MAPAL expands milling cutter range for lightweight materials

Source：Ringier Metalworking Release Date：2015-09-09 156

Metalworking

MAPAL has now expanded its extensive milling cutter product range that has been well-established on the market for many years to include four new high-performance milling cutters.   

THE trend towards lightweight construction is resulting in the constant development of new materials with a very wide range of properties which create new demands also on the machining. Tool manufacturers have to react here, as reliable machining is no longer assured with the normal geometries.

The solid carbide end milling cutter, OptiMill-Composite-UD, was added to the milling cutter range for the milling of parts made from fibre composite materials such as CFRP that are either very thin or are difficult to machine. Thanks to its cutting edge geometry, it achieves a simultaneous pulling and pushing cut with compression effect in the part, thus preventing delaminations and fibre projections. The milling cutter is diamond coated for a long tool life.

Due to their low weight and flexural strength, honeycomb structures are used for support and reinforcement between the inner and outer skin of aircraft or in the vanes of wind energy converters. The difficulty when machining this very light material is its comb structure. MAPAL has developed the OptiMill-Honeycomb to meet the special demands of machining honeycombs. The eight-bladed solid carbide end milling cutter has extremely sharp cutting edges, a helix angle of 15 degrees and very fine serration. The new OptiMill-Honeycomb reliably machines even honeycombs with a wide variety of outer layers or with fillings.

The new milling cutters, OptiMill-Thermoplastic, OptiMill-Thermoplastic-FR, OptiMill-Composite-UD and OptiMill-Honeycomb are immediately available in a wide range of dimensions.

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