Productivity News

Volume 10-No.14 We help you produce more for less!

Carbide End Mills.....

for higher cutting speeds and longer tool life

Solid carbide Hot Tool & Cutter end mills have an industry-wide reputation for high cutting speeds and feeds and longer tool life. Now, all configurations of HT&C end mills are available from Industry Depot. With a choice of uncoated, TiN and TiAlN coatings and virtually any end mill geometry, there is an HT&C end mill for your toughest machining operation.

Machining productivity can be boosted significantly by effective use of TiN and TiAlN coated end mills for a wide range of difficult to machine ferrous and non-ferrous metal alloys. This Productivity News issues provides a brief end mill users guide.

Application know-how and a huge inventory for fast deliveries of these American made end mills make HT&C an easy choice for every machine shop operation.

More End Mill Information

Uncoated Carbide End Mills

Uncoated carbide end mills are used for machining carbon and stainless steels especially for high-quantity production runs. Carbide generally produces a better finish, allows faster machining and withstands higher temperatures than standard high speed tool steels. Carbide is also known as cemented carbide, hardmetal or tungsten-carbide cobalt and is a metal matrix composite where tungsten carbide particles are the aggregate and metallic cobalt serves as the matrix.

The ductile cobalt metal offsets the characteristic brittleness of tungsten carbide ceramic and increases its toughness and durability. Tungsten carbide machining properties can be changed significantly in manufacturing by modifying grain size, cobalt content, alloy carbide concentration and carbon content.

Over the years, HTC carbide end mill alloys have been refined for durability and machining performance. These uncoated end mills are now used extensively in milling applications such as profile milling, tracer milling, face milling, and plunging.

More Uncoated Carbide End Mill Information

TiN Coated End Mills

          To increase the life of carbide end mills, the carbide is sometimes coated. Four such coatings are TiN (titanium nitride), TiC (titanium carbide), TiCN (titanium carbide-nitride), and TiAlN (titanium aluminum nitride).

          Of these, one of the most popular is TiN (Titanium Nitride) with its characteristic gold color. TiN coated end mills are ideal for general machining owing to high adhesion and ductility characteristics. Excellent wear resistance, thermal stability, and low coefficient of friction properties reduce the tendency for edge build-up resulting in improved heat dissipation and long tool life.

          Titanium nitride is sometimes known as "Tinite" or "TiNite" or "TiNi" and is a good general purpose coating for most applications and especially where a minimum of coolant reaction can be tolerated. Such coatings considerably increase the wear resistance and lubricity at the cutting point and facilitate the use of higher speeds and feeds and improve tool life. However TiN coatings are more expensive than uncoated end mills but for the right applications, improved productivity can be expected that will justify a cost increase of 20% or more over uncoated tools.

          It's good to keep in mind that a hard coating will not solve problems caused by poor tools or poor applications. TiN coatings will not convert a poor tool to a good tool. Similarly, TiN coatings will not change a poor application to a good application when a tool is improperly applied.

More TiN Coated Carbide tool information

TiAlN Coated End Mills

TiAlN (Titanium Aluminum Nitride) coated end mills have a characteristic violet bronze color. Greater ductility makes TiAlN coatings a good choice for interrupted cut machining. TiAlN end mills can increase production levels with higher feeds and speeds plus longer tool life in high heat milling operations.

TiAlN coated end mills are excellent for milling high strength steels, hard die steels and high temperature alloys such as nickel based and titanium alloys particularly for higher chip classes where high heat is generated and chipping is a problem.

This purple/bronze colored TiAlN coating is a high performance coating with excellent properties for machining abrasive and difficult-to-machine materials such as cast iron, aluminum alloys, tool steels, and nickel alloys. For the right hard-to-machine alloys the greater productivity easily justifies the 35 to 40 percent cost premium over uncoated end mills.

More TiAlN Coated End Mill Information

End Mill Geometry

To meet the need to machine diverse workpiece contours including grooves, slots, and pockets, a shop needs a variety of tool bits. Common tool bit types include 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 t-shaped slots. Shell end cutters are used for large flat surfaces and for angle cuts.

The four critical cutting tool angles include the end cutting edge angle, the axial relief angle, the radial relief angle, and the radial rake angle.

Depending on the material being milled, the geometry and number of flutes must be considered. To mill aluminum, a tool with very deep, polished flutes and a very sharp cutting edge may be needed. When machining tougher materials such as stainless steel alloys, shallow flutes and a squared-off cutting edge will improve material removal rates while extending tool life.

If in doubt for your application, just call us at 888-849-8034.

More End Mill Geometry information

We hope you found this informative and useful and we'd appreciate your comments.

Sincerely,

Frederick J. Oille, P.Eng.
Industry Depot

In This Issue

Uncoated Carbide End Mills

TiN Coated Carbide End Mills

TiAlN Coated Carbide End Mills

End Mill Geometry