Surface Finishing & Coating

Articles • August 1, 2008 • Rich Moellenberg

Small Engines, Big Performance

Honing an engine's cylinder bores enhances their geometry, surface finish and dimensional accuracy, improving their fit and alignment with pistons and thereby increasing the engine's life and power density while decreasing its vibration, friction and emissions.

Articles • July 1, 2008 • Dr. LaRoux K. Gillespie

Drag Race

Drag finishing—fixturing parts and dragging them through abrasive media—can prevent part-to-part contact, achieve tight edge tolerances, impart fine finishes and be used on parts with a number of characteristics: delicate, high value, complex geometries and multiple contours.

Articles • April 1, 2008 • Joseph Hazelton

Harder With Silicon

Several types of cutting tools can be protected with coatings harder than regular A1TiN coatings by combining A1TiN grains with an amorphous silicon-nitride matrix.

Articles • March 1, 2008 • Markus Heuwinkel

High-Flying Parts

To increase productivity, the aerospace industry should consider different tool materials for faster cutting speeds, tool coatings for reduced wear, and machine tools for quicker cycle times.

Articles • October 1, 2007 • Jim Haag

New Angle on Aluminum

PVD titanium-diboride coating machines aluminum without built-up edge.

Articles • June 1, 2007 • Qi Wang

Better Finishing Through Chemistry

Chemically assisted finishing for better part performance and durability. Microsurfacing is an alternative finishing process with benefits that extend beyond parts with supersmooth surfaces.

Articles • May 1, 2007 • Alan Richter

It’s a Blast

The role of microabrasive blasting when finishing implantable medical parts.

Articles • December 1, 2006 • Dr. LaRoux K. Gillespie

Burr Down

Machinists can reduce or prevent burrs in the metalcutting process.

Articles • October 1, 2006 • Fred Teeter

Thin Wins

Thin-film coatings evolve to improve cutting performance and accommodate new tool and workpiece materials.

Articles • August 1, 2006 • Dr. LaRoux K. Gillespie

Baby Teeth, Big Bite

Files and rotary burs are common metalworking tools, but choosing and using them correctly takes practice.

Articles • October 1, 2005 • Alan Richter

Recipe for Enhancement

Compared to AlTiN and TiAlN, the percentage of aluminum is higher in an aluminum-chromium-nitride PVD tool coating.

Articles • October 1, 2005 • Bill Kennedy

Decisive Deburring

Robotic deburring eliminates part inconsistencies that occur when deburring by hand