Ceramic Vs Carbide Lathe

Tungsten carbide is heavier than ceramic when compared to a ring of the same size.

Ceramic vs carbide lathe.

There are grades of carbide that will do 600 sfm and you re going to negatively affect the life of the insert by machining too slowly. Ceramic and carbide are very similar in the fact they are both sintered materials just the base and binder are different depending on their application or use. In addition applying indexable drills on a lathe provides some distinct advantages over traditional solid hss or carbide twist drills. Knowledge of when and how to use ceramic grades is important for success.

It is common for a programmer to make a hole with an indexable drill and then step off center and cut the hole to a larger diameter which can eliminate the need for a boring bar. Inserts used a ceramic. B carbide table 2. Some people like the heft of tungsten carbide as it is quite dense and the most similar to traditional metals like gold or platinum though tungsten is a bit heavier.

Silicon carbide sic whiskers are often used to provide additional strength in ceramic inserts. If carbide is around 2 600 vickers hv think of it as roughly. As for hardness tungsten carbide is measured in the vickers scale well beyond the range of the rockwell c scale. 1000sfm at around 004 ipr we used tngn 454 wg300 greenleaf insert with a t land i forget what size it was.

In general it is a continuous machining process that allows a single insert to be engaged in the cut for relatively long periods of time. Ceramic grades can be applied in a broad range of applications and materials most often in high speed turning operations but also in grooving and milling operations. The specific properties of each ceramic grade enable high productivity when applied correctly. Whisker ceramic inserts are for moderate hardness machining at high surface speeds.

Ceramic inserts are created in a process very similar to that used for cemented carbide. Hard turning and milling turning is an almost ideal operation for ceramics. Lathes are a bit smarter but also more complicated. So too can carbide and ceramic cutting tools achieve higher speeds regardless of the workpiece material than do ones made of high speed steel hss which is positively turtlelike compared to its harder more wear resistant brethren.

High pressures are also used. Because ceramics do not bond as easily as other materials much higher temperatures must be used during sintering. In comparison ceramic is quite the opposite and is considered to be very lightweight. You are probably on the low end of speeds for a ceramic insert at 600 sfm.