I. PCBN Welding Tools Industry Overview
1.1 Definition and Characteristics
PCBN (Polycrystalline Cubic Boron Nitride) welded tool, is a tool made of Polycrystalline Cubic Boron Nitride as the cutting edge material, which is fixed on the cemented carbide substrate by welding process. Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) is a synthetic super-hard material, the hardness of which is second only to diamond, with a stable crystal structure and high chemical bonding strength. PCBN tools inherit the excellent performance of CBN, with high hardness, high wear resistance, and still maintain good cutting performance at high temperatures, with excellent thermal stability, and can withstand cutting temperatures up to 1000 ℃ or even higher, which effectively prevents the tool from failing due to high-temperature softening. It can withstand cutting temperature up to 1000℃ or even higher, effectively avoiding the failure of tool due to high temperature softening. At the same time, it is chemically inert, and ferrous metals at high temperatures is not easy to chemical reaction, greatly reducing the bonded wear of the tool, suitable for processing all kinds of high hardness, high strength ferrous materials, such as hardened steel, cast iron, etc., to achieve high precision, high efficiency cutting, significantly improve the quality of the workpiece processing and production efficiency.
1.2 Development history
Traced back to the 1950s, the United States General Electric (GE) company took the lead in the high temperature and high pressure conditions to successfully synthesise cubic boron nitride (CBN), to lay the foundation for the birth of the PCBN cutter. 70's, the former Soviet Union, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries have overcome the technical problems, developed as a cutting tool CBN sintered - Polycrystalline Cubic Boron Nitride (Polycrystalline CBN) is the most important material in the world, and it is the most important material in the world. - Polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) as a cutting tool, starting the journey of PCBN tools in the field of cutting applications. At first, PCBN tools were complicated and costly to manufacture, and were only used in aerospace, military and other high-end manufacturing areas for special materials processing. With the progress of material science and manufacturing technology, raw material preparation, sintering process, welding technology is gradually optimised, the tool cost is reduced, the scope of application continues to expand. Nowadays, PCBN tools have been widely penetrated into automotive, energy, moulds and many other industries, becoming an indispensable high-efficiency cutting tool for modern machining, and promoting the manufacturing industry to high-precision, high-efficiency, high-reliability direction.
1.3 Classification and application fields
According to the manufacturing method, PCBN tools can be divided into integral PCBN sintered block tools and welded PCBN tools. The whole PCBN sintered block tool is made of PCBN material with many cutting edges, which is suitable for large cutting volume and high-speed cutting scenarios; the welded PCBN tool is the PCBN tip welded to the cemented carbide substrate, which takes into account the toughness of the cemented carbide and the high hardness and abrasion resistance of the PCBN, with a relatively low cost, and is more widely used. From the point of view of application, in automotive manufacturing, PCBN cutter for engine block, cylinder head, crankshaft, gears and other parts of the processing, can achieve high precision, high efficiency hard cutting, and effectively enhance the performance and reliability of automotive engines; aerospace field, used for titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys, high-strength steels and other difficult-to-machine materials for processing, to meet the aircraft parts of the high-precision, high-reliability harsh requirements; mould manufacturing, for titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys, high-strength steel and other difficult-to-machine materials, to meet the high precision, high-reliability In the field of mould manufacturing, high-speed milling and turning of hardened mould steel can realize milling instead of grinding and turning instead of grinding, which can significantly shorten the mould processing cycle, improve the surface quality and precision of moulds and extend the service life of moulds; in the field of energy, such as gears and bearings processing of wind power equipments and high-strength parts and components processing of petroleum mining equipments, PCBN cutters guarantee the high efficiency and stable operation of equipments by virtue of their excellent performance. Stable operation.
Market Scale and Demand Analysis
2.1 Global Market Scale
Over the past five years, the size of the global PCBN welding tool market has continued to rise. According to market research organisations, the global market size was about USD XX billion in 2018, and has been growing steadily year by year since then, reaching USD XX billion by 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of XX%. This growth trend is due to the accelerated transformation of global manufacturing high-end, aerospace, automotive manufacturing and other areas of high-precision, high-performance cutting tool demand has soared, PCBN welding tools with unique advantages to capture a broad market space. Forecast for the next five years, the global market will continue the growth momentum, is expected to 2027 scale is expected to exceed $ XX billion. The rise of manufacturing in emerging economies, the application of difficult-to-machine materials to expand and continued innovation in machining technology will become the key driving force for market expansion, injecting a steady stream of development momentum for the global PCBN welding tool industry.
2.2 Domestic Market Scale
Domestic PCBN welding tool market in the past five years also showed vigorous development trend. Along with the in-depth implementation of ‘Made in China 2025’ and other strategies, the manufacturing industry has made great strides towards intelligence and precision, and the demand for advanced cutting tools has risen sharply.During the period of 2018-2022, the domestic market size jumped from XX billion yuan to XX billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of more than XX%. PCBN welding tools are widely used in key manufacturing processes such as automotive engine blocks and high-speed rail components, effectively improving processing efficiency and quality. Looking forward to the subsequent development, with the domestic high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy vehicles and other industries booming, it is expected that by 2027, the domestic market size is expected to approach XX billion yuan, local enterprises by virtue of geographic advantage, cost advantage and technological innovation accumulation, will be in this growing market to capture a greater share of the overall upgrading of the industry.
2.3 Market Demand Driving Factors
Upgrading of manufacturing industry is one of the core driving forces. Under the background of intensified global industrial competition, the manufacturing industry of all countries to high-end manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing transformation, parts processing accuracy, surface quality and production efficiency put forward stringent requirements. PCBN welding tool high-precision, high-stability cutting performance to meet the needs of high-end manufacturing, widely used in aircraft engine blades, automotive transmission gears and other key components processing, become a powerful tool to promote industrial upgrading. Difficult-to-machine materials to increase the application of significant demand. Titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys, high hardness alloy steel, etc. in the aerospace, energy, ocean engineering field is widely used, these materials are high strength, poor thermal conductivity, work hardening is serious, the traditional cutting tool is difficult to cope with the task. PCBN welding tool with high hardness, high thermal stability and chemical inertia, in the difficult-to-machine materials cutting advantages, the market demand has risen with the rise of the water. Advances in processing technology to expand the boundaries of the application. High-speed cutting, dry cutting, hard cutting and other advanced processes are becoming increasingly popular, the tool performance requirements are higher, PCBN welding tools can work stably in high-speed, high-temperature conditions, adapt to the new process requirements, prompting its application in more complex machining scenarios, further expanding the market demand space, and build a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the industry.
Third, technological innovation and R & D dynamics
3.1 Key technology breakthroughs
In the field of material innovation, the researchers prepared nano-sized, ultra-fine grain structure PCBN material by optimising the CBN grain growth process, which significantly improved the hardness and wear resistance of the tool, and reduced the edge wear rate by about XX% when machining high hardness alloys. At the same time, the ratio of CBN and bonding agent is precisely adjusted to enhance the toughness of the material, effectively inhibit the chipping phenomenon, and adapt to the intermittent cutting conditions. In terms of coating technology, multi-layer composite coating structure is adopted, such as TiAlN, AlCrN and other coatings alternately stacked, combined with nano-coating technology, the coating thickness is accurately controlled at the nanometer scale, which not only improves the surface hardness and wear resistance of the tool, but also enhances the oxidation and corrosion resistance, and extends the life of the tool by XX% in high-temperature and high-speed cutting. In terms of manufacturing process innovation, laser additive manufacturing technology has been introduced to achieve integrated forming of complex structures of PCBN tools, optimise welding process parameters, and adopt advanced methods such as high-frequency induction brazing and vacuum brazing to ensure that PCBN cutter grains are firmly welded to the cemented carbide substrate, reduce the residual stresses of welding, and improve the overall accuracy and reliability of the tool, and the machining accuracy can reach ± XX μm, which can satisfy the stringent requirements of precision machining.
3.2 Case of Industry-University-Research Co-operation
Taking the cooperation between Zhengzhou University and Zhengzhou Wanchuang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. as an example, the research team of Zhengzhou University invented ‘a PcBN cutter and its preparation method’ relying on the cutting-edge research results of materials science, and by mixing the cubic boron nitride monocrystalline, silicon carbide, organic polysilicon nitride with heat curing additives, pyrolysis, crushing, sintering and other fine steps. High-performance PCBN tools are prepared. The key innovation lies in the fact that the precursor PSN binding agent is uniformly attached to the surface of each cBN single crystal before curing, and the PSN generates SiC and Si3N4 nanocrystals on the surface of cBN grains during sintering, which serves as a uniformly distributed binding agent, and the generated SiC nanocrystals grow into a rod-like structure, which greatly improves the hardness and flexural strength of the tool. The results of 200,000 yuan to transfer the right to apply for scientific and technological achievements to Zhengzhou Wanchuang Intelligent Science and Technology Co., Ltd, the enterprise undertook to quickly put into production line, optimise the process parameters, to achieve the mass production of the new PCBN cutter, the product is used in automotive engine block, wind power gear processing, machining efficiency increased by XX%, the tool life is extended by XX%, the success of the transformation channel from the laboratory to the market, and set an example of cooperation between industry, academia and research for the industry. This has set a model for industry-university-research co-operation.
