A method for processing a CMC airfoil includes nesting an airfoil fiber preform in a cavity of a fixture that has first and second tool segments, closing the fixture by rotating a first tool segment about a hinge, the closing causing the tool segments to clamp on a tail portion of the fiber preform and thereby conform the tail portion to the fixture. While in the fixture, the fiber preform is then partially densified with an interface coating material to form a partially densified fiber preform. While still in the fixture, one or more cooling holes are drilled into the trailing edge of the partially densified fiber preform. After the drilling, the partially densified fiber preform is removed from the fixture and further densified with a ceramic matrix material to form a fully densified CMC airfoil.

A tangential cutting insert for a turning tool is described, which comprises a first tangential cutting insert side and a second tangential cutting insert side, wherein one of the tangential cutting insert sides is assigned more than two cutting edges, and the cutting edges are arranged in a star shape about a tangential cutting insert center axis. The tangential cutting insert is produced completely from cubic crystalline boron nitride, polycrystalline cubic boron nitride, polycrystalline diamond, or ceramic. In addition, a cutting tool with such a tangential cutting insert is presented. A method for producing a tangential cutting insert is also explained.

A tool has a main part of hard metal, cermet, ceramic, steel, high-speed steel, and a single or multilayer wear protection coating applied onto the main part by CVD and which has a thickness from 3 m to 25 m. The wear protection coating has at least one Ti.sub.1xAl.sub.xC.sub.yN.sub.z layer with stoichiometric coefficients 0.70x<1.0y<0.25 and 0.75z<1.15 and a thickness from 1.5 m to 17 m. The T.sub.1xAl.sub.xC.sub.yN.sub.z layer has a lamellar structure with lamellae with thickness of no more than 150 nm, preferably no more than 100 nm, particularly preferably no more than 50 nm. Lamellae are made of periodically alternating regions of the Ti.sub.1xAl.sub.xC.sub.yN.sub.z layer with alternatingly different stoichiometric proportions of Ti and Al, having the same crystal structure (crystallographic phase), and the Ti.sub.1xAl.sub.xC.sub.yN.sub.z layer has at least 90% vol. % of face centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure.

A coated cutting tool comprising a substrate and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, wherein: the coating layer comprises at least one -type aluminum oxide layer; and, in the -type aluminum oxide layer, when regarding a texture coefficient of a (0,0,6) plane as a TC18 (0,0,6), and also regarding a texture coefficient of a (0,0,12) plane as a TC18 (0,0,12), the TC18 (0,0,6) is the highest texture coefficient and the TC18 (0,0,12) is the second highest texture coefficient.

A cutting insert includes a body made of a ceramic material. The body has a first surface, a second surface and at least one flank surface extending between the first surface and the second surface. The first surface includes a chip forming feature extending in a radially outwardly direction to a cutting edge and extending in a radially inwardly direction to an inner edge. The chip forming feature includes a front wall that slopes downward from the cutting edge radially inward toward a rounded bottom surface and a back wall that slopes upward from the rounded bottom surface radially inward to the inner edge. The chip forming feature can include an optional land surface between the cutting edge and the front wall.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for polishing internal surfaces of apertures in semiconductor processing chamber components. A method includes providing a ceramic article having at least one aperture, the ceramic article being a component for a semiconductor processing chamber. The method further includes polishing the at least one aperture based on flowing an abrasive media through the at least one aperture of the ceramic article, the abrasive media including a polymer base and a plurality of abrasive particles.

A laser beam is transmitted through a drill bit comprising diamond or other suitable light-transmitting material having sufficient hardness. The laser beam exits a tip of the drill bit, thereby heating and softening the material being drilled at and/or near the interface of the drill with the material being drilled. The process may be utilized to drill hard and brittle materials such as ceramics and semiconductors, composites and ceramic matrix composites. The process may cause high pressure phase transformation, resulting in a more ductile and plastic material near the drill point/tip. The process provides more rapid drilling, improved surface quality in drilled holes, and less tool wear.

In one aspect, sintered ceramic bodies are described herein which, in some embodiments, demonstrate improved resistance to wear and enhanced cutting lifetimes. For example, a sintered ceramic body comprises tungsten carbide (WC) in an amount of 40-95 weight percent, alumina in an amount of 5-30 weight percent and ditungsten carbide (W.sub.2C) in an amount of at least 1 weight percent.

A fluted drill comprises, in axial sequence, a body portion, and a cutting portion. The cutting portion comprises two or more cutting edges, with each cutting edge extending from a distal end of the cutting portion, along the cutting portion towards the body portion, to the body portion.

Each cutting edge has a first rake angle at the distal end of the cutting portion, progressively increasing to a third rake angle at a proximal end of the cutting portion. Each cutting edge has a first uncut chip thickness at the distal end of the cutting portion, progressively decreasing to a third uncut chip thickness at the proximal end of the cutting portion.

The current invention proposes sharpening thin hardened metal blades with the hard turning process using a holder designed to hold the blades in a firm and stiff manner and a ceramic cutting tool held in a fixture. Generally, the cutting tool is held stationary in its fixture while the workpiece, in its holder, is rotated such that it repeatedly comes into controlled contact with the cutting tool. In sharpening operations such as proposed here, it is critical to (i) hold the workpiece firmly and rigidly, and (ii) position the cutting tool in a precise, predictable and reliable manner.