STTR Phase I: Integrated Design of Nanostructured Diamond Coated Drills (for Dry Drilling of High-strength Automotive Powertrain Components)

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目旨在克服广泛接受金刚石涂层技术切割铝合金的障碍之一，即制造功能性金刚石涂层钻头。钻孔是最困难的加工过程之一，也是工作流程效率的瓶颈。化学气相沉积（CVD）金刚石涂层大大延长了刀具寿命；然而，钻头的几何形状会影响切削能力和涂层特性，因此必须以综合的方式解决这些协同涂层/工具特性。该项目的目标是开发科学工具，促进CVD金刚石和碳化钨切削刃的协同设计；钴钻，将实现高吞吐量，无润滑的高强度铝孔加工工艺。该项目将重点分析和设计钻头的几何形状、CVD涂层和钻头性能，并通过全仪器化的切割机、CVD反应器和先进的表征技术进行测量。该技术的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是改进CVD金刚石钻头的设计，将协同涂层工艺变量与钻头几何参数结合起来。这个项目将特别有利于美国工人和美国经济，因为它为手工密集型劳动力创造了公平的竞争环境。该项目通过科学的方法提高生产效率，特别是汽车、铝合金部件的高速孔钻。CVD金刚石涂层用于切削工具，特别是钻井工具的开发将通过减少切削时间、刀具库存和拥挤的工作流程来提高生产率。这将提高美国汽车工业和航空航天工业的全球竞争力，在这些行业中，钻孔对生产至关重要。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project seeks to overcome one of the barriers to widespread acceptance of diamond coating technologies for cutting aluminum alloys which is to fabricate functional diamond coated drills. Drilling is among the most difficult of the machining processes and responsible for bottlenecks in workflow efficiency. Chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) diamond coatings greatly extend tool life; however, drill geometry affects both the cutting capability as well as coating characteristics, and these synergistic coating/tool characteristics must be solved in an integrated manner. The objective of this project is to develop the scientific tools that facilitate synergistic design of CVD diamond and cutting edges of tungsten carbide; cobalt drills that will enable high throughput, unlubricated hole-making processes for high-strength aluminum.The project will focus on the analysis and design of drill geometry, CVD coating, and drill performance as measured by fully instrumented cutting machine, CVD reactor and advanced characterization techniques. The broader impact/commercial potential from the technology will be improved designs for CVD diamond drills that incorporate synergistic coating process variables with drill geometric parameters. This project will specifically benefit US workers and the US economy because it levels the playing field against manual-intensive workforces. This project addresses high productivity through scientific methods to improve manufacturing, specifically high speed hole drilling of automotive, aluminum-alloy components. The development of CVD diamond coatings for cutting tools, especially drilling tools will improve productivity by reducing cutting time, tool inventory and congested workflow. This will increase the global competitiveness of the US automotive industry and aerospace industries where hole drilling is critical to production.