Cutting carbon footprint with smart tool management and cemented carbide (WC-Co) upcycling

During the production of a small to medium-sized aircraft, approximately 250,000 rivet holes are required. These must be manufactured according to strict aviation specific technical, quality, and safety standards. High-quality cemented carbide (WC-Co) drilling tools are used to ensure the necessary precision and durability. However, the high energy requirement for production, especially for sintering the WC-Co blanks, and grinding the final tool geometry negatively impacts the carbon footprint of aircraft production. This study aims to analyse the environmental impact of each step in the WC-Co tool production chain and proposes innovative methods to upcycle worn tools without the need of conventional recycling processes. To reduce the climate impact, a novel smart digital tool management system is introduced containing digital twins of the individual tools. This system is complemented with three new methods of upcycling WC-Co drilling tools: regrinding worn tools to smaller diameters, applying a PVD-coating to compensate for diameter deviations, and de- and recoating diamond coatings on WC-Co tools. Preliminary results in modelling the climate impact show that these strategies can reduce the carbon footprint by up to 53 %.

Subjects

Cemented Carbide Upcycling

Digital Twin

Environmental Impact Reduction

Smart Tool Management

Sustainable manufacturing

DDC Class

600: Technology

Options

Cutting carbon footprint with smart tool management and cemented carbide (WC-Co) upcycling