Honing in on cleanliness: General Industry Coverage

Cleanliness is next to godliness when preparing a cutting tool substrate for CVD or PVD coating deposition. The Sabre wet blasting system from Vapormatt Ltd. achieves a level of cleanliness that dramatically improves coating adhesion by removing the outer substrate skin and creating a “satin sheen” while imparting an anchor pattern, according to Managing Director Robin Ashworth. He added that the cleaned surface would reveal “nooks and crannies” when viewed under a microscope, with the average distance from the top of peaks to the bottom of the valleys equal to a third to a half the thickness of the coating being deposited.

In addition, the system produces consistent and controllable edge hones up to 100µm (0.0039″) and other edge preparations, achieving edge radii within a ±5µm (±0.0002″) tolerance, the company reported. Its wet blasting process combines solid media, liquid media and gas into a jet that can be directed at different angles and distances, then traversed over the faces and edges to be treated. “It’s a kind of loose-abrasive grinding process,” Ashworth said.

Courtesy of Vapormatt

In addition to inserts, Vapormatt’s Sabre wet blasting system can clean and hone round-shank tools, which are supported on satellites around the periphery of the main turntable.

Courtesy of Vapormatt

Vapormatt’s wet blasting process combines three phases of material (solid, liquid and gas) into a jet that can be directed at different angles and distances, then traversed over the tool surfaces and edges to be treated.