Development of cutting tools

The development of cutting tools occupies an important position in the history of human progress. As early as the 28th to 20th centuries BC, China had copper cutting tools such as brass cones and copper cones, drills, and knives. In the late Warring States period (third century BC), copper cutting tools were made due to the mastery of carburizing technology. The drill bits and saws at that time were somewhat similar to modern flat drills and saws.

However, the rapid development of cutting tools came in the late 18th century with the development of machines such as steam engines. In 1783, René of France first made milling cutters. In 1792, Maudslay of Britain made taps and dies. The earliest documented record of the invention of twist drills was in 1822, but it was not produced as a commodity until 1864. At that time, the cutting tools were made of integral high-carbon tool steel, and the permissible cutting speed was about 5 meters per minute. In 1868, Mushet of Britain made alloy tool steel containing tungsten. In 1898, Taylor and White of the United States invented high-speed tool steel. In 1923, Schletter of Germany invented cemented carbide. When alloy tool steel is used, the cutting speed of the tool is increased to about 8 meters per minute. When high-speed steel is used, it is increased by more than two times. When cemented carbide is used, it is more than two times higher than that of high-speed steel. The surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the workpiece processed by cutting are also greatly improved. Due to the high price of high-speed steel and cemented carbide, welding and mechanical clamping structures appear in the tool. Between 1949 and 1950, the United States began to use indexable inserts on turning tools, and soon they were applied to milling cutters and other tools. In 1938, Degussa of Germany obtained a patent for ceramic tools. In 1972, General Electric of the United States produced polycrystalline artificial diamond and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride blades. These non-metallic tool materials enable the tool to cut at a higher speed.

In 1969, Sandvik Steel of Sweden obtained a patent for the production of titanium carbide coated cemented carbide blades using chemical vapor deposition. In 1972, Bangsa and Lagulan of the United States developed a physical vapor deposition method to coat a titanium carbide or titanium nitride hard layer on the surface of cemented carbide or high-speed steel tools. The surface coating method combines the high strength and toughness of the base material with the high hardness and wear resistance of the surface layer, thus giving the composite material better cutting performance.