Sandvik Coromant, an expert in cutting tools and tool solutions, has announced the transition to new alloys in the production of carbide cutting plates. Starting from September 2020, the traditional GC4325 alloy has replaced the GC4425, which corresponds to the conditional scope of application according to ISO P15 and P25.
Several companies, including in Russia, have already tested the new product. Among the key advantages, they note the increased wear resistance, heat resistance and strength, thanks to which the cutting plate made of GC4425 alloy can withstand operation at higher cutting modes.
For example, one of the global engineering companies conducted a comparative "test drive" of a new cutting plate from Sandvik Coromant and a similar, but different manufacturer, in the production of the guide shaft. Both plates were used for multidirectional external roughing of the billet made of structural alloy steel AISI 4140 PHT (with pre-heat treatment). As a result, the performance of the Sandvik Coromant cutting plate surpassed that of another brand by almost 100%, and the processing cycle was reduced by 50%.
The Russian company also compared the durability of cutting plates based on the new and previous generation of Sandvik Coromant alloy. The use of the GC4425 increased the speed, feed and depth of machining, resulting in an increase in productivity from 19, with the previous generation GC4325 alloy plates, to 45 parts per shift.
The development of new formulas for the alloy used in the production of carbide cutting plates has become a response to the market needs for solutions that can make a significant contribution to the optimization of production costs of enterprises. For this purpose, the company's specialists took into account the impact of different cutting modes, surface quality, as well as discontinuity or continuity of the process on the tool made of the new alloy.
The primary requirements were: crack resistance and the strength of the cutting edge, sufficient to withstand plastic deformation in conditions of extremely high temperature, characteristic of the cutting zone. The coating of the cutting plates is made using the Inveio ® technology of the second generation, which creates a kind of "barrier" on the surface of the cutting edge, which can minimize its wear, hole formation and reduce the build-up.
Such a tool will allow you to process more parts in mass and batch production, increase the speed, feed and depth of cutting, as well as eliminate unexpected breakdowns, defects and reduce the percentage of products that require re-processing.
In addition, the characteristics of the tool based on a new generation of alloy allows it to be used for work with low-alloy and non-alloy steel equally successfully. Thanks to this versatility, equipment downtime spent on finding the right plate for each application will be reduced.
"The economy of production is a reflection of the optimization of all internal processes of the enterprise, where it is important to take into account many variables. According to the experience of our company, today it is not enough to focus only on the technological features of the product, it is important to understand and predict the economic benefits for our client from the introduction of a new solution. Not only the quality of the final product, but also a tangible financial benefit is behind the wear resistance, versatility, and high performance. According to our forecasts and the results of external tests, the transition to a new generation of alloys will reduce the production costs of enterprises by up to 30%," says Vladimir Sutyagin, Leader of the product and Industrial Segment management team at Sandvik Coromant Russia.
