This article describes the machining operations of carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy, or carbon/epoxy thermoset composite materials, such as drilling, reaming, routing, trimming, end milling, slot milling, and facing. It reviews cutting tools for machining, including solid carbide, diamond plated, brazed diamond, diamond coated carbide, and polycrystalline cutting tools. The article also describes cutting tool materials that are used for peripheral milling, face milling, and the trimming of polymer-matrix composites.

The classes of tool materials for machining operations are high-speed tool steels, carbides, cermets, ceramics, polycrystalline cubic boron nitrides, and polycrystalline diamonds. This article discusses the expanding role of surface engineering in increasing the manufacturing productivity of carbide, cermet, and ceramic cutting tool materials used in machining operations. The useful life of cutting tools may be limited by a variety of wear processes, such as crater wear, flank wear or abrasive wear, builtup edge, depth-of-cut notching, and thermal cracks. The article provides information on the applicable methods for surface engineering of cutting tools, namely, chemical vapor deposited (CVD) coatings, physical vapor deposited coatings, plasma-assisted CVD coatings, diamond coatings, and ion implantation.

Synthetic diamond and cubic boron nitride are among a class of superhard materials from the boron-carbon-nitrogen-silicon family of elements. This article focuses on the two materials, the forms in which they are produced, and their respective properties. Synthetic diamond and cubic boron nitride compounds are available in the form of grit and sintered polycrystalline blanks of various size, shape, and composition. The article explains how superabrasive grains made from these materials can be used in lapping, polishing, and grinding applications, and how diamond and boron nitride blanks can be mounted to suitable substrates to form ultrahard cutting edges and tools.

This article describes the secondary operations for cemented carbide parts, namely, diamond grinding, honing, electrical discharge machining, and brazing after sintering to achieve desired results, such as specified size, shape, edge condition, and surface finish.

This article discusses the factors to be considered in selecting and evaluating machining tests for the purpose of evaluating cutting tool performance and workpiece machinability. It provides a brief description of cutting tool materials, such as high-speed steels, uncoated and coated carbides, cermets, ceramics, cubic boron nitride, and polycrystalline diamond. The article considers the matrices that represent the range of tests performed on candidate cutting tool materials: the workpiece matrix, the property matrix, and the operation matrix. Various machine tests used to evaluate cutting tools, including the impact test, turning test, and facing test, are described. The article lists the factors to be taken into consideration in measuring the machinability of a material. The article presents general recommendations for proper chip groove selection on carbide tools and concludes with information on machining economics.

Cemented carbides belong to a class of hard, wear-resistant, refractory materials in which the hard carbide particles are bound together, or cemented, by a soft and ductile metal binder. The performance of cemented carbide as a cutting tool lies between that of tool steel and cermets. Almost 50% of the total production of cemented carbides is used for nonmetal cutting applications. Their properties also make them appropriate materials for structural components, including plungers, boring bars, powder compacting dies and punches, high-pressure dies and punches, and pulverizing hammers. This article discusses the manufacture, microstructure, composition, classifications, and physical and mechanical properties of cemented carbides, as well as their machining and nonmachining applications. It examines the relationship between the workpiece material, cutting tool and operational parameters, and provides suggestions to simplify the choice of cutting tool for a given machining application. It also examines new tool geometries, tailored substrates, and the application of thin, hard coatings to cemented carbides by chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. It discusses the tool wear mechanisms and the methods available for holding the carbide tool. The article is limited to tungsten carbide cobalt-base materials.

Selecting the proper cutting tool material for a specific machining application can provide substantial advantages, including increased productivity, improved quality, and reduced costs. This article begins with a description of the factors affecting the selection of a cutting tool material. This is followed by a schematic representation of their relative application ranges in terms of machining speeds and feed rates. The article provides a detailed account of chemical compositions of various tool materials, including high-speed tool steels, cobalt-base alloys, cemented carbides, cermets, ceramics, cubic boron nitride, and polycrystalline diamond. It compares the toughness, and wear resistance for these cutting tool materials. Finally, the article explains the steps for selecting tool material grades for specific application.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) involves the formation of a coating by the reaction of the coating substance with the substrate. Serving as an introduction to CVD, the article provides information on metals, ceramics, and diamond films formed by the CVD process. It further discusses the characteristics of different pack cementation processes, including aluminizing, siliconizing, chromizing, boronizing, and multicomponent coating.

Cemented carbides belong to a class of hard, wear-resistant, refractory materials in which the hard carbide particles are bound together, or cemented, by a ductile metal binder. Cermet refers to a composite of a ceramic material with a metallic binder. This article discusses the manufacture, composition, classifications, and physical and mechanical properties of cemented carbides. It describes the application of hard coatings to cemented carbides by physical or chemical vapor deposition (PVD or CVD). Tungsten carbide-cobalt alloys, submicron tungsten carbide-cobalt alloys, and alloys containing tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, and cobalt are used for machining applications. The article also provides an overview of cermets used in machining applications.

This article focuses on precision and ultraprecision finish machining techniques that make use of defined cutting edges, such as polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride compacts. The techniques are finish turning, finish broaching, finish milling, and finish drilling.

This article contains tables that list standard reduction potentials for electrochemical reactions. The first table lists reactions alphabetically by element of interest. The second table is ranked by potential value. Potential is measured versus the Standard Hydrogen Electrode which has a value of 0.0000 V. Reactions with more than one voltage indicate that results have not been reconciled. Parenthetical materials not needed to balance reactions are catalysts.

This article presents general guidelines for machining metal matrix composites (MMC) and honeycomb structures. It provides guidelines for machining of specific MMCs, namely, aluminum-boron, aluminum-SiC, aluminum-Al 2 O 3 , and titanium-SiC MMCs. In addition, the article discusses the various parameters influencing drilling of dissimilar-material laminates.

Cemented carbides, best known for their superior wear resistance, have a range of industrial uses more diverse than that of any other powder metallurgy product including metalworking and mining tools and wear-resistant components. This article discusses raw materials and manufacturing methods used in the production of cemented carbides, the physical and mechanical properties of carbides, and wear mechanisms encountered in service. Emphasis is placed on tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) or tungsten carbide-nickel (WC-Ni) materials as used in nonmachining applications. Nominal composition and properties of representative cemented carbide grades and their applications are listed in a table.

Metal is removed from the workpiece by the mechanical action of irregularly shaped abrasive grains in all grinding operations. This article discusses three primary components of grinding wheels, namely, abrasive (the cutting tool), bond (the tool holder), and porosity or air for chip clearance and/or the introduction of coolant. It describes the compositions and applications of coated abrasives and types of grinding fluids, such as petroleum-base and mineral-base cutting oils, water-soluble oils, synthetic fluids, semisynthetic fluids, and water plus additives. The article concludes with information on different types of grinding processes, namely, rough grinding, precision grinding, surface grinding, cylindrical grinding, centerless grinding, internal grinding, and tool grinding.

Diamond and cubic boron nitride (CBN) are the two hardest materials known. They have found numerous applications in industry, both as ultrahard abrasives and as cutting tools. This article reviews the high-pressure synthesis and fabrication techniques of these materials. It discusses their wear resistance, tool geometries, and machining parameters. The article also explains their application as cutting tools in the field of machining.

This article presents the principles of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with illustrations. It discusses the types of CVD processes, namely, thermal CVD, plasma CVD, laser CVD, closed-reactor CVD, chemical vapor infiltration, and metal-organic CVD. The article reviews the CVD reactions of materials related to hard, tribological, and high-temperature coatings and to free-standing structures. It concludes by reviewing the advantages, disadvantages, and applications of CVD.

This datasheet provides information on key alloy metallurgy, processing effects on physical and mechanical properties, and application characteristics of Al-Si-Cu-Mg hypereutectic casting alloys 390.0, A390.0, and B390.0. Tool lives for the machining of alloys 380 and 390 are illustrated.

This article discusses the manufacturing steps and compositions of cemented carbides, as well as their microstructure, classifications, applications, and physical and mechanical properties. It provides information on new tool geometries, tailored substrates, and the application of thin and hard coatings to cemented carbides by chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. The article also discusses tool wear mechanisms and the methods available for holding the carbide tool.

Machining of cast iron involves removing metal from the cast part, usually by cutting with a power-driven machine tool. This article discusses the factors that influence machinability, the methods used to evaluate machinability of cast irons, the effects of cast iron microstructure on cutting tool life, and the importance of as-cast surface integrity on the machining variation. It presents examples of cutting tool materials selection for different cast iron grades, and describes the effects of coolants on the machining of cast irons. A chart showing different cutting materials and cutting speed ranges for selected iron-carbon alloys is also presented. Different types of cutting tool wear observed during turning are schematically illustrated.

Cemented carbide is, in its simplest form, a metal-matrix composite of tungsten carbide particles in a cobalt matrix. This article describes the microstructure, physical, and mechanical properties of cemented carbides. The properties discussed include thermal conductivity, magnetic properties, corrosion resistance, hardness, fracture toughness, wear resistance, and thermal shock resistance. The article concludes with information on the applications, grade classification, and selection of grades.