therebetween, at least one cutting edge being formed at the intersection between said peripheral wall and at least one of said top and bottom surfaces. At least said top surface is provided as a rake surface with an integral means for chip control thereon so as to provide chips formed during machining into a desired and controllable configuration. In a preferred embodiment a chip breaker groove is being provided along the cutting edges in said top rake face said groove being confined by a descending wall that slopes downwards from the cutting edge The descending wall extends downwards until it joins a bottom floor on said top rake face, the bottom floor being composed of a number of ribs and intermediate valleys. At least such ribs and valleys should extend perpendicular to the line of the bisector at each corner region. Each of these ribs should have a smoothly rounded contour. In an alternative round insert embodiment a plurality of bumps could be provided in a recessed portion of the top rake face. In this alternative embodiment the chip breaker groove in the rake face is in the shape of a descending wall that shapes downwardly in a direction away from said cutting edge until it reaches an upstanding wall of said bumps. As a further alternative embodiment said upper rake face could be provided with a chipformer in the form of a descending wall that intersects with a single large projection that is confined by an upstanding wall intersecting with a flat top surface located below the plane of the cutting edge. Due to the arrangement of such ribs, valleys or projections arranged inside of said descending wall such insert will enable chipforming over wide ranges of depth of cut and feed. The invention will now be described in somewhat more detail in connection with the appended drawings, showing two embodiments of the invention. Fig 1 shows a side view of an insert of the invention, Fig 2 shows a top view of the insert in Fig 1, Fig 3 shows a perspective view of the insert in Figs 1-2, Fig 4 shows a side view of another insert embodiment, Fig 5 shows a perspective view of the insert in Fig 4, Fig 6 shows another alternative embodiment in side view and Fig 7 shows a perspective view of the insert in Fig 6. The insert 10 according to Figs 1-2 comprises an insert body provided with cutting edges 11 formed by the intersection between the upper rake face or top surface 12 and the side surfaces or clearance face 13. The lower face 14 of the insert is mainly parallel to the top face 12. The insert 10 is rhombic in shape and intended for copy metalworking operations . The insert is provided with two diametrically opposed acute-angled corners . The cutting insert is provided with a centrally placed aperture 15 to receive a locking screw for mounting to a cutting insert site of a tool shank. The insert 10 is along each cutting edge 11 provided with an adjacent chip groove that is sloping from the cutting edge. The chip groove is defined by a sloping flank 16, which extend downwards towards the central area of the insert, which has a lower attitude than compared with the cutting edges 11. The cutting edges 11 slope from the cutting corner to the middle of the cutting edge with an angle α, the inclination of which can be 10-20°. The transition between the central portion 17 and the sloping flank 16 is a wave-shaped line and the surface portion 17 is composed of a number of raised ribs 18 and valleys 19 therebetween which extend perpendicularly towards the bisector of each cutting corner as shown in Figs 2-3. In Figs 4-5 there is shown an alternative embodiment, comprising a round insert 20. Similar to the embodiment of Figs 1-3 the chip groove adjacent to the cutting edge 21 is in the shape of a sloping flank 22. The insert has a positive geometry which means that the side surface 23 intersects the bottom face 24 at an obtuse angle while intersecting the top plane at an acute angle β, as shown in Fig 4. The sloping flank 22 intersects with a' plurality of curved projections 25 arranged adjacent each other annularly around the central aperture 26 so that the intersection line 27 between said sloping flank 22 and said projection 25 obtains a wave-shaped contour. The insert embodiment 28 in Fig 6-7 is especially tailored for parting and grooving operations and includes a body confined by two mainly plane-parallel side surfaces 29, 30, two edge surfaces 31, 32, two end surfaces 33, 34, a shoulder 35 and a portion 36 provided with a cutting edge and a chipforating device. The insert is secured to a holder body provided with an integral clamping arm. The clamping of the arm is described in our US Patent No. 4,801,224 which is hereby incorporated by reference. The cutting edge 37 is formed along the intersection line of the forward end surface 33 and a descending wall 38 which intersects at an acute angle. The upper surface of portion 36 provides a rake face 39. The upper surface of the rear portion of the insert is composed of pairs of longitudinally extending surfaces 40a and 40b, 41a and 41b and 42a and 42b. Each pair of surfaces intersect each other at obtuse angles so as to provide a V-shaped recess for the receipt of a correspondingly shaped clamp arm. Surfaces 40a and 40b slope forwardly, surfaces 41a and 41b extend parallel with bottom surface 31, and surfaces 42a and 42b slope rearwardly. The descending wall 38 extends inwardly until it intersects with an upwardly sloping wall 43 of a single elongated projection 44, the upper surface 45 of which is flat and does not extend above the plane of the cutting edge. The descending wall should intersect with forward end face 33 at an angle of 40-65°, thus giving the insert a relatively high positive rake angle. The angle between descending wall 38 and the sloping wall 43 of the central projection 44 should be in the range of 140- 165°, preferably 140-150°. The side surfaces 46 and 47 of the forward portion insert portion 36 should be tapered rearwardly in order to provide sufficient clearance when engaging the insert 28 in parting and grooving operations. The diamond coating can be applied by using any plasma CVD or PVD process such as hot filament or microwave assisted CVD, arc discharge plasma, gas flame or plasma jet methods. The thickness of the diamond layer is in the range 1 - 30 μm, preferably 4 - 20 μ . The diamond coating extends across at least the working surfaces of the insert including the cutting edge, rake face and chip breaker portion of the insert and is deposited so as to ensure its rigid bonding to the substrate. This is accomplished by any state of the art technique preferably as disclosed in Swiss patent applications 03 267/93- 6 and 03 268/93-8. The bodies used for deposition according to the present invention include cemented carbides and ceramics such as SiAlON and Si3N4. Preferably, the cemented carbide body is depleted in the surface zone with respect to Co. This can, for example, be obtained by partly carburizing an eta-phase containing body as disclosed in EP 464 012. An explanation for the improved performance of the machining properties of a diamond coated cutting tool according to the present invention may be favourable cutting forces during the machining operation due to the chip breaker geometry. Example 1 A cemented carbide insert, geometry CCGT 09T304-UM, composition 6 wt% Co and 94% C, was first heat treated in order to deplete the surface zone of Co. The insert was treated in an ultrasonic bath consisting of diamond powder suspended in alcohol. It was then subject to diamond deposition in a microwave plasma CVD reactor using the following deposition parameters: microwave power: 3000 W pressure: 70 torr CH4 concentration: 4% H2 flow rate: 800 seem substrate temperature: 850°C deposition time: 15 h The insert was covered by a well facetted diamond coating of thickness 10 μm on the rake face, in the chip breaker grooves and in the region of the cutting edge while the coating thickness decreased gradually on going down the clearance faces. The grain size of the layer was about 10 μm on the rake face. The insert was subjected to a turning test in an Al- 18%Si alloy using the following cutting data: v = 1000 m/min f = 0.3 mm/revolution a = 1 mm wet cutting The diamond coated insert provided with the chip breaker geometry lasted 60 minutes in this test compared to a planar, diamond coated insert (CCMW 09T304) which lasted 44 minutes. Example 2 A cemented carbide insert provided with a chip breaker geometry according to the invention was used (VCGX 160412-AL) . was coated with a 6 μm thick diamond layer using arc discharge plasma CVD. The grain size of the layer was about 5 μ . The insert was subjected to turning of components in an Al-7%Si alloy using the cutting data: v = 1500 m/min f = 0.25 mm/rev a = 0.5 mm dry cutting The surface finish of the workpiece after using the VCGX insert was R a =1.8 while using a planar, diamond coated insert (VBMW 160412) resulted in R a =2.3.

Claims: Patent claims 1. A compound body consisting of a substrate with a _: . rface coating suitable for wear parts and tools applications, comprising a body of wear resistant material, said body including top and bottom surfaces and at least one peripheral wall extending therebetween, the intersection of said peripheral wall and at least said top surface forming cutting edge means, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that said surface coating on said body is a diamond coating layer of a thickness of 1-30 μm deposited directly from the gas phase in a reactor by CVD or PVD technique in a manner so as to ensure rigid bonding to said carbide substrate and wherein the top face is provided with an integral chipformer so as to provide chips formed during machining into a desired and controllable configuration. 2. A compound body according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the chipformer includes a groove provided in the top face, said groove being confined by a descending wall along the cutting edge, said wall extending down to an upwardly extending wall of a shoulder or a bump. 3. A compound body as defined in claim 2, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that said bump is provided along the bisector in said corner region. 4. A compound body as defined in claim 2, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that there are a plurality of elongated bumps that extend perpendicularly to the bisector of the cutting corner and symmetrically provided on both sides of the bisector in said corner region. 5. A compound body as defined in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the body is circular and the chipformer is in the shape of a sloping flank that slopes downwardly in a direction away from said cutting edge and intersects a wave-shaped line with a plurality of circular or semicircular projections that are arranged annularly around a central aperture of the insert. 6. A compound body as defined in claim 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the insert is rhombic in shape with two diametrically opposed acute angled corners and a central aperture and that the cutting edges are sloping from the cutting corner to the middle of the cutting edge with an angle that amounts to 10- 20°.

Inventors: REINECK INGRID, WIMAN JOERGEN, REINECK, INGRID, WIMAN, JOERGEN
Applicants: SANDVIK AB
Application year: 1995
Main classification: B23B27
IPC codes: B23B27, C23C16