Welcome back to our series on the different types of coatings we offer to make your cutting tools provide better performance. Cutting tool coatings are designed to improve wear properties via higher hardness, increased thermal stability and reduced coefficients of friction. In our first two posts, we discussed the properties and uses of AlTiN and FX3.

AlTiN is a general-purpose coating with high aluminum content. Applied to the tool with a coating thickness between 1-4 microns, it provides excellent heat and oxidation resistance for application in a broad range of materials.

FX3 is a super-strong coating that has been engineered to give an optimum balance between the toughness of the core layer and the abrasion resistance of the top nano-layer. An upgrade from AlTiN for materials like stainless steel and Titanium.

If you do a lot of hard milling or machining of Nickel Alloys, you’re going to be very interested in what our next coating can do for you. Meet FX1.

A nanocomposite coating based of Titanium and silicon, our FX1 coating is ideal for increasing performance and extending tool life (up to 30%) versus more standard coatings like AlTiN. This super-hard coating can be found in any industry that needs an end mill that has a tough core with extreme wear and high heat resistance for milling hard materials. Examples include die mold (D2, A2 tool steels), aerospace (Inconel^®), and military (4140 hardened alloy steels).

Offered standard on our Hurrimill 1030 Series of high-performance end mills in 4, 5 or 7 flutes, FX1 is one of many in-house coating technologies GWS applies to both standard and custom tools.

With a coating thickness of 1-4 µm, FX1 offers maximum protection against heat and tool wear. It resists heat up to 2,192°F before it starts to oxidize and break down. It’s also harder than ALTiN or AlCrN – the top layer has an extremely high nanohardness number (41). Efficiency is also enhanced by a low coefficient of friction for less resistance.

FX1 is applied to our tools using high performance physical vapor deposition (PVD) units in our coating facility. Keeping the process in-house gives us total control on quality control and turnaround time. And since at GWS Tool Group, Custom Comes Standard, we can always add FX1 to a custom tool designed specifically to your needs.

Check out out tool coatings page to see if FX1 or any of our other coating options can help you achieve better results. For more information, email us at sales@gwstoolgroup.com and ask how we can help you today!