JPH02138464A - Coating equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To coat a superhard TiN film on the surface of a cutting tool member at the ordinary temp. with excellent adhesive force by implanting nitrogen ions into the cutting tool member in a vacuum coating chamber from an ion forming chamber and also sputtering Ti from a sputtering device. CONSTITUTION:A cutting tool member 13 housed in a sample chamber 12 is infiltrated into a coating chamber 11 of a vacuum state and thereafter gaseous N2 is supplied into an ion forming chamber 14 through a pipe 15 and also microwaves of 2.45GHz are supplied through an introduction window 18. An outside coil 20 is electrified and electronic cyclotron resonance is caused in the chamber 14 to generate plasma. Large amounts of nitrogen ions are generated and accelerated by the acceleration electrodes 16, 22 and the surface of the tool member 13 is sputtered and cleaned thereby. Then Ti is sputtered from the Ti target 23b of a sputtering device 23 and a superhard TiN film is formed on the surface of the cutting tool member 13 at the ordinary temp. with excellent adhesive properties.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a coating apparatus for cutting tool members.

B1 Summary of the Invention This invention provides a coating device in which a cutting tool member is coated at room temperature with ions obtained in an ion generation chamber in a coating chamber and Ti sputtering from a Ti target member from a sputtering device. There is no need to heat the tool member to a high temperature, and the coating has excellent adhesion at room temperature, has a high film density, and can be coated with high quality.

C8 Conventional technology In factories that manufacture automobiles and industrial machinery, NC machines and M
A C (machining center) has been introduced to improve productivity. In recent years, high-hardness materials such as super steel, cermet, CBN, and diamond, which have good processing accuracy and can perform high-speed, high-feed cutting, have replaced high-speed steel (high-speed steel) as cutting tools used in such rationalized equipment. It has come to be used.

The cutting tools mentioned above have wear-resistant and anti-TiC (
Products coated with compounds such as titanium carbide (titanium carbide) and AQ*Oa have come to be used in large quantities. When the cutting tool edge is coated with the above-mentioned compound, approximately 5
Although it has become possible to improve the cutting ability by more than twice as much, the coating compound described above is expensive, so it has not yet been possible to completely coat the cutting edge of a cutting tool.

However, as the blade edge coated as described above is used to cut machine parts, the coating film on the blade edge gradually disappears. Furthermore, cutting tools such as solid drills, end mills, and bob cutters that are no longer sharp are being reused by having their cutting edges polished using specialized polishing machines located in factory tool polishing areas.

The cutting ability of the cutting edge after re-sharpening is reduced by about 40% compared to the initial one, and in the case of a solid drill, the part most involved in cutting is not coated as shown in Figure 3, so the machining accuracy is reduced. will decrease significantly. Therefore, the time until the next re-polishing is shortened. As a result, tools that have deteriorated in cutting quality are re-polished and re-coated by a manufacturer specializing in coatings, but coatings are expensive and have not become widespread.

Furthermore, recently, disposable coated cutting edges called throw-away tips have been used in large quantities as cutting tools because they are inexpensive.

However, although there is a desire to re-polish and re-coat the above-mentioned chips and reuse them, the cost of coating is still too high, which is preventing their widespread use.

D. Problems to be Solved by the Invention As mentioned above, it is common practice to re-coat coated tools with excellent cutting ability in-house, or to purchase uncoated cutting tools and coat them in-house. What is not done is T IN, T
To coat compounds such as r C, A Q t 03, very expensive and large vacuum equipment or special gases (e.g. T i C124, CCQ
This is because the coating is performed using the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method, which uses dangerous gases such as -, and the PVD (physical vapor deposition) method, which uses special techniques such as ion implantation and sputtering. For this reason, there are the following problems, and coating is generally not performed.

(1) The equipment described in item i cannot be handled by ordinary workers.

(2) The above equipment must be used in a place with a good environment.

(3) The above equipment is expensive and requires too much equipment and consumption costs.

(4) Coating the cutting edge of cutting tools is not done in machining factories because it is a specialized technique.

(5) Conventional coating methods require heating materials such as high-speed steel to about 400°C (500°C or more for carbide base materials), so the heating time is short and the film formation time is 30°C. It can be done in about 3 to 5 μR in about minutes.

However, cooling takes a long time. (Removal is 200
℃ or less) Also, the higher the temperature, the better the film quality, but if the temperature is too high, there is a risk that the base material will change.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to coat a cutting tool with a compound that is hard at room temperature without heating it to a high temperature, and has excellent adhesion to the base material. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a coating device that has a high film density and is capable of coating and ink of good quality.

E2 Means for Solving Problems This invention provides a sample chamber in which a member to be coated is set, a coating chamber for coating the coating member introduced from the sample chamber with a compound having hardness, and a coating chamber for coating the coating member with a compound having hardness. An ion generation chamber is connected to the chamber, into which an ion generation gas is introduced, and high frequency power is supplied to cause an internal discharge to generate ions through the action of electron cyclotron resonance.
a sputtering device that is provided at a portion opposite to the portion connected to the coating chamber described in q, and uses the action of ions from the ion generation chamber to deposit a compound having a hardness of 1. It consists of

Further, an accelerating electrode is provided in the ion generation chamber to accelerate the ions introduced into the coating chamber.

21 Operation: High-frequency power is supplied to the ion generation chamber connected to the coating chamber to cause discharge, and plasma is generated in the chamber by the action of electron cyclotron resonance to produce a large amount of nitrogen ions. These ions are introduced into the coating chamber to sputter the surface layer of the member to be coated. Thereafter, the sputtering device with the compound is operated to sputter, for example Ti, onto the coating member.

Alternatively, ions are accelerated using an ion accelerating electrode and implanted into the member to be coated, and then a compound such as Ti is sputtered.

G. Example An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a coating chamber, and this coating chamber 11 coats the cutting edge of a member to be coated 13 made of, for example, a solid drill, introduced from a sample chamber 12 connected to the lower part of the figure. conduct.

To the right of the coating chamber 1 in the figure is an ion generation chamber 1.
4 in a row.

A nitrogen gas introduction pipe 15 is provided at the right end of the ion generation chamber 14 in the drawing. A first electrode 16 serving as an ion accelerating electrode is provided on the inside of the ion generation chamber of this pipe 15. 1st
The electrode I6 is connected to a DC power source (not shown) via the pipe 15. 17 is an insulating member.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a 2.45 GHz microwave introduction window provided in the ion generation chamber 14, and high frequency power generated by a microwave oscillator (not shown) is supplied to this window 18 via a waveguide 19. Said ion generation chamber! An air-core coil 20 for causing electron cyclotron resonance (hereinafter referred to as ECR) is provided outside the coil 4. This coil 20 generates plasma in the ion generation chamber I4 by the action of ECH.

A mesh-shaped second electrode 22 serving as an ion accelerating electrode is provided between an insulating member 2I and connected to a DC power source at the far-throwing portion of the coating chamber 11 and the ion generation chamber 14. 23 is a sputtering device; this sputtering device 23
is provided in the coating chamber 11 facing the ion generation chamber I4. The sputtering device 23 includes a magnetron cathode 23a and the magnetron cathode 2.
For example, the coating member attached to 3a is T.
It is composed of an i-target 23b and an N gas introduction pipe 23c.

Reference numeral 24 denotes an exhaust hole for evacuating the coating chamber 11, and is connected to a vacuum exhaust system to be described later.

25 is an ammeter.

Figure 2 is a configuration diagram of the vacuum evacuation system, and in Figure 2,
3I is a high vacuum pump, and this high vacuum pump 31 is connected to a rotary pump 33 through an exhaust valve 32, and is also connected to the coating chamber 1 through a main valve 34. connected to. Coating chamber 11 and rotary pump 33 are connected via exhaust valve 35.

The high vacuum pump 31 and the sample chamber 12 are connected via an exhaust valve 36 and a trap 37. Further, the sample chamber 12 is connected to a rotary pump 33 via a roughing valve 38 and a filter 39 in series. 40 is a load lock valve (gate valve) that connects the coating chamber 11 and the sample chamber 12. Reference numeral 41 denotes a drive device for introducing the member to be coated in the sample chamber 12 into the coating chamber 11. Note that LS, , LSz are limit switches. Reference numeral 42 denotes a door through which a member to be coated is taken in and out of the sample chamber 12. 43, 44.45 beam valve, 46.47.48
is a filter, and 49, 50, 51.52 are gauges.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

First, the coating chamber 11 is evacuated to below IO-'Torr by the vacuum evacuation system shown in FIG.
N gas is introduced into the ion generation chamber 14 from the pipe 15, and the flow rate is automatically adjusted so that the pressure inside the coating chamber 11 is about 0.05 Pa. On the other hand, a solid drill, for example, which becomes the member to be coated I3 is housed in the sample chamber 12, and the drive device 41 is operated to rotate and introduce the member to be coated I3 from the sample chamber 12 into the coating chamber 11.

Next, microwave power of 2.45 GHz is radiated into the ion generation chamber 14 from the microwave introduction window 18 provided in the ion generation chamber 14 to cause a discharge inside. here,
The reason for using microwaves in the 2.45G1-1z band is that although it is possible to cause a discharge using DC voltage or a high frequency band of 13.56MHz, it is difficult to convert nitrogen into atoms due to the lack of excitation energy. This is because the lifetime of nitrogen ions generated at the same time is short.

Once a discharge occurs within the ion generation chamber 14, the coil 20 is energized to generate a magnetic field of 875 Gauss that causes ECR within the ion generation chamber 14.

As a result, ECR plasma is generated within the ion generation chamber 14, and a large amount of nitrogen ions are produced. The generated ions are introduced into the coating chamber 11 and are applied to the member to be coated I3.
Sputter the surface layer and then clean that area.

Next, the sputtering device 23 is operated to move the Ti target 23b attached to the magnetron cathode 23a to the coating chamber 1! Sputtering is performed by N ions present in the material. Sputtering is performed by applying a DC voltage to the magnetron cathode 23a. In addition, coating chamber 1
Since the sputtering speed of Ti is slow with N- ions only in 1, N,
Gas is blown onto the Ti through the pipe 23c to concentrate the discharge near the Ti target 23b, and the magnetron efficiently sputters the Ti.

However, N! If the amount of gas introduced is too large, the N° ion implantation ability will decrease, so the pressure inside the coating chamber 11 should be kept at 0. I
It is necessary to suppress it to below Pa.

As described above, when 1'i is deposited by sputtering on the member to be coated I3, it reacts with N to chemically create TiN, and the member to be coated 13
is deposited on. However, the coating does not have a stoichiometric composition, the adhesion to the member to be coated 13 is a little poor, and the film density is poor. As a result, the stoichiometry is further improved, and due to the ion mixing effect, a TiN coating film with excellent adhesion to the member to be coated and a good film density can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the N ions generated in the ion generation chamber 14 are normally transferred to the ion generation chamber 14 by the action of a divergent magnetic field.
4 to the coating chamber 11,
The ion energy at this time is as low as several tens of eV. For this reason, it is not possible to implant ions into the cutting edge of the member to be coated 13, for example, a solid drill, and the cutting edge can only be sputter etched to clean the cutting edge surface layer as described above.

Therefore, the first step was to enable ion implantation. Second electrode 1
Apply a DC voltage to 6.22 to accelerate the N ions and implant them into the blade edge.

The amount and acceleration of ion implantation are controlled by microwave power and DC voltage, and determined from the current value and time.

Next, the vacuum evacuation system shown in FIG. 2 will be described. A high vacuum pump 31 is connected to a main valve 34 at the top of the coating chamber II.
It is installed through the coating chamber 1 to prevent powder generated during coating and dust mixed in from the outside air from entering the pump, and from lo-1 to lo-7 Torr.
1 in a short time (approximately IO minutes). This uses a turbo molecular pump. Also, there is a coating room for protection against earthquakes, shocks, etc. l on a stand (not shown)
It floated from the ground using an air spring. rotary pump 33
was attached to a frame (not shown), and the exhaust system was made flexible using a bellows (made of SUS) tube (not shown). Here, when a start switch (not shown) is pressed to operate the system, the system operates according to a preset order. Therefore, the operator only needs to take the member to be coated into and out of the sample chamber 12.

Furthermore, if the operator wishes to take out or put in or take out a member to be coated during operation of the system, he or she can do so by operating an emergency switch, for example. moreover,
The progress of each system's processes can be visually monitored.

Using the above-mentioned example, the cutting edge of a commonly used high speed steel drill with a diameter of I5φ was coated with 5 μl of TiN.
When using this drill to machine 845G steel, it was found from experimental results that the lifespan was five times longer when using the drill with or without coating. Further, after polishing a drill whose coating has been removed by cutting and preparing the cutting edge, the cutting edge is wet-cleaned and dried, and then the surface of the cutting edge is sputter-cleaned according to the above embodiment. After that, T
Perform iN ion mixing evaporation and add 5 μl of Ti to the blade edge.
Cutting was performed using a drill coated with N, and the cutting ability and lifespan were the same as above.

Furthermore, a solid hob cutter (outer diameter 70, inner diameter 27, total length 70j+x) used for gear groove machining module I
= 3, straight teeth, number of teeth 11, number of teeth 24, treated in the same manner as above, coated with 5 μl of TiN on the cutting edge, and coated with carburized material (
-HB180) gear grooves were machined, and the results were as shown in the table below.

In addition to the above, a cutter that could no longer be cut was polished, the cutting edge was adjusted, and then a coating was applied according to the above-mentioned example and cutting was performed, but the cutting ability did not deteriorate.

Coating each of the cutting tools mentioned above using conventional methods requires heating to approximately 400°C, which not only takes too much time to cool down after heating and coating, but also causes the component (base material) itself to change due to heat. There is a risk of it happening. However, according to this embodiment, it is possible to coat TiN with excellent film quality at room temperature without requiring heating. Moreover, the coating time is about 3
It can be carried out at about 0 degrees Celsius, and the operations required for coating can be easily performed even by an operator who has no knowledge of how many ships there are.

H6 Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, there is no need to heat the member to be coated to a high temperature, and a compound (
For example, it has the advantage of being able to be coated with T i N ).

In addition, by accelerating ions with an accelerating electrode,
This method has the advantage that ion implantation into the member to be coated can be performed reliably, and the compound adheres extremely strongly to the coating.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a vacuum exhaust system of the embodiment of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a solid drill. This is an explanatory diagram of the construction. 11... coating chamber, 12... sample chamber, 13.
... Member to be coated, 14... Ion generation chamber, 1
6゜22...1st. 2nd electrode, I8...Microwave introduction window, 20...Coil, 23...Svawata device. 2 people outside

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) a sample chamber in which a member to be coated is set; a coating chamber in which the member to be coated introduced from the sample chamber is coated with a compound having hardness;
An ion generation chamber is connected to this coating chamber, into which an ion generation gas is introduced, and high frequency power is supplied to cause an internal discharge to generate ions through the action of electron cyclotron resonance. is provided in a part opposite to a part connected to the coating chamber,
A coating apparatus comprising: a sputtering apparatus for depositing a compound having the hardness on the member to be coated using the action of ions from the ion generation chamber. (2) The coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an acceleration electrode is provided in the ion generation chamber to accelerate the ions introduced into the coating chamber.