The group cutting tools of the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management has placed a focus on the analysis and development of tools with geometrically defined cutting edges (e.g. turning, milling and drilling tools). Since 15 years a distinct expertise in the field of CVD diamond-coated tools consists, in which directives and standardization work (www.vdi.de) has been conducted. Furthermore both research facilities IWF and the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films forming a cooperative research group (www.werkzeugbeschichtung.info).

In addition to CVD diamond-coated tools cutting tools with hard coatings are optimized and developed for processing of difficult to cut materials. As an example nanocomposite coated CBN tools or HiPIMS-coated carbide tools are used for the machining of hardened steel. Furthermore a strong focus on cutting of fiber-reinforced plastics has been placed and a unique proficiency was developed. Therefore the institute is active in a couple of projects funded by the BMBF and BMWi, for example “ULTRASPAN, high-performance cutting of difficult to cut materials through hybrid ultrasonic machining”. Hence, hybrid manufacturing technologies are combined with innovative tooling concepts for the machining of fiber-reinforced plastics (www.benchwerk.de). Additional topics of the group cutting tools are the development of internally cooled tools and the simulation of cutting processes with the Finite-Element-Method and the Finite-Pointset-Method. In the course of the collaborative research centre 1026 “Sustainable Manufacturing” in collaboration with research partners of mathematics, product design, company management and economics sustainable production technologies has been developed (www.sustainable-manufacturing.net).