Milling cutter manufacturing method

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a milling cutter having a cutting head and a coaxial integral shank comprising the steps of grinding, in a first grinding operation, a plurality of helical flutes (5) into the outer periphery of a cutter blank from a lead end (24) using a peripheral area (16) of a first grinding wheel (15) generally of frusto-conical profile and rotatable about an axis (18) generally transversely of the milling cutter axis (1), which peripheral area (16) produces, simultaneously, the following three features: a leading face (9) of a trailing tooth; a rear face (10) on an adjacent preceding tooth; and a swarf removal gullet (13) having divergent sides, grinding, in a second grinding operation, and using a peripheral edge (19) of a second grinding wheel (20), a relief face (11), which extends rearwardly from a leading end of a tooth tip, resulting in a minimum tooth wedge angle of approximately 60 DEG, and grinding, in a third grinding operation, a radius (23) on the end of each flute. The invention also includes a milling cutter (1).

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a method for the manufacture of milling cutters for milling so-called special materials such as titanium alloys, stainless steel, Nimonico, etc., which are notoriously difficult to machine, and also to milling the knife itself. Background technique [0002] The aerospace industry uses titanium alloys and the like extensively and, like other industries, has been trying to reduce costs through more affordable outsourcing or higher productivity. [0003] Materials such as titanium, stainless steel, and Nimonico are non-mainstream in milling capabilities and challenge the capabilities of existing technologies to increase productivity. Although grinding processes have been developed that significantly increase productivity (even for specialty materials), there are still inevitably features in some parts that cannot be achieved by grinding wheels and thus cannot be formed by grinding, and these features have to be Realized ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While this creates an inherently weak tooth form (with a wedge angle of about 50°), it will have little effect in the deburring operation, however, these often thin beveled knives will not withstand the delicate machining required to achieve the required capacity and stability. Machining operations such as milling, especially of specialty materials, also cannot be resharpened for reuse

While it is well known that the metal removal rate increases with the number of teeth on the tool, there is clearly a limit to how many teeth can be formed for a given cutting tool diameter and the use of conventional grinding techniques to sharpen these teeth

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