KYOCERA : Develops New Hybrid Cermet Materials for Industrial Cutting Tools

November 18, 2014

Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) announced that it has developed a new series of hybrid cermet materials offering a 50%* improvement in abrasion resistance and fracture resistance over conventional materials used as industrial cutting-tool inserts.

The new TN620 and PV720 cermet grades are ideal for a wide variety of metal-cutting applications ranging from high-speed to low-speed machining.

TN620 and PV720 exceed conventional materials in both hardness and strength through proprietary material technologies, such as a special hybrid-structure surface hardening that distributes ultrafine particles within the cermet in a more optimal manner; hybrid bonded phase, including special metal phase with high melting points; and hybrid hard phase with superior compressive stress effects. Furthermore, PV720 builds on the superior properties of TN620 by adding MEGACOAT NANO, a multilayer coating technology never before applied to a cermet.

These new materials expand Kyocera's cutting-tool product line, helping users achieve higher productivity through longer tool life and stable processing of steel components widely used in automobiles and industrial machinery.

TN620 (silver) and PV720 (gold) metal-cutting inserts

Product Overview

Material Name	TN620	PV720
Lineup	383 insert products	383 insert products
Processing conditions	Semi-finishing to fine-finishing of steel; turning
Production base	Sendai Plant, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Kyocera has drawn on its many years of cermet technology development to create these new materials, which offer improved abrasion resistance, better fracture resistance and better surface finish quality than conventional steel-cutting tools.

Main Features

1. Special surface-hardening hybrid structure improves abrasion resistance

Both TN620 and PV720 utilize a special graded composition to create a surface-hardening hybrid structure, which improves both hardness and toughness. By using tough cermet with superior chipping resistance and thermal shock resistance for the internal structure, and high hardness cermet for the surface structure, the new materials achieve superior fracture and abrasion resistance, as well as stable processing.

Magnified photo of the new cermet material: surface (far left) and interior (right)

2. High-melting-point hybrid bonded phase ensure higher-quality machining with improved surface finish

By creating a composite of conventional cermet and high-melting-point metal-bonded phase, the resulting hybrid bonded phase are highly heat resistant. This improves adhesion resistance, chipping resistance and fracture resistance to provide a stable machined surface of superior quality.

Analytical photo of bonded phase (hybrid bonded phase are colored in green)

3. Ultrafine-particle hybrid hard phase improves strength and fracture resistance

The new materials offer improved flexural strength by incorporating a uniform ultrafine-particle "hybrid-hard-phase". In addition, high-melting-point metal binding phases increase compressive-stress effects for better fracture resistance.

Comparison of hard-phase compressive residual stress (against conventional general-purpose cermet)

4. Proprietary MEGACOAT NANO multilayer coating technology
The PV720 grade improves on the already strong characteristics of TN620 by including Kyocera's proprietary MEGACOAT NANO multilayer coating technology. Utilized for the first time on a cermet, MEGACOAT NANO provides outstanding abrasion and oxidation resistance for higher-efficiency machining with superior surface finish.

* Compared to conventional Kyocera cermet, based on research by Kyocera.