Tool Coatings
There are many cutting and drilling tools coating on the market today. All of them have been created to improve the performance of cutting tools, giving them properties that make them more durable in various metalworking applications.
The table below contains general information on the most popular tool coatings of the TiN (Titanium Nitride) family, a very hard and stable ceramic material that has captured most of the tool coating market.
| Coating | Elements | Color | Released | Properties | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TiN | Titanium (Τι) Nitrogen (N) |
Yellow | 1970 | Excellent wear resistance, thermal stability and low coefficient of friction | Steel, stainless steel, cast iron, general purpose |
| TiCN | Titanium (Ti) Carbon (C) Nitrogen(N) |
Grey-bluish | 1980 | Good adhesion, hardness and resistance to breaking | Stainless steel, aluminum, copper, cast iron, high silicon alloys |
| TiAlN | Titanium (Ti) Aluminum (Al) Nitrogen(N) |
Violet gray | 1990 | Low thermal conductivity, high hardness | High strength steels, hard steels and high temperature alloys including nickel base and titanium |
| TiSiN | Titanium (Ti) Silicon (Si) Nitrogen (N) |
Bronze | 1990 | Excellent wear resistance, low thermal conductivity, low coefficient of friction, high hardness | Titanium, tool steel, high temperature alloys, mold steel, stainless steel, nickel alloys, cast iron |
| AlTiSiN |
Aluminum (Al) Titanium (Ti) Silicon (Si) Nitrogen (N) |
Dark Purple | 2000 | Excellent wear resistance, high temperature resistance, low coefficient of friction, high hardness | Stainless steel, nickel alloys, aluminum |
TiN Coating
The TiN coating was introduced in the late 1970s as a coating for HSS (High Speed Steel) drill bits and is the "grandfather" of the titanium coating family.
The TiN coating was a general-purpose, simple and economical coating that was a major innovation in metallurgy and continues to be widely used in many applications to this day.
TiCN Coating
The TiCN coating was commercialized as a second generation hard coating soon after TiN and has been established in the world of metallurgical and machine tool applications since the 1980s.
With the advent of new hard alloy steels, cutting tools were looking for matching coatings for the new challenge. The TiCN coating was developed on the basis of TiN by adding extra carbon atoms which gave greater strength.
TiAlN Coating
The TiAlN coating was introduced in the 1990s and is probably the most common coating on cutting and drilling tools. It follows the same principle as TiCN, but with Al (Aluminum) atoms instead of C (Carbon).
The advantage of this coating is maintaining its hardness at high temperatures up to about 800°C, while the hot-hardness increases with the Al (Aluminum) content.
TiSiN Coating
TiSiN coating was developed in the mid-1990s to provide improved hardness, wear resistance, and high temperature resistance properties compared to earlier generations of coatings. The combined presence of titanium, silicon and nitrogen in this coating created an extremely hard coating with hot-hardness of over 900°C that significantly improved the overall performance of cutting tools in several applications.
AlTiSin Coating
AlTiSin coating was developed in the early 2000s and opens up a new and smart category of nanocomposite materials. The foundation of this coating is still the good old TiN, but the elements Al (Aluminum) and Si (Silicon) are involved in its composition.
The result is an extremely hard coating with a hot-hardness of over 1000°C, ideal for applications where high cutting performance and resistance to extreme temperatures are required. AlTiSin coating is often found on tools with hardness > 60HRC.
