Composite Tooling for Boring Applications
04 November 2006
04 November 2006
Johnson Carbide Products participated in the development of a family of carbon fiber/epoxy composite boring tools that are producing improved accuracy, surface finish, tool life and productivity.
Called the TruLine Tool family of composite fine boring tools, these cutting tools utilize a fabrication of composite carbon fibres that are epoxied to a stainless steel cover or sleeve that can be final machined with the necessary insert pockets, screw holes and wear pads. By using composite materials, the boring tools are lightweight but have very high strength with density, stiffness, coefficient of friction and damping characteristics that are significantly better than boring tools made from steel or carbide.
Initial applications have been proven in the automotive industry where OEM manufacturers are using the TruLine boring tools for boring the camshaft bores in cylinder heads. According to Johnson, in some applications, the tools have doubled the number of parts that can be produced before inserts need to be changed, surface finish has been improved nearly eight times and workpiece accuracies in terms of tolerances and roundness have seen up to four times the improvement over conventional steel boring tools.
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