Ceramic End Mill Achieves Long Life and High MRR at Standard Machining

Milling cutter held by its shank that cuts on its periphery and, if so configured, on its free end. Takes a variety of shapes (single- and double-end, roughing, ballnose and cup-end) and sizes (stub, medium, long and extra-long). Also comes with differing numbers of flutes.

Grooves and spaces in the body of a tool that permit chip removal from, and cutting-fluid application to, the point of cut.

ToolRoom RN34 is the latest generation of ANCA’s successful software package that has been specially designed for the aerospace, die and mold, general machining and power generation industries.   Thomson Mathew, ANCA software product manager, said: “ToolRoom RN34 is aimed to be the differentiator among many suppliers of endmill manufactures in the industry by allowing customers to design complex geometries through software to achieve increased tool life, productivity, cutting volume and increased quality and precision of the workpiece. The constant helix ballnose option, for example, is replaced by a graphical drag-and-drop designer. This ballnose type of tool, with optimised irregular helix curves to reduce vibration, and with near-instant visualisation easily achieved by switching from the 2D projection of the cutting edge to the 3D.” The new software promises benefits of:

Tool balancing is done on variable helix and pitch or single flute tools to minimise the eccentricweight distribution when using high speed machining. The benefits include reduced noiseand vibrations, improved machine bearing life, and better surface finish.

Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool and cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.

Flexible-sided device that secures a tool or workpiece. Similar in function to a chuck, but can accommodate only a narrow size range. Typically provides greater gripping force and precision than a chuck. See chuck.

Manufacturing of a variety of threadmills is now possible with the addition of two new operations to the operations list. Threadmill grinding and cresting operations are supported with formed and standard fluting operations.

Douglas Franke, Fraisa production manager, said: “with ANCA’s balancing software we have a tool balanced generally within five minutes. Some of our more complex tooling can take a little longer – up to 20 minutes. This drastically decreased our time in setup on the machine which could take several hours. Our biggest success story has been an aerospace customer who is running our 1” aluminium roughing tool at 25k rpm.”   ANCA's ToolRoom software provides industry renowned tool design flexibility, from the simplest to the most challenging tasks. With the benefit of over 40 years of grinding knowledge, ToolRoom supports both manufacturing or regrinding applications. Flexibility is further enhanced by the fact that ANCA develops all aspects of the machine in house - from the CNC system and application software to the machine and its accessories. The new ballnose cycles allow end users to manufacture a range of ballnose tools suitable for finishing and roughing. The new designer edge can accommodate high helix on ball cutting edge for better fracture resistance and reduced vibration due to the irregular curve.

Main body of a tool; the portion of a drill or similar end-held tool that fits into a collet, chuck or similar mounting device.

Cutting tool material consisting of natural or synthetic diamond crystals bonded together under high pressure at elevated temperatures. PCD is available as a tip brazed to a carbide insert carrier. Used for machining nonferrous alloys and nonmetallic materials at high cutting speeds.

Tool that cuts a sloped depression at the top of a hole to permit a screw head or other object to rest flush with the surface of the workpiece.

Condition of vibration involving the machine, workpiece and cutting tool. Once this condition arises, it is often self-sustaining until the problem is corrected. Chatter can be identified when lines or grooves appear at regular intervals in the workpiece. These lines or grooves are caused by the teeth of the cutter as they vibrate in and out of the workpiece and their spacing depends on the frequency of vibration.

Pocket grinding software allows the user to quickly and easily define PCD pocket geometry. This is required for PCD tools used mainly in the woodworking and aerospace industries for composite and nonferrous materials.

Microprocessor-based controller dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives and controls the various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.

The double corner radius allows the design of barrel shape or lens shaped tools with larger to smaller or smaller to larger radius from the end of tool. Vibration and deflection are reduced with this style of geometry and the thinner chips that are formed provide longer tool life and enhanced performance.

A new feature is added to OD backoff/raised land fluting operation for drills, to be able to produce second margin towards trailing edge of the tool.

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A new wizard style ToolType has been added for countersink tools to support standard flute and fan gash flute style. The new countersink flute operation can define special flute shapes required for this application.

Support for a wide range of constant helix, constant lead and shear cutters widely used in the aerospace and power generation industries. All the above are supported for unmanned production with the support of the inbuilt LaserPlus which is fully automated.

Space provided behind the cutting edges to prevent rubbing. Sometimes called primary relief. Secondary relief provides additional space behind primary relief. Relief on end teeth is axial relief; relief on side teeth is peripheral relief.