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TMC45

Change to Frictec's unique TMC45 friction surfacing process to multiply the life of your machine knives and wear parts

                        BENEFITS

  • Greatly increased knife life

  • Measurably improved cut quality

  • Reduction of annual parts expenditure

  • Reduced machine down time

  • Lower maintenance costs

  • Repeated performance after regrind

  • Recognised benefits in overall production efficiencies


                         FEATURES

  • Finely distributed bonded carbides
  • Excellent adhesion with no delamination

  • 65-67 HRC high hardness level

  • Tough malleable surface

  • Bi-metallic nature of material giving flexibility to the knife

  • Hot forging process without reaching the fusion point

  • Hardness controlled by CNC +/- 0.5HRC

  • Lower residual stresses


Friction Surfacing Process

Frictec's unique Friction Surfacing process allows special hard wearing alloys to be deposited directly at a knife's cutting edge. The first step is to mill a recess at the edge of a tough substrate and then fill the recess using Friction Surfacing. After finishing processes, the result is a blade with a hard, wear resistant edge and a tough backing material. With the extremely strong bond, that is formed between the coated deposit (TMC45) and the substrate, there is no risk of delamination.

TMC45 provides significant performance advantages over conventional machine knives. A wide variety of other wear parts can also be manufactured to offer the same unique characteristics.

A key inherent benefit of our process is the near ideal microstructure developed in the deposited material, which consists of an ultra-fine martensitic matrix with fine carbides uniformly distributed throughout the structure.

Wear resistance= Hardness + Carbides.

Wear resistance is not dependent on the hardness of steel alone. Although hardness is an important factor, the combination of both hardness and the enhanced carbide formation present in TMC45's microstructure is the key to improved initial sharpness and increased operating life.

Features of the Friction Surfacing Process:

  • Excellent bonding with no inclusions, porosity or oxidation
  • Negligible dilution
  • Improved coating material properties
  • Small localised HAZ (Heat Affected Zone)
  • Dense, clean and fine microstructure
  • No cracking in the HAZ
  • 'Non-weldable' (super) alloys can be deposited
  • Automatic and highly repeatable process
  • No melting of materials
  • Similar or dissimilar materials can be bonded

Friction surfacing is a process derived from a friction welding whereby a coating material, in a rod form (termed the mechtrode TM) is rotated under pressure, generating a plasticised layer in the rod at the interface with the substrate. By moving a substrate across the face of the rotating rod, a plasticised layer from 0.2mm to several millimetres thick is deposited (depending on mechtrode diameter and coating material). The resulting composite material is created to provide the characteristics demanded by any given application.

During the coating process, the applied layer of metal reaches a temperature near the melting point whilst simultaneously undergoing plastic deformation. The coating is thus the product of a hot forging action, as opposed to the casting mechanism inherent in welding and spraying processes. This important difference means that many of the defects commonly associated with these techniques are avoided.

Friction surfacing has significant advantages over competing processes. It introduces machine tool technology to surfacing engineering, making the process reliable and repeatable. It is also a solid phase process that metallurgically bonds the coating to the substrate without the problems of porosity, slag inclusions or dilution experienced with traditional welding processes.

Inherent Benefits of the Friction Surfacing Process

Change to Frictec’s unique TMC45 friction surfacing process to greatly improve the life of your machine knives and wear parts.

Frictec's TMC45 process uses Friction Surfacing Technology to manufacture parts that are both very wear resistant and tough, the ideal properties for knife applications and wear components in the packaging and processing industry. The benefits included:

  • Lower overall component purchase costs
  • Free capacity from greatly reduced downtime
  • Less maintenance and set up costs
  • Reduced chance of component chipping or breakage
  • Greatly increased component life

Friction Surfacing has significant advantages over competing processes. It introduces the use of surface engineering to machine tool technology, improving the process by making it reliable and repeatable.

Research and Development

Frictec is the only company able to offer Friction Surfacing on a commercial basis and has many years experience applying the technology to practical wear applications. We continue to develop the process and its capabilities with our in-house R&D team working in cooperation with various industrial and academic partners. With our specialised equipment and dedicated R&D facility, Frictec is able to develop ideal composite materials for new applications. With the appropriate material selection, specific characteristics can be obtained to achieve:

  • Improved wear resistance
  • Protection against corrosion
  • Homogenous repairs to valuable components
  • Desired thermal/electrical conductive properties

Wide ranges of component sizes and geometries have been successfully coated and many materials, including specialist alloys, have been investigated and analysed. An extensive database has been established, which has led to the development of sophisticated process modelling software used to help predict process parameters for new materials.

Machine capabilities include depositing steel mechtrode diameters from 2mm-32mm with linear tracks as long as 2m in a single run. The following are examples of geometries that have been successfully Friction Surfaced:

  • Onto a flat surface
  • Into an edge or central recess
  • Pre-formed hole spot deposits
  • Precise location deposits

Discover how you can benefit from Frictec's unique TMC 45 Friction Surfacing Technology.

The sectors we operate in range from food and drink to beauty and pharmaceutical.


Explore Frictec's wide range of machine knives and consumable wear parts here.

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