抄録
For improvement of the coated cutting tools′ life-span, their regrinding and recoating are commonly used. Successful regrinding and recoating require previous hard film removal or decoating. Up to date chemical processes were commonly used for decoating, however they have several known issues, such as chemical waste generation, operation and handling hazards, cobalt removal from the cemented carbide tools, etc. This paper presents a novel method of hard coating removal from variety of cutting tools such as end mills, drills, insert cutters, hob cutters, etc. The method is based on the ion beam etching process. Ar working gas was utilized for the metal based composite films (TiN, TiAlN, AlCrN, etc) decoating, while O2 gas was utilized for removal of carbon based thin films such as DLC and PCD. The etching rates of various films were measured and discussed in terms of physical sputtering in case of Ar process and ion assisted reactive etching in the case of O2 process. It was shown that literally any sort of thin film used in today′s coating industry can be successfully removed with the ion beam etching method. Reported decoating technique is environmentally friendly, safe and highly efficient alternative for the conventional methods.
