Guhring introduces new micro diver end mills - micro carbide end mills

Walter has now launched its new X·treme Evo Plus drill from the DC180 Supreme product family that is now available up to 8XD for the first time.

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So even though a solid-carbide bar costs $25 and a diamond-tip option costs $150, “your cost per piece is going to be way less,” he said.

Another coolant-related problem can arise during the use of CBN-tipped boring bars. White said CBN is hard but also brittle, so big temperature swings can crack the material. To prevent this, there can be no interruption of coolant delivery to the tool during a boring process.

“When you have excessive vibration, it’s really hard on the customer’s machine as well,” she said. “So it’s a win-win when you include some type of vibration-reducing technology.”

William Leventon is a contributing editor to Cutting Tool Engineering magazine. Contact him by phone at 609-920-3335 or via email at wleventon@gmail.com.

Tooling manufacturer, Horn has introduced a new carbide insert grade, SG66, for turning components from steel that has been case hardened to 58 HRC.

“Some people that are newer to the industry don’t even know how to read a vernier scale,” Wise said. “So digital adjustment is becoming a lot more common.”

“Then if they’re using them up too fast, they’ll call and I’ll say, ‘You should probably bite the bullet and get a diamond-tipped bar for those materials because they’ll last a long time,’” he said. “Even though they’re quite a bit more expensive, the (number of) parts you get out of them can be phenomenal.”

“We need to have seals in place to protect the digital components,” said Wise, whose company makes such tools. “But really nasty coolant can eat up those seals and completely damage those components.”

He explained that stringy chips made of these materials can accumulate in blind holes where they are re-cut by the tool and often end up damaging the cutting edge.

By adding the M5011 to its range of milling cutters, the Tübingen-based manufacturer is providing a range equipped with either roughing or wiper inserts for finishing. To this end, the Xtra·tec XT M5011 face milling cutter can be used for reducing the process costs and tool requirements. Walter offers the milling cutter with a diameter of 50 to 160mm in two different tooth pitches for diameters 63 to 125mm and with a depth of cut up to 8mm. In the version with fewer teeth, the indexable inserts are mounted on a carbide shim. This protects the milling body and the remaining unused cutting edges against damage. It also maintains the cutters usability, even with long machining times. Inclined clamping screws make the indexable inserts easy to access and it shortens the indexing time.

“If you’re running nasty, dirty coolant through the tool,” Wise said, “it’s going to get into internal components and start wearing them down more quickly.”

In some cases, White pointed out that price considerations lead shops to the least expensive option: an uncoated boring tool. But when those customers cut metals like stainless steel and Inconel, Scientific Cutting Tools urges them to think longer term and opt for a coated tool. He reports that his company has had “great success” with a high-performance AlTiSiN coating called nACo, which provides excellent wear resistance and lubricity.

Single- or multiple-point precision tool used to bring an existing hole within dimensional tolerance. The head attaches to a standard toolholder and a mechanism permits fine adjustments to be made to the head within a diameter range.

ANT Industries, a leading manufacturer of aero engine and gas turbine components in Atherstone, Warwickshire, has announced a significant milestone in its commitment to quality and excellence.

“When you’re done making the adjustment,” Wise said, “you just take that digital module off the boring head and you’re ready to go.”

These tools can require “a good deal of technical knowledge to set up, run and make those final finishing adjustments,” she said. “So we (offer) digital adjustment instead of an analog vernier scale.”

You probably know that boring tools are used to bring holes to the desired size and finish, straighten drilled and cored holes and correct casting defects. But you may not know what to do — and what not to do — to get longer life and better performance out of boring tools, as well as improve the user experience. This knowledge falls into three categories: tool selection, best practices when using the tools, and developments that have had a positive impact on boring tools and processes.

“So a key is to get the chips out of there so you can ensure a good finish and not have any interference with the cutting edge,” White said.

Due to its importance during boring and other cutting operations, better coolant delivery has been a focus of Scientific Cutting Tools.

“Most of the time, when customers are looking at a finishing operation, they want a little bit of guidance,” said Natalie Wise, manager for finishing products at Allied Machine & Engineering Corp. in Dover, Ohio. The reason, she explained, is that “those are later operations in the manufacturing of their part, so it’s very critical that they get it right the first time. If something goes wrong with those finishing operations, they could be scrapping something very expensive that they’ve spent a lot of time on.”

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Once again, in these applications “a lot of people will start out with coated carbide, and if they have a short run, that will get them through and give them a good finish,” he said. “But if the volume is high, then CBN is something to look at.”

“In small-diameter boring with certain materials like 1018 steel, 316 stainless and 304 stainless, you can get really stringy chips,” White said. “So if you can get that coolant right to the cutting edge and keep it flowing, it could be really beneficial.”

In addition, Wise said her company’s digital technology makes it easier for operators to use boring tools.

Other best practices when using boring tools involve coolant-related issues. For one thing, it’s advisable to keep boring coolant clean.

To come up with the right boring tool for a particular application, White asks customers for basic information, such as the hole diameter, machining speeds and feeds and the part material. If the material is hard and abrasive, Scientific Cutting Tools can supply diamond- or CBN-tipped boring bars. Sometimes, however, he reports that customers dealing with such materials may start with conventional solid-carbide boring bars rather than pay extra for diamond- or CBN-tipped tools.

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.

Enlarging a hole that already has been drilled or cored. Generally, it is an operation of truing the previously drilled hole with a single-point, lathe-type tool. Boring is essentially internal turning, in that usually a single-point cutting tool forms the internal shape. Some tools are available with two cutting edges to balance cutting forces.

Coolant delivery advances aren’t the only ones boosting boring operations. Allied Machine & Engineering, for example, has come up with boring tools that have a self-balancing feature. This automatic mass balancing is meant to compensate for imbalances that occur as the diameter of a boring tool’s insert holder is adjusted. The idea is to reduce vibration in order to optimize finish machining.

Essentially a cantilever beam that holds one or more cutting tools in position during a boring operation. Can be held stationary and moved axially while the workpiece revolves around it, or revolved and moved axially while the workpiece is held stationary, or a combination of these actions. Installed on milling, drilling and boring machines, as well as lathes and machining centers.

Secures a cutting tool during a machining operation. Basic types include block, cartridge, chuck, collet, fixed, modular, quick-change and rotating.

Once a boring tool has been acquired for a particular application, users should be aware of practices that will help get the most out of that tool. For example, Wise recommends that users make sure they’re removing enough material when boring to completely cover the nose radius of the insert. If this isn’t the case, she said, radial deflection or pressure will cause chatter, which in turn results in poor hole quality or surface finish.

The NeoMill-Alu-QBig indexable insert milling cutter from Mapal stands for top performance in high-volume milling of aluminium. The tool manufacturer thus offers a very economical solution for use on high-performance machines, such as those found primarily in the aerospace industry.

Substance used for grinding, honing, lapping, superfinishing and polishing. Examples include garnet, emery, corundum, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride and diamond in various grit sizes.

Although some shops know enough about boring tools to make specific requests of suppliers, the majority rely to some extent on recommendations from toolmakers.

“The boring head is going to last a lot longer because it’s not vibrating,” she said, “so there’s not a lot of radial deflection or pressure.”

For boring operations, Allied Machine & Engineering provides two digital tooling options. One is a tool with a built-in digital component: a display fixed to the boring tool. As a user adjusts the tool’s finished diameter setting, the adjustments are shown on the display, Wise explained.

To improve coolant delivery, Scientific Cutting Tools has developed a toolholder featuring a ring around the tool shank. Instead of just directing coolant to a point at the tip of the tool, he said this ring produces a coolant “halo” that surrounds the entire tool.

Crystal manufactured from boron nitride under high pressure and temperature. Used to cut hard-to-machine ferrous and nickel-base materials up to 70 HRC. Second hardest material after diamond. See superabrasive tools.

This works because CBN “can take a lot of heat, but it can’t take the big thermal change from hot to cold,” White said. “So as some people move toward dry machining, they’ll just shoot air through their lines to help with the chips. But that (prevents) that thermal up-and-down condition that can crack CBN.”

White said machine shops cutting very abrasive nonferrous materials might get through 5,000 parts with a diamond-tipped boring bar compared with 10 or 15 with a solid-carbide bar.

Ability of the tool to withstand stresses that cause it to wear during cutting; an attribute linked to alloy composition, base material, thermal conditions, type of tooling and operation and other variables.

The other digital option is the company’s 3E Tech display, a small module that can be mounted on a boring tool for diameter adjustment.

Measure of the relative efficiency with which a cutting fluid or lubricant reduces friction between surfaces.

In addition to the M5009 (к 45°) and the M5012 (к 88°), Walter is now launching another Xtra·tec XT face milling cutter in the form of the M5011 (к 75°). All three milling cutters can be equipped with the tough, double-sided SN.X1205 system insert with eight cutting edges.

In some cases, however, “customers want to change that angle, so we make special tools for them based on their preferences and R&D that they have done,” he said. “For one customer, we make the front angle 8 degrees instead of 2 degrees because they find that works better for the materials that they cut.”

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.

An additional system insert, the SN.X0904 is available for use with the M5009 and the M5012 for smaller depths of cut. The insert range includes Walter's own Tiger·tec Gold grades, making them incredibly wear-resistant. Depending on the material or machining objective, the user can choose between five geometries. This provides the choice for machining large batch sizes, high stability and process reliability achieving long tool life and high productivity with almost all ISO materials.

But while shops always are concerned about price, “when customers come to us with a very important operation like finishing, it’s more important that the tool does what we say it’s going to do,” Wise said, as long as the extra cost is “within reason.”

Fluid that reduces temperature buildup at the tool/workpiece interface during machining. Normally takes the form of a liquid such as soluble or chemical mixtures (semisynthetic, synthetic) but can be pressurized air or other gas. Because of water’s ability to absorb great quantities of heat, it is widely used as a coolant and vehicle for various cutting compounds, with the water-to-compound ratio varying with the machining task. See cutting fluid; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.

Another key factor that comes into play when choosing a boring tool is the ratio of hole depth to diameter. If that number is high, Scientific Cutting Tools can provide boring bars with a helical flute, White said, which minimizes deflection during the boring process.

In situations like this, she said shops can do two things. One is to make the pre-drill hole size a little smaller so more material is left for the finishing operation. If this can’t be done, the other option is to swap out the tool insert for one with a smaller nose radius while leaving everything else in the boring tool setup the same.

When it comes to selecting the best boring tool for an application, some users are knowledgeable enough about the subject to request tools with specific features and characteristics. For example, Scientific Cutting Tools Inc. in Simi Valley, California, normally makes boring tools with a 2-degree front angle across the face that facilitates efficient cutting, said Sales Director Todd White.

In addition to coolant delivery advances coming from toolmakers, White stressed the importance of the high-pressure coolant capabilities of current machines. Today, he pointed out that many machines are equipped with pumps that can produce coolant pressures ranging from 300 to 1,000 psi, which is a big help to tools and toolholders designed to get coolant to places where it will be most helpful.

She added that digital components also can be damaged by high coolant pressures, so she recommends limiting these pressures to 500 psi.

In addition to the M5009 (к 45°) and the M5012 (к 88°), Walter is now launching another Xtra·tec XT face milling cutter in the form of the M5011 (к 75°). All three milling cutters can be equipped with the tough, double-sided SN.X1205 system insert with eight cutting edges. An additional system insert, the SN.X0904 is available for use with the M5009 and the M5012 for smaller depths of cut. The insert range includes Walter's own Tiger·tec Gold grades, making them incredibly wear-resistant. Depending on the material or machining objective, the user can choose between five geometries. This provides the choice for machining large batch sizes, high stability and process reliability achieving long tool life and high productivity with almost all ISO materials. By adding the M5011 to its range of milling cutters, the Tübingen-based manufacturer is providing a range equipped with either roughing or wiper inserts for finishing. To this end, the Xtra·tec XT M5011 face milling cutter can be used for reducing the process costs and tool requirements. Walter offers the milling cutter with a diameter of 50 to 160mm in two different tooth pitches for diameters 63 to 125mm and with a depth of cut up to 8mm. In the version with fewer teeth, the indexable inserts are mounted on a carbide shim. This protects the milling body and the remaining unused cutting edges against damage. It also maintains the cutters usability, even with long machining times. Inclined clamping screws make the indexable inserts easy to access and it shortens the indexing time. www.walter-tools.com

For boring applications with depth-to-diameter ratios greater than 5-1, Allied Machine & Engineering offers Novitech, a mounted module that reduces vibration when machining hole diameters. Wise said this improves the surface finish of bored holes and increases tool life.