Page 22 - MetalForming July 2010

Enhance the Diemaker’s
Craftsmanship
Tooling Technology Coatings
Surface-treatment facilities represent the back lines in the battle against die wear. Worn dies go there for healing, and new dies go for boot camp before they head out to the front lines to take on the challenges of the press shop. As those challenges continue to mount —in the form of tightening tolerances on dimensions and surface finish, the stamping of advanced high-strength steels and deep drawing of aluminum alloys (to name a few)—die coaters are stepping up to the plate to do their part.
We interviewed folks from two die- coating companies, as well as their cus- tomers, to get the lay of the land and dis- cuss what’s happening on the back lines.
Integrating a Dry-Film Lube into the Coating
“We can help metalformers with their up-front die engineering to make sure they evaluate all of the coating options available to them, and opti- mize their selection based on the specifics of an application,” says Matthew Thompson, sales manager at Richter Precision Inc., a surface-coating supplier headquartered in East Peters- burg, PA. “Sophisticated metalformers and tool and die shops do a good job of tracking the life of their tools and work with us early in the design phase to specify surface treatments into their designs. That’s the best way to avoid problems down the road.”
Richter Precision, which also oper- ates facilities in Clinton Township, MI, and Florence, KY, offers PVD, CVD and TD coatings. It’s recently developed a couple of new coating processes
Die coaters Richter Precision and Teikuro approach the metalforming market from somewhat different angles, with both committed to enhancing their die-coating practices and products to ensure the 100,000th hit looks just like the first.
20 METALFORMING / JULY 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
designed to address specific needs of the metalforming industry.
To enhance the performance of all of its standard coatings—PVD, CVD and TD—Richter introduced DCD (Dynam- ic Compound Deposition), a process that deposits a dry-film lubricant layer on to the underlying base coating. The dry film (typically (Mo, W)S2) further reduces the coefficient of friction on the tool surface, making the coating ideal for anti-friction, slide-wear and high-load applications.
“The film forms a mechanical-chem- ical bond that holds up well in high- stress applications,” says Thompson, “such as severe draws and other appli- cations where galling can become an issue. About half of our customers now specify the additional dry-film applica- tion. We’re seeing tool life increase by at least 30 to 50 percent, and in some cases die life between maintenance cycles increases by five or six times.”
The Synergy of Two Crystalline Structures
For hard-working dies where dimen-
Alternating 4.2-nanometer layers of AlTiN (dark layer) and CrN make up the Richter Titankote C2-SL PVD coat- ing. Wear resistance is optimized since the layers prevent the propaga- tion of micro-fractures, the company says.
sional tolerances also prove particular- ly challenging, effectively prohibiting the use of high-temperature TD coat- ings, Richter has developed a new, low- temperature PVD process called Titankote C2-SL (Super Lattice). The process deposits complementary, alter- nating nano-layers of AlTiN and CrN. The resulting film consists of more than