Pioneering work for greener cutting tools

Hard coatings can make cutting tools more efficient, longer lasting and thus more sustainable, but their production is energy-intensive and often dependent on critical raw materials. The new CD Laboratory for Sustainable Hard Coatings, headed by Head of Laboratory Michael Tkadletz at Montanuniversität Leoben, is therefore conducting research, supported by the commerical partner CERATIZIT Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., in the areas of energy efficiency, material savings and functional optimisation. The aim is to lay the foundations for saving critical raw materials in the production of hard material coatings, or even replacing them completely, while significantly reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. At the same time, the functionality of the coatings (and thus of the cutting tools that use them) is to be improved.