Machining thin walls and ribs

Plastic injection moulds and die casting moulds often have ribs and thin walls. Ribs, for example, are increasingly being milled, as this process is more cost-effective than EDM (spark eroding). As a rule, long or extra-long carbide tools with small diameters are used. Customer-specific solutions (RibCutter) to match the respective rib shape are also possible here
On a rendered example component, an operation is highlighted.
Tool overview for the following machining steps:
  1. Roughing
  2. Finishing​​​​​​​

Roughing

Roughing operations are responsible for most of the chip removal capacity. Special milling strategies such as high-feed machining or trochoidal milling can reduce machining time and thus increase profitability. In addition to tools with indexable inserts and solid carbide milling cutters, high-performance milling cutters with special roughing geometry are used.
  • OptiMill®-3D-BN

    Solid carbide ball cutter
    • High precision machining of 3D contours
    • High precision milling cutters with a high level of radius accuracy
    • Wide selection for hard and soft machining of steel
    • Variants z=2 und z=4, with and without working depth
    • Available in cylindrical and conical forms

  • OptiMill®-3D-CR

    Solid carbide corner radius milling cutter
    • Finishing of 3D moulds with a high-precision corner radius
    • High precision corner radius with high level of radius accuracy
    • Wide selection for hard and soft machining of steel
    • Different numbers of teeth available
    • Available in cylindrical and conical forms

  • RibCutter

    Solid carbide special milling cutter
    • For the machining of deep ribs and contours
    • Special cutting edge geometry
    • Excellent surface finish
    • Extreme time savings due to the elimination of time-consuming multi-pass milling
    • Available as a ball/corner radius milling cutter and with a straight face


Finishing

The finishing process removes the remaining material in order to achieve the final shape. After pre-finishing, stock removal is 0.05-0.1 mm for hardened materials or 0.1-0.3 mm for soft materials. Ball and/or corner radius milling cutters are the tools of choice, regardless of the final contours of the workpiece.
  • OptiMill®-3D-BN

    Solid carbide ball cutter
    • High precision machining of 3D contours
    • High precision milling cutters with a high level of radius accuracy
    • Wide selection for hard and soft machining of steel
    • Variants z=2 und z=4, with and without working depth
    • Available in cylindrical and conical forms

  • OptiMill®-3D-CR

    Solid carbide corner radius milling cutter
    • Finishing of 3D moulds with a high-precision corner radius
    • High precision corner radius with high level of radius accuracy
    • Wide selection for hard and soft machining of steel
    • Different numbers of teeth available
    • Available in cylindrical and conical forms

  • RibCutter

    Solid carbide special milling cutter
    • For the machining of deep ribs and contours
    • Special cutting edge geometry
    • Excellent surface finish
    • Extreme time savings due to the elimination of time-consuming multi-pass milling
    • Available as a ball/corner radius milling cutter and with a straight face


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