Properties Of tool Material – Types Of Tool Materials

Cutting tool materials are materials that are used to make cutting tools that are used in machining (drill bits, tool bits, milling cutters, etc.) but not other cutting tools like knives or punches.

Cutting tool materials must be harder than the material of the workpiece, even at high temperatures during the process.

Read More : Nomenclature |Terminology of Single Point Cutting Tool

What are the properties of tool materials?

The characteristics/ properties of the ideal material are:
1. Hot hardness:

The material must remain harder than the work material at elevated operating temperatures.

2. Wear resistance:

The material must withstand excessive wear even though the relative hardness of the tool-work materials changes.

3. Toughness:

The material must have sufficient toughness to withstand shocks and vibrations and to prevent breakage.

4. Cost and easiness in fabrication:

The cost and easiness of fabrication should have within reasonable limits.

Types Of Tool Material / List the tool materials. 

The selection of proper tool material depends on the type of service to which the tool will be subjected. No material is superior in all respects, but rather each has certain characteristics which limit its field of application.

The principal cutting materials are:
1. High-speed steels.
2. Stellites.
3. Cemented carbides.
4. Diamonds.

1. High-speed steels:
These steels are called as HSS because these steels cut material at high speeds and retain their hardness even at high temperature. It consists of iron and carbon with differing amounts of alloying elements such as tungsten, chromium, vanadium and cobalt. 18:4:1 HSS tool is used to manufacture drills, reamers, and taps.

2. Stellites:
Stellite is the trade name of a nonferrous cast alloy composed of cobalt, chromium and tungsten.
It is shaped by casting from which it gets cutting properties.

3. Cemented carbides:
The basic ingredient of most cemented carbides is tungsten carbide which is extremely hard. Pure tungsten powder is mixed under high heat, at about 1500 0 C, with pure carbon (lamp black) in the ratio of 94 per cent and 6 per cent by weight. The new compound, tungsten carbide, is then mixed with cobalt until the mass is entirely
homogeneous.

4. Diamond:
The diamonds used for cutting tools are industrial diamonds, which are naturally occurring diamonds containing flaws and therefore of no value as gemstones. Alternatively they can be also artificial.

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