Three principles of choosing the milling cutter(1)

A milling cutter is a rotating tool with one or more teeth used for milling. Each tooth intermittently cuts away the workpiece in turn. Milling cutters are mainly used for milling machines to process planes, steps, grooves, shaped surfaces and cut off workpieces. The author believes that in the selection of milling cutter, the milling cutter body and the tool holder should pay attention to:

1. milling cutter is used on CNC machining center, or ordinary milling machine.

2. milling cutter processing material and hardness.

3. The specifications of the milling cutter, such as: edge length, full length, edge diameter, shank diameter, etc. If it is used on CNC machining center, it should be used with solid carbide. For general milling machine, you can use white steel. White steel milling cutters are softer compared to carbide milling cutters. High-speed steel cutter is cheap, good toughness, but not high strength, easy to let the knife, and wear resistance, thermal hardness is relatively poor, high-speed steel milling cutter thermal hardness of about 600 degrees, hardness of 65HRC, it is obvious that when milling harder materials with white steel, if the coolant is not in place, it is easy to burn the knife this is one of the reasons for the thermal hardness is not high. 

Carbide milling cutter thermal hardness is good, wear resistance, but poor impact resistance, just drop the blade will break, carbide is made of powder metallurgy method of materials, hardness up to about 90HRA, thermal properties up to about 900-1000 degrees. Therefore, white steel is suitable for general milling machines, and alloy milling cutters are used in CNC machining centers.

The selection of milling cutter diameter varies greatly depending on the product and production batch, and the selection of tool diameter mainly depends on the specifications of the equipment and the processing size of the workpiece.

① Plane milling cutter to choose the diameter of the plane milling cutter should mainly consider the power required for the tool should be within the power range of the machine tool, but also the machine tool spindle diameter as the basis for selection. The diameter of the plane milling cutter can be selected according to D = 1.5d (d is the spindle diameter). In mass production, the tool diameter can also be selected according to 1.6 times the cutting width of the workpiece.

②End Milling Cutter. End mill diameter selection should mainly consider the requirements of the workpiece processing size, and to ensure that the power required by the tool within the rated power range of the machine tool. Such as the small diameter end mill, the main consideration should be the machine's maximum speed can reach the minimum cutting speed of the tool ( 60m / min)

③Slot milling cutter. The diameter and width of the slot milling cutter should be selected according to the size of the workpiece, and to ensure that its cutting power within the power range allowed by the machine tool.