Article by: Sumipol Corporation Limited & MEGA Tech
Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corp. has been manufacturing world class inserts since 1931, and has continued to develop their products, incorporating the newest technology to better serve their customers.
The latest coating technology that has been developed is the Absotech X, which has been applied to the new milling grade XCU2500 and XCK2000.
The key highlights of this next generation milling grades are
- Versatile grade with long tool life and excellent cutting for steel, cast iron, and exotic alloys
- High heat resistance and hardness
- High thermal crack resistance and fracture toughness
Technology of the Absotech X
Absotech X is constructed with a cubic phase Nano-lamellae CVD-AlTiN with average aluminum content of over 80% which previously wasn’t available for CVD grades, achieving high heat resistance and hardness.
It also has a unique surface treatment suppressing crack growth by high compressive stress of 2.0 GPa. This results in high thermal crack resistance and fracture toughness.
Application Examples
General purpose grade XCU2500 is a versatile grade that shows long tool life even in mixed flow machining. Sumitomo has tested with many work material such as automotive undercarriage part made of boron steel and SUS304 machine part.
All test results show tool life is 2 times conventional PVD grades.
XCK2000 which can be used for cast iron work material, has an overwhelming longer tool life than conventional CVD and PVD grades.
Tests with Cylinder Block (FC250) showed a remarkable 5-6 times higher tool life, and FCD450 or FCD500 machine parts also showed tool life doubled.
Available for a variety of Milling Cutters
Inserts with the new coating Absotech X has been produced for 6 of the following Sumitomo milling cutters.
- SEC-Wavemill WGX Series (High-rake general purpose face milling cutter)
- SEC- Sumi Dual Mill DGC Series (High efficiency general face milling cutter)
- SEC- WaveMill WFX Series (High precision, high quality shoulder milling cutter)
- SEC- Sumi Dual Mill DFC Series (High-efficient general milling and shoulder milling cutter)
- SEC-WaveMill WEZ Series (High-efficiency shoulder milling cutter for general purpose)
- SEC- Sumi Dual Mill TSX Series (High-efficient and high precision tangential shoulder milling cutter)
