Project: Tough nanostructured ceramic coating to double tool life time in hot forging of gear

The forging industry is a key link between critical manufacturing segments - metal suppliers (both ferrous and nonferrous) and end user industries. Forgings, which appear in 20% of the Gross Domestic Product of Europe, are essential to the European industrial economy._x000D__x000D_Forging imparts advantages that few processes can duplicate. Forging can be manufactured from readily available bar stock, almost all metals and alloys can be forged, there are few restrictions on part size, forgings can produce near-net shape, scrap free, high tolerance features, the products are fully recyclable, forging impart high strength and reliability to components, forging typically have relatively low life cycle costs. _x000D_While forging went through several improvements during the industrial revolution and the two world wars COly dealing with the actuation power, the heating source, and automation, no breakthrough advances can be recorded on the tools used – the tool life time being the most wanted. The problems that forging is facing are 1) hot formed parts usually require further processing to reach the final shape; 2) the downtime due to tool substitution and recalibration is one of the largest voice in the final part cost, making an increase in the tool life a priority._x000D__x000D_This project aims at the design and production of a new generation of the most widely used type of tools: Dies for shaping automotive steel parts by hot forging at 800 to 1000ºC. The heart of the invention is a radical redesign of the coating architecture through a combination of numerical simulation and combinatorial experimentation. New nanostructured coatings based on AlTiCrN, AlCrN/SiNx, and (Al,Cr)OxNy will be synthesized in tailored multilayer or gradient structures, using newly developed industrial arc-PVD systems, and designed to maximum performance based on a combinatorial knowledge-based optimization, guided by numerical simulation of the application contact mechanics._x000D__x000D_As a demonstrator, we selected a tool for forging a conical gear used in the car differential system, Fig.1 in the appendix, which has a life time of 16'000 hits . Our target is to in-crease the life time of the tool to twice the actual life time thus 32'000 hits. Of equal importance will be to enhance the surface quality of the produced parts towards a true net shape production, thus avoiding the necessity of a machining step to reach the final shape. The use of improved surface treatment techniques and especially of novel coatings will furthermore diminish the use of lubricants, thus enabling a more environmentally benign production process even for more demanding steel types._x000D__x000D_The success of this project will give the European automotive manufacturers a competitive advantage on the part costs which could translate into lower final product prices, contributing to creating a higher demand and thus increase employment rates in this strongly competitive business._x000D_To reach our technical goal, it is proposed to control all the technological aspects involved in tool production, namely the selection of the hot-working tool steel substrate beyond standard grades such as H11, its heat and thermochemical (gas or plasma nitriding) treatments, the surface preparation step prior to coating deposition (microblasting, polishing), and as a key element, the development of high-temperature wear resistant coatings and their deposition by an industrial PVD route._x000D__x000D_The major challenges the tool will have to withstand are the high temperature, the thermal fatigue, oxidation, wear, and work material seizure._x000D_The consortium developed for this ambitious task includes DMX, a French company leader in coating processing for manufacturing tools, PLATIT, a Swiss producer of industrial PVD systems with known capability and flexibility to design novel coatings, the laboratory for mechanics of materials and nanostructure at EMPA (Swiss Federal laboratory for materials science and technology) with extensive knowledge in coating design and characterization._x000D__x000D_

Acronym TOUGHTOOLS (Reference Number: 8005)
Duration 01/07/2013 - 30/06/2016
Project Topic This project proposes a fundamentally improved combined surface treatment process for a new performance generation of hot forging tools. Heart of the innovation is the design of novel nanostructured tough, high-temperature wear resistant physical vapor deposition coatings.
Network Eurostars
Call Eurostars Cut-Off 9

Project partner

Number Name Role Country
3 DMX SAS Partner France
3 PLATIT AG Coordinator Switzerland
3 Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research Partner Switzerland