New Generation Surface treatment for tools
A preliminary study
The surface finishing technique called black oxidation is currently being used on thetool holders made of low alloyed tool steel produced by Sandvik Coromant. Blackoxidation isn?t considered a sufficient technique because it doesn?t make the toolholders look like the quality products that they actually are. The reasoning behind thisis that the tool holders can show signs of corrosion after prolonged storing times orin countries with high humidity and temperature. The corrosion doesn?t decrease thetool holders performance, but the customers might believe otherwise. After the blackoxidation is performed the surface is oiled which can cause sticky surfaces that rubsoff on the person handling the tool holders which is also something that needs to beavoided.The aim of this master thesis was to study potential substitutes to the current surfacefinishing technique, which could primarily improve the tool holders corrosionresistance and appearance. Other material properties have been studied as well suchas hardness, friction coefficient, fatigue- and wear resistance. The cost of some of thedifferent surface finishing techniques has been studied as well, because in order to beinteresting their price must match what improvements the technique provides with.A preliminary study was done where the surface finishing techniques that are availablein the market has been examined. This has been a theoretical study which means thatno experiments were performed and that most of the information available in thisstudy has been obtained from literature and scientific articles. Companies that workwith surface finishing has been contacted which shared information about both thetheoretical and practical aspects of finishing techniques.Electro- and electroless plating are the two techniques which seem most suited forthe replacement of the current method, black oxidation. Polishing andelectropolishining can be suitable aswell, but the corrosion resistance barelyincreases.