Product category:
Milling cutters
News Release from: WNT (UK) | Subject: Powder steel ripper cutters
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 August 2005
Ripper cutters solve thin-wall SS
milling problem
Powdered steel ripper cutters solved the problem of machining thin-walled stainless steel components without generating excessive vibration that would otherwise fail tooling.
When Newburgh Engineering was faced with a machining problem on the unusually named vented bottom support component it found, as is so often the case, that the simple answer is often the best This fabricated component for one of its customers in the nuclear industry is manufactured in batches of 12 from a nuclear standard stainless steel and requires a particular contour to be machined
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 28 May 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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However, the component is relatively thin-walled and its design means there is very little support around the area to be machined.
When attempting to remove the volume of material at a cost-effective rate, Newburgh Engineering was encountering an unacceptable amount of vibration, which in turn resulted in premature tool failure.
Numerous tooling alternatives were tried without any significant improvement.
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Big choice offered for cutting small grooves
To satisfy increasing demand for a replaceable insert-based grooving system for small bores an extensive tooling range grooves, undercuts, bores and threads in bores down to 8mm diameter.
It was then that the Bradwell, Derbyshire, UK-based sub-contractor received one of WNT (UK)'s regular special offer flyers that featured the Sheffield company's powder steel ripper cutters.
"Responding to special offers and buying tools simply on price are not something that we would normally do," says Eric Redfern, Newburgh's industrial engineer, "However, having carried out various unsuccessful cutting trials, mainly involving indexable insert milling cutters, we decided to invite WNT (UK) to look at the problem." Equal to the challenge was WNT (UK)'s technical sales engineer, Gary Brodrick, who suggested the use of a 25mm diameter powder steel ripper cutter.
"These particular cutters from our Mastertool range have a high rupture strength," he says.
"This creates a very strong strong cutter able to withstand the harmonics within the component".
"An added benefit is the extremely sharp edge that we are able to achieve with this material, which further helps in reducing vibrations during the heavy metal removal process." The particular 25mm diameter cutter used by Newburgh Engineering is a standard item within WNT's catalogue and the initial results were very positive.
"When we compared the results with previous tools we found that the powder steel cutter from WNT outperformed the competition on price and performance," says Redfern.
"The depth of cut we are now achieving could not be achieved with indexable insert tools and the tool life of the powder steel tool is also greater than we could achieve previously".
"We have no problems with tool breakage and when tools become worn we are able to regrind them up to six times, which is generating further cost benefits." As a result of the ongoing co-operation between Newburgh Engineering and WNT (UK), the performance of the four flute powder steel rippers has been improved and cutting data has now been increased to 23m/min with a feedrate of 0.09mm/tooth and a depth of cut up to 25mm. Request a free brochure from WNT (UK) ...
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