There is a wide range of materials with important physical properties. Materials that are difficult to work with (TPU and superalloys) can be 3D printed. Mechanical properties can be inferior compared to CNC parts, as they are usually not perfectly isotropic.

Contouring/Profiling: this is a process used to mill different surfaces such as flat or irregular ones. This type of process can be done during the roughing or finishing phase of the overall operation.[3]

As hybrid working methods become increasingly popular, new production machines are increasingly in demand. All-in-one equipment can perform additive and subtractive manufacturing in a single configuration. Many of these machines offer 3D metal printing and multi-axis machining to work with even the most complex parts. As manufacturing and design technology becomes „smarter” with CAM/CAD software offering generative design and artificial intelligence, these hybrid machines could become the new standard for high-end machine shops working in advanced manufacturing industries such as aerospace, medical, defense, and markets for molds, tools and dies.

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One of the main differences between additive and subtractive manufacturing is the surface finish and tolerances that can be achieved by each method. In this case, a hybrid approach to additive manufacturing can be very beneficial. When parts come off the printer, they can be quickly transferred to a CNC machine using a program to complete the part. CNC machines can produce 3D printed parts that meet the tight tolerances required in many industries and achieve the desired surface finish. Advanced finishing tools and long-reach taper tools, such as Harvey tools, make it easy to machine the narrow geometries of 3D printed parts, while ultra-sharp diamond-coated tools and material-specific tools for plastics and composites can create aesthetically pleasing, tolerant and finished parts regardless of material. Long-reach tools make machine complex details on hard-to-reach 3D printed parts easier. By designing this workflow into your shop, you can spend less time worrying about the accuracy of printed parts, add subtractive operations to reduce material costs, reduce waste and keep parts within tight tolerances for precision machining excellence.

There exist end mills with variable flute helix or pseudo-random helix angle, and discontinuous flute geometries, to help break material into smaller pieces while cutting (improving chip evacuation and reducing risk of jamming) and reduce tool engagement on big cuts. Some modern designs also include small features like the corner chamfer and chipbreaker. While more expensive, due to more complex design and manufacturing process, such end mills can last longer due to less wear and improve productivity in high speed machining (HSM) applications.

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Depending on the material being milled, and what task should be performed, different tool types and geometry may be used. For instance, when milling a material like aluminum, it may be advantageous to use a tool with very deep, polished flutes, a very sharp cutting edge and high rake angles. When machining a tough material such as stainless steel, however, shallow flutes and a squared-off cutting edge will optimize material removal and tool life.

CNC manufacturing is often a labor-intensive process. With CNC, the machine operator must first decide on tool selection, spindle speed, cutting path, and possible part repositioning. He should also manually position the block in the machine, keeping all these factors in mind. Knowing if the part is ready after machining or if one or more finishing steps are required is also necessary. All these factors affect the quality of the component and its build time. For 3D printing, the operator will prepare the digital files, choose the orientation, and add support if necessary. The files then go to the machine, where the printer has done all the construction work with little or no human intervention. Once the parts are printed, they need to be cleaned and post-processed. These last steps are the most labor-intensive parts of the 3D printing unit production process. Combining CNC and printing three leads to new production methods and allows components to be produced more accurately.

Can’t a CNC machine create everything a 3D printer can in less time? By using both methods and a hybrid approach, manufacturing and material costs can be reduced. For example, most parts can be machined using typical subtractive machines, while using additive methods can take a long time. You can then return the piece using a 3D printer to add complex features to the part that would require complex programming and hours of planning on a subtractive machine. A typical example is a rotor, where most parts can be machined, but complex ribs and blades can be printed into the part and then finished on a CNC machine. The ability of additive machines to truly „add” parts can also provide a less costly approach to design. Instead of machining an entire part from expensive materials such as Inconel or Titanium, pieces that do not require extreme heat resistance can be cut from less expensive steels. Heat-resistant parts from expensive materials can be added later using additive methods.

3D printing and CNC machining work on metals and plastics, although both technologies handle these materials equally. CNC machining is mainly used to produce metal parts. You can also use the CNC process to make parts from thermoplastics, acrylics, cork and hardwood, modeling foams, and process waxes.

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A very popular helix angle, especially for general cutting of metal materials, is 30°. For finishing end mills, it is common to see more tight spiral, with helix angles 45° or 60°. Straight flute end mills (helix angle 0°) are used in special applications, like milling plastics or composites of epoxy and glass. Straight flute end mills were also used historically for metal cutting before invention of helical flute end mill by Carl A. Bergstrom of Weldon Tool Company in 1918.

Pocketing/Slotting: this is a process to make a pocket on the inside of the part. A pocket can be shallow or deep, depending on specs. [7]

Several broad categories of end- and face-milling tools exist, such as center-cutting versus non-center-cutting (whether the mill can take plunging cuts); and categorization by number of flutes; by helix angle; by material; and by coating material. Each category may be further divided by specific application and special geometry.

An end mill is a type of milling cutter, a cutting tool used in industrial milling applications. They can have several end configurations: round (ball), tapered, or straight are a few popular types. They are most commonly used in "milling machines" that move a piece of material against the end mill to remove chips of the material to create a desired size or shape. It is distinguished from the drill bit in its application, geometry, and manufacture. While a drill bit can only cut in the axial direction, most milling bits can cut in the radial direction. Not all mills can cut axially; those designed to cut axially are known as end mills.

Though PCD veins is not a coating, some end mills are manufactured with a 'vein' of polycrystalline diamond. The vein is formed in a high temperature-high pressure environment. The vein is formed in a blank and then the material is ground out along the vein to form the cutting edge. Although the tools can be very costly, they can last many times longer than other tooling.

Thanks to recent advances in 3D printing capabilities, it is becoming increasingly easy for manufacturers to use additive manufacturing to create parts from various materials, including polymers such as ABS, TPE, and PLA, carbon fiber, nylon, and polycarbonate composites. Even expensive metals such as titanium, stainless steel, and Inconel are becoming more common in additive manufacturing. There is no doubt that this space will continue to expand and grow in the coming years, but will this make subtractive manufacturing methods such as CNC machining obsolete? Absolutely not. In the case of CNC machining, the talk here is that it may be more critical to incremental manufacturing than you think, as a new process called „hybrid manufacturing” is rapidly gaining popularity in the industry. Why is it so essential to ensure the manufacturing process? Is CNC applicable to structures inside unreachable parts? Does the process itself require specialized skills? We write about all this below!

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3D printing is primarily used to produce thermoplastic and thermoset parts, but metal parts can also be printed using some techniques. Some 3D printers can produce parts from ceramics, wax, sand, composites and, increasingly, biological materials.

CNC machining provides tight tolerances and excellent repeatability. CNC can precisely machine both very large and very small parts. Because of the shape of most cutting tools, the inside corners always have a radius, but the outside surfaces can have sharp edges and can be machined very thin. Each 3D printing system offers different dimensional accuracies. Industrial machines can produce parts with very tight tolerances. If tight clearances are required, the critical dimensions can be 3D printed to magnification and then machined in post-processing. The minimum wall thickness of a 3D printed part is limited by the size of the effector (depending on the diameter of the nozzle in FDM or the size of the laser spot in SLS). Since the parts are produced one at a time, layer lines are visible, especially on curved surfaces. The maximum size of parts is relatively small, as 3D printing usually requires fairly strict environmental controls.

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A wide variety of materials are used to produce the cutting tools. Carbide inserts are the most common because they are good for high production milling. High speed steel is commonly used when a special tool shape is needed, not usually used for high production processes. Ceramics inserts are typically used in high speed machining with high production. Diamond inserts are typically used on products that require tight tolerances, typically consisting of high surface qualities (nonferrous or non-metallic materials).

There are four critical angles of each cutting tool: end cutting edge angle, axial relief angle, radial relief angle, and radial rake angle.

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Facing: is an operation used to face the part down to specified dimension. Facing can be done using end mills or a special face mill.[4][5][6]

Although coatings have a typical color, manufacturers may modify the coating process or add additives to change the appearance without affecting the performance as part of their branding. Bright blues, reds and turquoise are among the "unnatural" colors.

A variety of grooves, slots, and pockets in the work-piece may be produced from a variety of tool bits. Common tool bit types are: square end cutters, ball end cutters, t-slot cutters, and shell mills. Square end cutters can mill square slots, pockets, and edges. Ball end cutters mill radiused slots or fillets. T-slot cutters mill exactly that: T-shaped slots. Shell end cutters are used for large flat surfaces and for angle cuts. There are variations of these tool types as well.

In the early 90s, use of coatings became more common. Coatings can provide various benefits including wear resistance, reduction of friction to assist with chip evacuation, and increased heat resistance. Most of these coatings are referred to by their chemical composition.

It is becoming increasingly common for traditional solid end mills to be replaced by more cost-effective inserted cutting tools (which, though more expensive initially, reduce tool-change times and allow for the easy replacement of worn or broken cutting edges rather than the entire tool). Another advantage of indexable end mills(another term for tools with inserts) is their ability to be flexible with what materials they can work on, rather than being specialized for a certain material type like more traditional end mills. For the time being however, this only generally applies to larger diameter end mills, at or above 3/4 of an inch. These end mills are generally used for roughing operation, whereas traditional end mills are still used for finishing and work where a smaller diameter, or a tighter tolerance, are required; modular tooling introduces additional margins of error that can compound with each new component, whereas a solid tool can provide a smaller tolerance range for the same price level.

2 Flute: Allows for more chips to be removed from the part. Primarily used in slotting and pocketing operations in non-ferrous materials.

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The part’s complexity is the main factor when choosing between 3D printing and CNC machining. Both technologies have design limitations, although the number of geometries a CNC machine can produce is much smaller. CNC machining has several key design limitations, including tool contact and clearance, clamping points, changing workpiece fixtures, and the inability to machine square corners due to tool geometry. Some geometries are impossible to machine with CNC because the tool cannot access all surfaces of the part. This also applies to 5-axis systems. Most geometries require the operator to rotate the part so the tool can access different sides and angles. Repositioning requires equipment and labor time. All of these factors add up to the final price of the part. 3D printing can produce parts with very few geometric constraints compared to CNC. Support structures may be required with processes such as FDM, but the little additional machining does not limit the tremendous design freedom and complexity that 3D printing provides. In addition, polymer-based powder bed fusion processes such as SLS and MJF can produce any organic geometry without support structures. The ability to produce very complex geometries with relative ease is one of the main advantages of 3D printing. CNC machines remove material point by point, although even 5-axis systems may not always be able to reach some surfaces.

The number of parts you plan to produce will play a big role in deciding between 3D printing and CNC machining. Below, we break this down into several parts, material and geometry. In addition to our main recommendations, we also include alternative options: 3D or CNC – depending on the number of parts.

End mills are sold in both imperial and metric shank and cutting diameters. In the USA, metric is readily available, but it is only used in some machine shops and not others; in Canada, due to the country's proximity to the US, much the same is true. In Asia and Europe, metric diameters are standard.

Advances in end mill coatings are being made, however, with coatings such as Amorphous Diamond and nanocomposite PVD coatings beginning to be seen at high-end shops (as of 2004).

Hybrid machining is increasingly replacing machining. Before implementing a hybrid manufacturing approach, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Here is a brief overview of where incremental technologies are applicable, how the part manufacturing process works, and the advantages and disadvantages of additive and subtractive manufacturing.

End mills are typically made on CNC (computer numeric controlled) tool and cutter grinder machines under high-pressure lubricants such as water, water-soluble oil, and high-flashpoint oil. Grinding inside the machine is accomplished with abrasive wheels mounted on a spindle (and in some cases, multiple spindles). Depending on what material is being ground, these wheels are made with industrial diamond (when grinding tungsten carbide), cubic boron nitride (when grinding cobalt steel), and other materials (when grinding, for instance, ceramics), set in a bond (sometimes copper).

Roughing: the purpose is to remove a big chunk of material from workpieces, sometimes to get rid of excess material in order to get closer to the final shape.[2] It attempts to get really close to the finalized shape. Traditionally it's the first major operation in the machining process.