The Advantages Of PCBN Cutting Tools, CBN Inserts Long Tool Life. CBN cutting tools have properties which resist chipping and cracking and provide uniform hardness and abrasion resistance in all directions. They may outperform conventional cutting tools by as much as 50 times. Reduced tool wear results in closer tolerances on work pieces, and fewer tool adjustments keep machine down-time to a minimum. The increased reliability of CBN cutting tools makes them a major factor in automating machining operations. Cutting Hard, Tough Materials. CBN cutting tools are so hard that they can efficiently machine steel with hardness of Rc 45 and above. CBN is also used for machining cobalt-base and nickel-base high-temperature alloys with hardness of Rc 35 and above. Many of these materials are so hard and tough that they must be machined at relatively low speeds. Conventional grinding is also used but is a relatively slow metal-removal process. CBN cutting tools have a high resistance to impact and therefore can machine parts with interrupted cuts and tough abrasive scale. High Quality Products. Because the cutting edges of CBN cutting tools wear very slowly, they produce high-quality parts faster and at lower cost per piece than do conventional cutting tools. The need for the inspection of parts is greatly reduced as is the adjustment of the machine tool to compensate for cutting-tool wear maintenance. This results in better control over work piece shape and size, which produces consistent part quality far beyond that possible with other cutting tools. Uniform Surface Finish. Surface finishes of less than 10 micron. are possible, which often eliminate the need for relatively slow finishing operations such as conventional grinding.