High temperature steel cutting 1

[awol]

How do foundries and steel mills cut and saw red hot steel?
Do they shear or saw? What are these high temp cutting materials? I assume low surface cutting speeds. Do they make use of industrial diamonds? What kind of material can withstand 1600 deg F + cutting friction and not breakdown or give up hardness? Thanks, awol

 

[JimMetalsCeramics]

Ceramics can take that temperture. Shearing of hot steel is common.

 

[stanweld]

Shearing is/was the method used in steel mills.

 

[TVP]

As Jim and stanweld mentioned, shearing is still frequently used to cut hot steel. Plasma torches are also used to cut heavy slabs.

 

[awol]

To all,
Thanks for the information. I have searched the web for companies that are expanding the applications of ceramic material, specifically in the application of metal cutting.
I did not locate such a company. Is there a central agency, like ASM or AISI that promotes the use of ceramic materials in industrial environments?

 

[TVP]

Try ACerS (American Ceramic Society):

http://www.acers.org/

 

[tomwalz]

This seems really strange to me even as I write it but we seem to be the company doing the most to expand the use of ceramics in metal cutting using brazed tools such as saws.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

(US Patent 6,322,871) It is such a huge and obvious application that I do not understand why more companies are not interested in it.

Our interest is in brazed applications. There is obviously a huge amount of work done in mechanically held applications but ceramics are tough to braze. The active brazer alloys are expensive and have very low strength and very low working temperatures. We treat the surface of the ceramic so that you can use the same braze alloys and techniques you use for carbide.

We are working with cermets and ceramics for cutting using brazed tools. Currently we are focusing on cermets because that is seen by many as a huge jump from carbide and the industry is nowhere near ready to jump to true ceramics.

We have a customer making cermet saws that are working very well in cold steel cutting. Much better than anything else on the market including the Japanese cermet saws blades. It is Tru Cut saw in Ohio at

http://www.cermetsaws.com

These saws could also be used in hot cutting. They get up to 1450F during the brazing.

If you like you can have a brazed tool with true ceramic tips built on a prototype basis. We have done it.

Tom Walz

 

[JimMetalsCeramics]

You might check with the Society of Carbide and Tool Engineers (SCTE).

http://www.scte10.org/

They are a part of ASM International.

Of the magazines of interest you can check out Cutting Tool Engineering and American Machinist.

Ceramic tools is a niche field (compared to carbide). For many applications, especially where you require a very sharp cutting edge, you might go with coated carbide.

Links for ceramic cutting tool houses include:

http://www.ceramtec.com/products/cutting_tools.htm

http://www.kyocera.com/kicc/ceratip/

http://www.eisc.com/carbides/tencom.htm

http://www.hktechnologies.com/tooling.htm

http://www.greenleafcorporation.com/

http://www.iscar.com/old/Catalog/catalog.htm

Diamond (both coatings and bulk) are great for cutting, but not for steel.

Cubic boron nitride links:

http://www.stardia.com/pcdcon.htm

http://www.newmantools.com/graff

http://www.gilmorediamond.com/gilfullsolidcbn.html

http://www.geplastics.com/superabrasives

I'm not aware of any cBN coatings available in industry.

 

[tomwalz]

JimMetalsCeramics is right.

There is a symposium in honor of Dr. Irwin Rudy at the October ASM meeting, (Materials Solution Conference). Dr. Rudy was a pioneer in carbide and especially cermets. We will cover past, present and future of cemented materials and related. Obviously, as you are well aware, there is a a progression from carbide to cermets and into ceramics.

Never the less, Sir, you are a great deal more prescient than most.

I am not at liberty to reveal everyone who is working on this but I could pass your name on if you were interested in developing these uses.

Tom Walz