Assessment of enhancing the performance and wear characteristics of high speed steel circular saw blades through ion implantation

During the ion implantation process ions are formed in the ion source, extracted and accelerated towards the component surface through a vacuum system. They become buried within the substrate and do not form a discrete coating layer at the energies used in the current study. For certain applications, ion implantation techniques have been beneficial in terms of improving corrosion, wear and fatigue resistance and also for increasing fracture toughness and surface hardness. The present paper assesses the effectiveness of ion implantation as a means of enhancing the performance and wear characteristics of high speed steel circular saw blades. Simulation techniques have been developed to evaluate the performance and life characteristics of circular saw blades through testing segments that contain representative teeth removed from a full blade. Results indicate that in terms of both performance and wear the application of ion implantation treatments has minimal effect under normal operating conditions. Improvements were observed at higher cutting speeds, but under these conditions other advanced surface engineering treatments were shown to be more successful.