roll-in tool entry Archives - Harvey Performance Company

Machinists face many problems and challenges when manufacturing gummy materials. These types of materials include low carbon steels, stainless steels, nickel alloys, titanium, copper, and metals with high chromium content. Gummy materials have a tendency to produce long, stringy chips, and are prone to creating built-up edge. These common problems can impact surface finish, tool life, and part tolerances.

Continuous Chip With a Built-Up Edge

Continuous chips are long, ribbon-like chips that are formed when the tool cuts through a material, separating chips along the shear plane created by the tool’s cutting edge. These chips slide up the tool face at a constant flow to create a long and stringy chip. The high temperatures, pressures, and friction produced when cutting are all factors that lead to the sticky chips that adhere to the cutting edge. When this built up edge becomes large enough, it can break off leaving behind some excess material on the workpiece, or gouge the workpiece leaving a poor surface finish.

Coolant

Using large amounts of coolant can help with temperature control and chip evacuation while machining gummy materials. Temperature is a big driving force behind built-up edge. The higher the temperature gets, the easier and faster a built-up edge can form. Coolant will keep local temperatures lower and can prevent the material from work hardening and galling. Long, stringy chips have the potential to “nest” around the tool and cause tool failure. Coolant will help break these chips into smaller pieces and move them away from the cutting action by flash cooling them, resulting in fracturing of the chip into smaller pieces. Coolant should be applied directly to the contact area of the tool and workpiece to have the maximum effect.

Tool Engagement

Running Parameters

The tool should be constantly fed into the workpiece. Allowing the tool to dwell can cause work hardening and increase the chance of galling and built up edge. A combination of higher feed rates and lower speeds should also be used to keep material removal rates at a reasonable level. An increase in feed rates will raise the temperature less than an increase in speed. This relates to chip thinning and the ability of a tool to cut the material rather than rub against it.

Climb Milling

Climb milling is the preferred method as it directs more heat into the chip than the tool. Using climb milling, the largest chip cross section is created first, allowing the tool to cut through the material much easier. The heat generated from friction when the tool penetrates the workpiece is transferred to the chip rather than the tool because the thickest part of the chip is able to hold more heat than the thinnest.

Initial Workpiece Engagement

Sudden, large changes in force, like when a tool initially engages a workpiece, have a negative impact on tool life. Using an arc-in tool path to initially engage the material allows for increased stability with a gradual increase in cutting forces and heat. A gradual tool entry such as this is always the preferred method over an abrupt straight entry.

Tool Selection

A tool with a sharp and robust cutting edge should be selected to machine gummy materials. Helical has tooling specifically designed for Titanium and Stainless Steel to make your tool selection process easy.

Additionally, choosing a tool with the correct coating for the material you are machining will help to protect the cutting edge and result in a far lower chance of built up edge or galling than an uncoated tool. A tool with a higher flute count can spread tool wear out over multiple cutting edges, extending tool life. Tool wear is not always linear in gummy materials; as soon as a little bit of wear appears, tool failure will happen relatively quickly. Changing the tool at the first sign of wear may be necessary to ensure that parts are not scrapped.

Gummy Materials Summarized

Every material machines somewhat differently, but understanding what is happening when the tool cuts the workpiece and how this affects tool life and finish will go a long way to successfully completing any job. Built-up edge and excess heat can be minimized by selecting the correct tool and coating for the material, and following the tips and techniques mentioned above. Finally, be sure to check your machine’s runout and ensure maximum rigidity prior to beginning your machining operation.

What is Contouring?

Contouring a part means creating a fine finish on an irregular or uneven surface. Dissimilar to finishing a flat or even part, cnc contouring involves the finishing of a rounded, curved, or otherwise uniquely shaped part.

CNC Contouring & 5-Axis Machining

5-axis machines are particularly suitable for contouring applications. Because contouring involves the finishing of an intricate or unique part, the multiple axes of movement in play with 5-axis Machining allow for the tool to access tough-to-reach areas, as well as follow intricate tool paths.

Recent Advances

Advanced CAM software can now write the G-Code (the step-by-step program needed to create a finished part) for a machinists application, which has drastically simplified contouring applications. Simply, rather than spend several hours writing the code for an application, the software now handles this step. Despite these advances, most young machinists are still required to write their own G-Codes early on in their careers to gain valuable familiarity with the machines and their abilities. CAM software, for many, is a luxury earned with time.

Benefits of Advanced CAM Software

Increased Time Savings
Because contouring requires very specific tooling movements and rapidly changing cutting parameters, ridding machinists of the burden of writing their own complex code can save valuable prep time and reduce machining downtime.

Reduced Cycle Times
Generated G-Codes can cut several minutes off of a cycle time by removing redundancies within the application. Rather than contouring an area of the part that does not require it, or has been machined already, the CAM Software locates the very specific areas that require machining time and attention to maximize efficiency.

Improved Consistency
CAM Programs that are packaged with CAD Software such as SolidWorks are typically the best in terms of consistency and ability to handle complex designs. While the CAD Software helps a machinist generate the part, the CAM Program tells a machine how to make it.

Proper Tips

Utilize Proper Cut Depths

Prior to running a contouring operation, an initial roughing cut is taken to remove material in steps on the Z-axis so to leave a limited amount of material for the final contouring pass. In this step, it’s pivotal to leave the right amount of material for contouring — too much material for the contouring pass can result in poor surface finish or a damaged part or tool, while too little material can lead to prolonged cycle time, decreased productivity and a sub par end result.

The contouring application should remove from .010″ to 25% of the tool’s cutter diameter. During contouring, it’s possible for the feeds to decrease while speeds increases, leading to a much smoother finish. It is also important to keep in mind that throughout the finishing cut, the amount of engagement between the tool’s cutting edge and the part will vary regularly – even within a single pass.

Use Best Suited Tooling

Ideal tool selection for contouring operations begins by choosing the proper profile of the tool. A large radius or ball profile is very often used for this operation because it does not leave as much evidence of a tool path. Rather, they effectively smooth the material along the face of the part. Undercutting End Mills, also known as lollipop cutters, have spherical ball profiles that make them excellent choices for contouring applications. Harvey Tool’s 300° Reduced Shank Undercutting End Mill, for example, features a high flute count to benefit part finish for light cut depths, while maintaining the ability to reach tough areas of the front or back side of a part.

Fact-Check G-Code

While advanced CAM Software will create the G-Code for an application, saving a machinist valuable time and money, accuracy of this code is still vitally important to the overall outcome of the final product. Machinists must look for issues such as wrong tool call out, rapids that come too close to the material, or even offsets that need correcting. Failure to look G-Code over prior to beginning machining can result in catastrophic machine failure and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Inserting an M01 – or a notation to the machine in the G-Code to stop and await machinist approval before moving on to the next step – can help a machinist to ensure that everything is approved with a next phase of an operation, or if any redundancy is set to occur, prior to continuation.

Contouring Summarized

CNC contouring is most often used in 5-axis machines as a finishing operation for uniquely shaped or intricate parts. After an initial roughing pass, the contouring operation – done most often with Undercutting End Mills or Ball End Mills, removes anywhere from .010″ to 25% of the cutter diameter in material from the part to ensure proper part specifications are met and a fine finish is achieved. During contouring, cut only at recommended depths, ensure that G-Code is correct, and use tooling best suited for this operation.

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Tips for Machining Gummy Materials