Solid Tungsten Carbide End Mill System Ⅲ

In part 2 we know that solid tungsten carbide end mills have different temperature handling characteristics versus insert milling cutters, and so for diameter below 10mm, carbide end mills are suggested, but for large diameter, insert milling cutters are suggested. Here we talk about coatings and edge preparations.

Coatings And Edge Preparations

Coatings are applied to solid tungsten carbide end mills to increase wear resistance and isolate the area where the heat is generated from the substrate of the tool, in which it could potentially accumulate and affect the tool life span negatively. Additionally, solid tungsten carbide end mills have relatively sharp cutting edges, it is thus very important to have correct coating adhesion between the substrate material and the coating layers. In particular, with smaller diameter solid cutters, cutting edge sharpness is a crucial element contributing to tool performance. An ideal cutting edge would consist of a sharp cutting edge with the highest possible hardness without the risk for breakage. This can be in part achieved with an appropriate edge preparation. Most often, the style, shape and sharpness of the (cutting) edge preparation sets different solid carbide milling cutters apart both in terms of generated work quality and tool life levels reached.

A relatively sharp cutting edge is achieved through grinding both the top rake face as well as the clearance face on the tool. The line where the two faces meet each other is referred to as the cutting edge. Cutting edges will need reinforcements or a so called edge treatment/honing in order for the coating to better adhere to it and prevent edge breakouts. In other words, some of the edge sharpness is traded for stability and coating functionality, which in turn leads to longer tool life. It can even be discussed that the edge preparation has the highest importance of all followed by both substrate type and coating technology.

 (To be continued. This article is divided into several parts and this is part 3, for part 2 please refer to http://news.chinatungsten.com/en/tungsten-information/79854-ti-10211; for part 4 please refer to http://news.chinatungsten.com/en/tungsten-information/79882-ti-10226)

 

 

Tungsten Carbide Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.tungsten-carbide.com.cn
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email:sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten & Molybdenum Information Bank: http://i.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com
Molybdenum News & Molybdenum Price: http://news.molybdenum.com.cn