Walter USA’s wear optimization app, which works on all VCMT Insert current mobile devices and operating systems, enables users to identify specific forms of wear on indexable-insert and round-tool solid carbide applications, from milling, drilling and threading to turning, grooving and parting. Each form of wear is shown with a zoom function, both graphically and with high-quality photos.
For each wear template, the user is provided with a description of the conditions under which the relevant wear type occurs and how it can be prevented or reduced. The app provides practical recommendations such as “Use a more wear-resistant cutting tool material,” “Reduce the feed,” “Reduce the cutting speed,” “Increase the coolant pressure,” or “Check the orientation,” and so on. These recommendations are intended to help operators increase the Shoulder Milling Inserts service life of their tools and reduce costs associated with tool wear.
The app works on all current mobile devices, such as smartphones, notebooks and tablets, with iOS or the Android operating system, as well as on Windows PCs operating Windows 7 or newer. The app is also available for use in a Web browser on the company’s website.
Anyone with the resources and the inclination can buy a machine tool. But not everyone can wring out the same amount of production from turning inserts for aluminum the same machine. Multitasking machines loaded with multiple turrets and/or spindles offer a great deal of production potential, as they can often completely machine a part on its own. Granted, these machines are more costly than their straightforward lathe and milling machine brethren. However, it’s clear that shops battling just-in-time delivery schedules and shrinking batch sizes recognize the money-making potential of such machines, as their sales increase every year. It’s the classic case of biting the bullet and choosing equipment that initially is more expensive, but offers greater payback down the road.
But the multitasking machine can’t do it alone. The choices made in combining various machining elements and strategies into an efficient process ultimately separate the great shops from the average Joes. CAM programming continues to be a challenge for multitasking machines, which isn’t surprising considering it involves simultaneous machining operations and orchestrated movement of a number of machine components.
Tooling can also play a make-or-break role. It’s logical to think that a multitasking machine designed with flexibility in mind would use tooling that was also flexible. Such tooling would provide the capability to perform a variety of different machining operations with just one tool. A universal spindle interface that can accommodate both turning and milling operations can also augment process versatility. There are a few reasons for this.
First, space can be saved—turret space, to be more specific. The multiple turrets and spindles located within a multitasking machine not only limit space within the machining zone, but also place limits on tool magazine capacity. A single tool that offers five different cutting operations, for example, could free up four tool pockets. Those extra pockets could then be used to hold different tools for parts that require many machining operations or sister tooling to allow extended, unattended operation.
Second, cycle times can be quicker through the elimination of non-value-adding tool change time. A multitasking tool might just require spindle indexing to bring a different turning insert into position, for example.
Third, a universal, modular spindle interface that is effective for milling, turning and drilling operations allows for one common tooling platform for the shop’s entire operation. This concept of standardization falls in line with the strategies of lean manufacturing.
During a recent visit to its international headquarters in Sandviken, Sweden, Sandvik Coromant (Fair Lawn, New Jersey) demonstrated the value that a multitasking tool platform, such as its Coroplex line, can provide for multitasking machines. The visit included a tour through the production facility for its mining and construction division, which heeds the advice of its sister tooling company by using robot-tended cells that combine multitasking machines with multitasking tools to produce various mining drill bit components (see sidebar on page 77).
There are a few different approaches in terms of multitasking tool design. One is the combination of turning and milling inserts on a single tool body. That one tool could perform shoulder milling, turn-milling or circular interpolation, for example, as well as face and longitudinal turning, profiling or internal turning. To combine turning and milling capability on one tool requires a design in which the turning inserts don’t contact the workpiece while the tool is milling. To avoid this, the milling inserts are located just ahead of the turning inserts axially and radially so that the turning inserts are not in cut when the tool is milling.
Another technique combines two turning inserts located on opposite sides of a tool body. The tool can perform a rough turning operation, then be indexed 180 degrees in the spindle to allow finish turning.
Yet another concept uses a modular mini-turret unit that can combine four different cutting modules to allow four turning operations on one tool. This would enable a single tool to rough turn, finish turn, cut a groove and turn a thread, for example. The combination of cutting modules is user-selectable, and it would depend on the type of part and the required machining operations.
Maintaining tool center line accuracy is especially important for multitasking machines to make sure that the tool is precisely positioned to perform a turning operation. This is where it is helpful to have a modular, universal spindle/tool interface. Such an interface is effective for multitasking TNGG Insert machines, as their spindle(s) could be called on to mill or lock into position for a turning operation.
One of the issues that tooling companies sometimes face when introducing new tool designs is the lag in terms of CAM software support of new tools. Often, though, programming is not made more difficult because of the new tool. To change from a milling operation to a turning operation for tools that can perform both just requires the spindle to precisely index to bring the turning insert is in proper position. There’s no programming difference if that tool is used for milling, as the tool essentially is a milling cutter that happens to have turning inserts on board.
The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.cuttinginsert.com/product/ankt-indexable-insert/
The ECP-3/4L family offered by Iscar Metals, Inc. incorporates a serrated cutting edge that features flat peaks, which are said to provide good surface finishes.
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Recommended for machining austenitic and martensitic stainless steel at up to 2×D depth of cut, the SolidShred is available with three and four 38-degree helix flutes in grade Coated Inserts IC900. All end mills in this series feature long shanks with reduced neck fast feed milling inserts diameters, which according to the company, enable machining along high shoulders at high feeds. Because of force distribution and the splitting characteristic, the end mills are suitable for use on low-power machines—CAT40, BT40 and ISO40.
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These tools can also be used when machining alloy steels.
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The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/indexable-inserts/tnmg-insert/
Smith MegaDiamond Inc. and Star Cutter Company compared the performance of various end mills in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). The tools tested included a coated carbide end mill, a diamond-coated end mill, a conventional PCD end mill with straight flutes, and a “veined” PCD end mll featuring a vein of PCD within a helical slot in a carbide tool body.
The table below summarizes the test parameters. Shown here is the video of a 10-degree helical diamond-coated tool. Jeff Michael, engineering manager for Star Cutter, comments, “Again, the sound is pretty good with this cutter, but uncut fibers Cutting Inserts appear immediately. This is because a tool’s coating tends to give it a more rounded cutting edge, making it more difficulty to cut the fibers cleanly off.”
MP Systems will display its Purge coolant filtration system designed to keep a CNC machine tool’s coolant tank filled to maximum capacity with clean coolant. It pulls coolant from the dirty side of the coolant tank, filters it, and returns it to the clean side of the tank faster than the flood and high pressure coolant pumps draw from it. This prevents coolant starvation of the machine’s flood and high-pressure coolant pumps and keeps small chips and fines from clogging the machine tool’s nozzles, lines and screens. By keeping the coolant clean, part quality is improved and cutting tool life is extended, the company says. As a bonus, the machine’s coolant tank doesn’t need to be cleaned nearly as often.
“Cleaning a tungsten carbide inserts coolant tank is a nasty job that nobody wants to do,” says Systems Engineer Brian Jalbert. “It’s time consuming, and you have to shut the machine down to do it. If the machine is inside a caged cell, it’s a task that can take days. BTA deep hole drilling inserts If you can eliminate this job even once, the Purge will pay for itself.”
MP Systems will also display its VR8 Variable Volume High Pressure Coolant System.
