Materials & Coatings

Regal is committed to offering the most advanced cutting tool materials and coatings to help our customers meet even the most demanding of requirements in a cost-effective manner. These include:

A Brief History

The progression of advances in tool steel may not mirror electronics, but over the last 100 years, enormous strides have been made to advance the cutting and threading of more and more difficult to machine materials.

Tungsten based tools coined the name “High Speed Steel” as tools that could be run much faster than the previous carbon steels.

Molybdenum, vanadium and cobalt steels all helped advance the application of round cutting tools. Carbide, a much harder pressure formed material, was initially used in turning inserts.

Advances in methods of forming the compositions of both HSS and Carbide led to fine grain structure and the compressing under tremendous press of various forms of steel and carbide to make cutting tools last longer and perform more consistently from tool to tool.

Through the years, our patent holding metallurgists have diligently worked to refine the structure of our tool materials to give you the best tool for each application.

The Benefits of Coatings

Coatings add a hard smooth surface to cutting tools to prolong life and assist in quickly removing the material cut away from the cutting edge. The “Gold Standard” Titanium Nitride (TiN) pun intended, has given way to harder, more sophisticated, multi-layer coatings like Titanium Aluminum Nitride (TiAlN) and many others.

The continuous advances being made by companies who provide coating services and equipment are constantly monitored to provide our customers with the most practical, cost effective coating to extend tool life and improve product quality.