Endmills have traditionally been made from high speed steel, but are now mostly made of tungsten carbide,
a rigid and wear-resistant material, usually pressed from carbide
powder into rods, which are then ground into blanks of
industry-standard sizes.
In the early 1990s, use of coatings to reduce wear and friction
(among other things) became more common. Most of these coatings are
referred to by their chemical composition, such as:
TiN (a basic yellowish coating that has fallen out of wide use)
TiCN (a popular bluish-grey coating)
TiAlN (an extremely popular dark purple coating)
TiAlCrN (PVD coating).
PCD veins. Though not a coating some endmills are manufactured with
a 'vein' of polycrystaline diamond. The vein is formed in a High
Temperature-High Pressure environment. The vein is formed in a blank
and then the material is ground out along the vein to form the cutting
edge. The tools can be very costly, however can last many times longer
than other tooling.
Advances in endmill
coatings are being made, however, with coatings such as Amorphous
Diamond and nanocomposite PVD coatings beginning to be seen at high-end
shops (as of 2004).
An endmill is a shank-type Milling cutter, a cutting tool used in industrial milling applications. It is distinguished from the drill bit,
in its application, geometry, and manufacture. Whereas a drill bit can
only cut in the axial direction, a milling bit can generally cut in all
directions, though some cannot cut axially.
Type of Endmill
Several broad categories of end- and face-milling tools exist, such as center-cutting versus non-center-cutting (whether the mill
can take plunging cuts); and categorization by number of flutes; by
helix angle; by material; and by coating material. Each category may be
further divided by specific application and special geometry.
It is becoming increasingly common for traditional solid endmills to be replaced by more cost-effective inserted cutting tools
(which, though more expensive initially, reduce tool-change times and
allow for the easy replacement of worn or broken cutting edges rather
than the entire tool).
Endmills are sold in both imperial and metric shank and cutting
diameters. In the USA, metric is readily available, but not commonly
used by machine shops; in Canada, due to the country's proximity to the
US, much the same is true. In Asia and Europe, while imperial is
readily available, metric diameters are standard.
Endmills are typically made on CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machines under high-pressure lubricants such as water, water-soluble oil, and high-flashpoint oil. Grinding inside the machine is accomplished with abrasive wheels
mounted on a spindle (and in some cases, multiple spindles). Depending
on what material is being ground, these wheels are made with industrial
diamond (when grinding tungsten carbide), cubic boron nitride (when
grinding cobalt steel), and other materials (when grinding, for
instance, ceramics), set in a bond (sometimes copper).
Endmills are typically made on CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machines under high-pressure lubricants such as water, water-soluble oil, and high-flashpoint oil. Grinding inside the machine is accomplished with abrasive wheels
mounted on a spindle (and in some cases, multiple spindles). Depending
on what material is being ground, these wheels are made with industrial
diamond (when grinding tungsten carbide), cubic boron nitride (when
grinding cobalt steel), and other materials (when grinding, for
instance, ceramics), set in a bond (sometimes copper).
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