A REVIEW OF ULTRA-HIGH-SPEED MILLING OF HARDENED STEELS

The term 'High Speed Machining' has been used for many years to descri be end milling with small diameter tools at high rotational speeds, ty pically 10 000-100 000 rpm. The process was first applied in the aeros pace industry for the machining of light alloys, notably aluminium. In recent years, however, the mould and die industry has begun to use th e technology for the production of components, including those manufac tured from hardened tool steels. This has only been made possible by a dvances in machine tools, cutting tools and CAD/CAM systems. Promising results have been demonstrated when milling a range of hardened tool steels using machining centres equipped with high speed spindles and c utting tools manufactured from cemented tungsten carbide, cermet, conv entional ceramics and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride. The paper r eviews HSM machinability work over the last decade and includes tool l ife, workpiece surface finish/dimensional accuracy and cost data. Samp le components are illustrated and machining parameters correlated agai nst workpiece hardness. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.