5 Things You Need to Know about roughing aerospace superalloy materials

1. Roughing hard (up to more than 42HRC) superalloys and exotic materials demands an application specific end mill solution.

Heat resistant materials such as Inconel 718, Hastelloy, Haynes, Rene, and Nimonic are desirable for aerospace and defense parts manufacturing due to high strength, corrosion resistance, and thermal stability. However, these same characteristics make them difficult to machine with machinability ratings below 20%. Manufacturers now have an excellent solution in Cera-Cut end mills for roughing superalloy materials, resulting in machining parts 200% to 400% faster than conventional carbide end mills.

2. Providing a unique advantage to manufacturers, new Cera-Cut end mills feature a high-hardness ceramic head that’s high-temperature vacuum-brazed to a carbide shank for optimal vibration dampening that reduces tool chipping/wear for longer tool life.

A high-feed duplex cutting-edge geometry produces high metal removal rates in nickel-based alloys up to double that of carbide tools, resulting in machining parts up to 400% faster – a key industry advantage. Tool life of the solid carbide shank and ceramic head is up to 3.5x higher than one-piece solid ceramic end mills.

3. Suitable for making interrupted cuts, Cera-Cut offers a tight cutting diameter tolerance from -0.0008" to -0.0016" (-20µm to -40µm), depending on the tool diameter.

The end mills can be used for roughing or pre-finishing, can produce 2D or 3D contours, and are suitable for face milling, slot milling, helical milling, contour milling, and pocket milling.

4. The machine tool must be properly set up to accommodate Cera-Cut ceramic end mills.

A rigid, robust machine with high RPM needs to support the tool at 1,500sfm to 3,000sfm (surface feet per minute) versus 120sfm that’s typical of carbide tools. The optimal zone to run the tool is on machines with spindles generating at least 20,000rpm with HSK connections. This is a dry machining application. High speed cutting is required with rigid tool holding and part clamping to generate the heat needed to soften materials without causing abrasion or other damage.

5. Since feeds and speeds are significantly different from using carbide end mills, and overall milling strategy may differ as well, it’s recommended to work closely with technical support from your tooling supplier.

EMUGE’s comprehensive support team regularly assists manufacturers using the latest tool technology such as ceramic head end mills. When the machine and ceramic end mills are in an optimal zone, the results speak for themselves. For example, it took 45 minutes to machine a feature on an aero-engine component when roughing with a 6-flute solid carbide end mill; however, when using a Cera-Cut end mill, the rough milling time was reduced to 7 minutes.

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