Diamond-based polishing tools for industrial production

Based on a feasibility study made possible by an innovation cheque in 2022, 6C Tools is developing new tools for the industrial polishing of high-precision surfaces with the support of RhySearch. Four industrial partners and the OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences are involved in the Innosuisse project.

Forming and vacuum technology relies on components and tools made from hardened steels or carbides with high-quality surfaces. In their manufacture, polishing is often the last, but at the same time very decisive and costly, work step. This is typically carried out using flexible tools in combination with unbound hard material grains (contained in polishing agents or polishing pastes, for example). 
Until now, polishing has mostly been done manually, which is why the quality depends on the employee and can vary greatly. The resulting lack of reproducibility is reflected, for example, in the different service lives of (polished) forming tools, which in turn results in unexpected and sudden service calls. In addition, production efficiency is lost due to the high manual effort and lack of automation. 
Following a feasibility study, which was implemented in 2022 with an innovation cheque, the expanded project consortium - consisting of four industrial partners, OST as a research partner and RhySearch as the main research partner - launched a 26-month innovation project in December 2023. The project partners are developing and testing innovative polishing tools that can be used on CNC machines and thus enable reproducible, automated polishing.
The aim is to reduce production costs, shorten throughput times and, in particular, achieve more repeatable quality in the production of polished high-precision components. Extensive investigations were carried out in the first year of the project. 
While an industrial partner manufactures the innovative polishing tools, RhySearch tests and optimizes their use on the basis of three selected industrial applications. Standardized tests on the ‘MicroHD’ 5-axis milling machine from Kern Microtechnik are used to test different tool geometries and process parameters and characterize their behavior on different materials. 

In addition to material removal and roughness measurements, which are carried out at RhySearch using the 3D profilometer ‘S neox’ from Sensofar, the close collaboration with the OST is valuable for the characterization of surfaces and wear. By utilizing the modern research infrastructure of the Institute of Microtechnology and Photonics (IMP), mechanisms and interactions between tools and different materials are identified and process knowledge is expanded.

In an iterative process of tool design and process characterization, tool generations are optimized for the respective applications. The conclusion after the first year of the project: roughness values Sa1 of less than 15 nm were achieved for all materials used, and even values of less than 7 nm for carbide.

The project is funded by Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency.

Project Duration: December 2023 - January 2026
Industry partner: 6C Tools AG, SFS Group Schweiz AG, TECHsol GmbH, VAT Vakuumventile AG 
Research partner: OST - Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, RhySearch