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High speed steels (often abbreviated HSS) are ferrous based alloys of the Fe–C–X multicomponent system where X represents a group of alloying elements comprising mainly Cr, W or Mo, V, and Co. These steels are mainly used for cutting tools, since they are characterized by their capacity to retain a high level of hardness while cutting metals at high speed. Generally, the X component is present in excess of 7%, along with more than 0.60% carbon.
A new development in cutting tools has been made for machining aluminum. Hybrid PVD coatings consisting of a super hard TiSiN base layer and a low friction CrCx/a-C:H top layer are used on cutting tools where the combination of low friction and resistance to abrasion is required. When machining aluminum silicon, CrCx/a-C:H resists the adhesion and galling of aluminum to the cutting tool by reducing friction and TiSiN strongly resists abrasive wear.
