Grooving and Parting Grades Used on Steel and Cast Iron

Walter USA’s Cut GX Tiger-tec Silver CVD grooving and parting grades, the WKP13S, WKP23S and WKP33S, are for use on steel and cast-iron applications. These grades were developed for grooving and longitudinal turning on typical ISO P steels including alloy steel 42CrMo4, bearing steel 100Cr6 and non-alloy quality steel C45, and ISO K cast-iron materials including gray cast iron (EN-GJL), ductile cast iron (EN-GJS) and vermicular cast iron (EN-GJV).

These grooving and parting grades have been introduced in combination with Walter's geometries UD4, UA4, UF4, RD4 along with plunge grooving and parting geometries GD3 and CE4, the company says. This grade and geometry combination complements WSM grades, is enhanced by increases in cutting data and has developments in a wear-resistant cutting material that boosts cutting parameters while maintaining or improving tool life.

All three grades have a thicker aluminum oxide layer with a microstructure designed to reduce friction for resisting crater wear and enhancing cutting speeds. The grains in the coating are uniformly sized and are also oriented to resist crater wear and a second-generation mechanical post-treatment creates compressive stresses in the coating as well as substrate to prevent fractures on the cutting edges. Thus, these CVD grades offer a combination of high-speed crater wear resistance along with tougher substrates/coatings for load carrying capacity, the company says.

Grade WKP13S has wear resistance, can run at high cutting speeds in continuous cuts and can be used for stable conditions in high alloy steels, bearing steels, high hardness gray cast irons and ductile irons (ISO P10 and K20). Grade WKP 23S also has wear resistance for continuous, as well as medium, interrupted cuts.

WKP23S is a universal grade for approximately 80 percent of all applications, from continuous cutting on barstock to machining interrupted cuts. According to the company, this grade is most effective in medium strength and hardness steels as well as cast irons (ISO P20 and K25 materials) and delivers wear resistance and cutting speed.

Grade WKP33S has toughness in addition to wear resistance and can be used for unstable conditions or interrupted cuts and provides toughness during unfavorable machining conditions. Target material groups for this grade are heavy forgings with thick scale as well as tough steel and iron castings (ISO P30, ISO K30), the company says. The silver coating on the flank face also permits wear detection and full usage in all three grades.

These grades have been introduced in combination with Walter's geometries. The edge geometries UD4 (stable edge, heavy cuts in forgings), UF4 (positive edge, chip control, grooving-parting and groove-turning) and RD4 (round edge radius for copy turning) are universal geometries.

The UA4 is a flat top geometry that is designed for cast-iron machining. According to the company, CE4 (cutoff geometry) and GD3 (general parting off and groove-turning application) hold universal applicability across various material groups and have been introduced in the CVD grades.