Seco Tools Ab

Axel Knutsson

Mats Johansson

Jacob Sjölén

Magnus Odén

A cutting tool includes a body of a hard alloy of cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics, cubic boron nitride based material or high speed steel and on which at least one of the functioning parts of the surface thereof, a hard and wear resistant coating is applied. The coating includes a polycrystalline laminar, multilayered structure of metal nitride compounds, in a repetitive form . . . MeN/(TiAl)N/MeN/(TiAl)N/MeN/(TiAl)N/MeN/(TiAl)N . . . of cubic structured (TiAl)N layers where 0.3&#x3c;x&#x3c;0.95 and cubic structured MeN layers where Me is one or more of the metal element Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Mo and Al. The laminated structure has a repeat period, &#x3bb;, of 5 nm&#x2266;&#x3bb;&#x3c;20 nm, a layer thickness relation of 1/10&#x3c;(d/d)&#x3c;1/3 and a thickness d&#x2267;1 nm that is essentially constant throughout its total thickness up to 20 &#x3bc;m. The coating hardens as a nanocomposite, adapting its strength during spinodal decomposition of (TiAl)N in cubic TiN and cubic AlN domains where the additional cubic structured MeN layers provides elements for locking a predominantly overall cubic coating structure thus suppressing the hexagonal AlN phase formation leading to improved high temperature metal cutting properties.

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Linkoping, Sweden

Axel Knutsson