According to the supplier, the Multicon material is suitable for both wet and dry machining. AlCrN coatings have been used alongside AlTi(Si)N-based coatings in steel processing for many years, and were previously also used as a sputtering variant at Cemecon. The majority of the coatings used are deposited using the arc process. Although these coating systems have proven their worth, hardly any improvements in performance have been possible.
The HiPIMS coating process, on the other hand, produces very smooth, dense and homogeneous coatings with high adhesion. This opens up new potential in steel machining. "The new HiPIMS coating material Multicon is the further development of our AlCrN sputter coatings with advantages in terms of performance and tool life, especially compared to arc variants," says Manfred Weigand, Product Manager Round Tools at Cemecon.According to the supplier, Multicon closes the gap between the HiPIMS coating materials Ferrocon and Inoxacon. The Multicon coatings are 1.5 or 3 µm thick and are suitable for application temperatures of up to 1100 °C.
In practice, users have achieved tool life increases of around 30 % with Multicon when milling heat-treated steel (1400 N/mm²) with a solid carbide milling cutter compared to an AlCrN coating deposited using the arc process. According to the supplier, some users even report tool life improvements of between 50 and 80 %.