Development of a Cutting Tool for High-performance Cutting of Railway Rolling Components

High performance cutting (HPC) is used in machining railway parts like wheel sets or axes with large depth of cut and high feeds). The process is accompanied by increased thermal loads causing high concentration of stresses in the contact areas with the tool. This paper presents a set of methods to reduce thermal stress in machining zone in HPC conditions through the use of a special tool system, consisting of carbide cutting inserts with nano-structured multilayer composite coatings and a special scheme for mounting such inserts on tool holder with the use of high heat-conducting ceramic-polymer pads. The study has revealed that the developed tool system can significantly accelerate heat transfer from the insert and increase efficiency. Production tests show that the tool and the new coating in machining rolling stock (of railway) components can improve performance by 80-100%.