Kyocera Corporation has launched its MD90 super-fine pitch cutter, a new milling tool specifically designed for machining aluminium parts in industries such as automotive.

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for lightweight, high-strength aluminium components, driven by advancements in vehicle fuel efficiency and the rise of electric vehicles (EVs). Additionally, the increasing use of smaller machines in manufacturing sites has created a need for cutters that can efficiently and effectively process machines aluminium parts. According to Kyocera, the MD90 not only meets these needs but also offers potential cost savings through its high efficiency and quality, making it an attractive option for manufacturers.

The MD90 features a 24-insert design with a diameter of 125 mm, enabling efficient and high-quality machining of aluminium components.

Among the main benefits of the MD90 include the ability to maximise machining efficiency. The proprietary shape of the holder ensures high rigidity, even with super-fine pitch specifications. This design reduces chattering and enables efficient machining with a table feed of Vf ≥24,000 mm/min.

Lightweight aluminium holders are a further advantage, ensuring suitability for small machines tools (BT30).

With the MD90, Kyocera says customers will gain from high-quality production. PCD inserts are specifically engineered to reduce burr, achieving surface roughness of 0.8 μm Ra or less. Moreover, the company says that the double coolant holes and streamlined chip pocket structure offer excellent chip control performance, ensuring smooth and precise machining and long tool life.

Of course, every application presents unique requirements. For this reason, the MD90 is available with customised configuration options. Cutting diameters range from 20 to 350 mm diameter, and the cutting-edge geometry can be precisely tailored to suit specific operational demands. This level of flexibility ensures optimal utilisation of the tool’s full potential.

More information www.kyocera-unimerco.com

Although cutting tool manufacturer Mapal has handled tool management at automotive supplier Schabmüller Automobiltechnik for some time, the company has now also taken over CADCAM programming for components, including simulations. With growing requirements for aluminium machining, Schabmüller says it values this full-service solution.

Schabmüller near Ingolstadt has been an automotive supplier since 1988, specialising increasingly in the efficient manufacture of large series. The parts are installed in vehicles made by Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, BMW and Jaguar, among others. SMI operates predominantly as a tier-two supplier. Major clients include Aludyne and Strojmetal, which directly supply the automotive industry as an aluminium foundry and forge.

When recently becoming involved in the production of suspension parts, Schabmüller had a whole new experience. A good example was a hub carrier, where issues with stiffness arose during test drives. Almost at the last minute, another surface required machining and a stiffening rib was added.

To get a better grip on these short-term changes and continue optimising overall production, Schabmüller decided to bring Mapal on board at the CADCAM programming phase.

“We have a very co-operative partnership with Mapal and appreciate their rapid response times,” explains Schabmüller’s managing director Helmut Häckl. “So we felt good about expanding our co-operation to CNC programming and simulation.”

NC programming, simulation and tool management are today perfectly intertwined. For instance, simulation data is included in tool planning, which helps detect potential collisions at an early stage. Simulation also plays a key role, showing approach angles that can be used to improve material removal, for example.

More information www.mapal.com

At its recent Technology Days open house in Tübingen, Germany, cutting tool and insert manufacturer Paul Horn GmbH explained the measures it is taking when producing its latest products to mitigate the difficulties that its customers face due to the phasing out of lead as an alloying element.

The main problem when machining lead-free alloys, whether steel or brass, is a lack of reliable chip breaking. Horn engineers remedied this for grooving and longitudinal turning by taking laser-cut chip-breaker geometries normally reserved for cutting steels, adapting them and applying them not only to those materials but also to lead-free brass and other non-ferrous alloys that no longer have their free-machining properties. Extensive investigations showed this works very well.

For boring, geometries were again adapted to ensure reliable chip breaking. One of the biggest challenges in internal machining is the generation of long swarf that wraps around the tool, clogs the hole or, in the worst case, leads to tool breakage. Previously, laser-cut or ground chip breaker geometries were employed but such carbide inserts tend to be expensive.

With Horn’s new Type 105 Supermini and now the Type Mini with I geometry, Horn has succeeded in developing boring tools with a chip breaker form that is pressed into the insert’s rake face as the green tungsten-carbide blank is being manufactured. After the blank has gone through the high-temperature sintering process, the chip-breaker shape is permanently fused into the final, hard insert. Such geometries are cost-effective, can be used universally for different material groups, and are suitable for internal, face, copy and back turning. Horn reports that chip control is good, even when the infeed rate is low.

More information www.horn-group.com