Automobiles and airplanes are essential for daily transportation. Cutting tools, which are required to process metal and produce components of these products, must be harder than the metal they cut. To realize harder tools, Mitsubishi Materials has been working  on the technological development of a material that applies special metal coatings to the surfaces of cutting tools.

When high-hardness titanium nitride is blended with a high amount of heat-resistant aluminum nitride, it produces a hard, high heat-resistant material. This material is called aluminum titanium nitride, and it is used in the coating for cutting tools. The key is the right balance between the two materials. If an excessive amount of aluminum nitride is added in order to create an aluminum titanium nitride material with a higher heat resistance, it will cause an issue that lowers the hardness. The solution to this issue is to adjust the timing of adding aluminum nitride.

The performance of the material for coating tools is something like the “taste” of food. In fact, Mitsubishi Materials has its own “ultimate recipe.” By adjusting the timing of adding aluminum nitride, we can produce aluminum titanium nitride materials without lowering their hardness despite adding high amounts of aluminum nitride. This proprietary material is called “Al-Rich coating” and plays an active role at component processing sites.