Removal of Wear-Resistant Coatings from Cutting Tools by Fast Argon Atoms

Wear-resistant coatings improve the machining capability of cutting tools and extend their useful life. However, when a tool needs to be reused, it is mandatory to remove the existing coating to facilitate resharpening and recoating. The existing technique uses electrochemical stripping, which is hazardous to the environment. The environmentally friendly pulsed laser stripping causes the melting and mixing of tools and coating materials, which makes it difficult to separate and remove the coating. This paper presents the results of coating stripping via a beam of fast argon atoms. Due to the twentyfold compression of the beam, a 3 & mu;m thick AlTiN coating was removed from a rotating solid carbide end mill within 25 min. A subsequent one-hour-long irradiation of the cleaned tool with the same beam led to a decrease in the radius of the tool's cutting edges from 10.5 to 3.5 & mu;m. This allowed us to redeposit a 3.5 & mu;m thick AlTiN coating and obtain a coated end mill with a cutting-edge radius of 7 & mu;m.

Automated summary

Wear-resistant coatings enhance cutting tools' machining abilities and durability. However, it is necessary to remove existing coatings in an environmentally friendly manner for resharpening and recoating purposes. This paper introduces a new method using a beam of fast argon atoms for coating stripping, which successfully removed a 3 & mu;m thick AlTiN coating from a rotating solid carbide end mill within 25 minutes. Furthermore, the cleaned tool's cutting edges were effectively reduced from 10.5 to 3.5 & mu;m through an additional one-hour irradiation, allowing for the redeposition of a 3.5 & mu;m thick AlTiN coating and obtaining a coated end mill with a 7 & mu;m cutting-edge radius.