New Generation Surface treatment for tools : A preliminary study

The surface finishing technique called black oxidation is currently being used on the tool holders made of low alloyed tool steel produced by Sandvik Coromant. Black oxidation isn’t considered a sufficient technique because it doesn’t make the tool holders look like the quality products that they actually are. The reasoning behind this is that the tool holders can show signs of corrosion after prolonged storing times or in countries with high humidity and temperature. The corrosion doesn’t decrease the tool holders performance, but the customers might believe otherwise. After the black oxidation is performed the surface is oiled which can cause sticky surfaces that rubs off on the person handling the tool holders which is also something that needs to be avoided. The aim of this master thesis was to study potential substitutes to the current surface finishing technique, which could primarily improve the tool holders corrosion resistance and appearance. Other material properties have been studied as well such as hardness, friction coefficient, fatigue- and wear resistance. The cost of some of the different surface finishing techniques has been studied as well, because in order to be interesting their price must match what improvements the technique provides with. A preliminary study was done where the surface finishing techniques that are available in the market has been examined. This has been a theoretical study which means that no experiments were performed and that most of the information available in this study has been obtained from literature and scientific articles. Companies that work with surface finishing has been contacted which shared information about both the theoretical and practical aspects of finishing techniques. Electro- and electroless plating are the two techniques which seem most suited for the replacement of the current method, black oxidation. Polishing and electropolishining can be suitable aswell, but the corrosion resistance barely increases