SBIR Phase I: Micro-quantity Internal Cooling (MQuIC) of Cutting Tools for Increased Productivity via Micro-ducts

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发具有微几何特征的刀具，为刀具-芯片接触区提供直接、局部和均匀的冷却。该项目包括新的微量内冷(MQuIC)功能，以及用于大批量生产展示MQuIC的刀片的商业生产工艺。许多产品的制造都采用机械加工工艺。现代刀具材料，包括钻石和立方氮化硼，是已知的最硬的，正在成为常规使用。然而，与碳化钨相比，它们非常昂贵，碳化钨的性能可以通过合金化和涂层来增强，以减少其在高温下化学溶解到芯片和工件中的倾向。不幸的是，所有这些衬底材料和现代涂层都已经非常先进，在不久的将来只会带来渐进的改进。该项目通过将冷却介质集中在工艺热源附近，解决了热致磨损对生产率(切割速度)造成的限制。考虑到美国的刀片市场约为13亿美元，其中包括9亿美元的硬质合金刀片(美国制造的仅为2.17亿美元(2002年数据))，制造MQuIC刀片的更广泛的(商业)影响将是巨大的。“难加工”材料在汽车和工具/模具制造(硬钢)和飞机制造(钛和镍基合金)中最常见。2004年，这些行业的刀具支出分别约为3.7亿美元和5500万美元。如果只获得10%的发动机加工份额和40%的其他份额，收入将达到9500万美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop cutting tools with micro-geometric features to provide direct, localized and evenly distributed cooling of the tool-chip contact zone. This project includes new micro-quantity internal cooling (MQuIC) features as well as a commercial production process for high-volume manufacture of cutting inserts exhibiting MQuIC. Mechanical machining processes are used in the manufacture of many products. Modern cutting tool materials, including diamond and cubic-boron-nitride, are the hardest known and are becoming routinely used. However, they are very expensive compared to tungsten carbide, the performance of which can be enhanced with alloying and coatings to reduce its tendency to chemically dissolve into the chip and work piece at high temperatures. Unfortunately, all these substrate materials and modern coatings are already very advanced and will offer little more than incremental improvements in the near future. This project addresses the productivity (cutting speed) limitation imposed by thermally induced wear, by concentrating a cooling medium close to the process heat source. The broader (commercial) impact of manufacturing MQuIC inserts would be large given the U.S. market for inserts being about $1.3B, including $900MM in carbide inserts (only about $217MM are made in the U.S. (2002 data)). "Difficult to machine" materials are seen most in automotive and tool/die manufacturing (hard steel) and aircraft manufacturing (titanium and nickel-based alloys). Cutting tool expenditures for these industries in 2004 were about $370MM and $55MM, respectively. Capturing only 10% of engine machining, and 40% of the others, revenues would be $95MM.