MonsterMill TCR is a solid-carbide milling cutter that is designed to offer increased process security and extended tool life. In its creation, Ceratizit’s developers looked closely at chip formation, particularly when designing the variable and irregular pitch of the cutter flutes. In addition, the chip space has been specially shaped to increase swarf removal.
With geometry and swarf removal addressed, attention turned to improving cutting data and tool life. Changes included the development of a high-performance substrate with extreme toughness and added resistance to flexing under cut, which was complemented by a reinforced cutter core. The final element was the use of Ceratizit’s Dragonskin coating technology for reduced thermal loads and high levels of wear resistance. Of course, there may be applications, such as the production of medical devices, where coating cross-contamination may be an issue; in those cases MonsterMill TCR cutters can be specified without the Dragonskin coating.
To provide an example of the gains available, when machining 3.7164 TiA6V4 material with a 12 mm diameter, 5-flute MonsterMill TCR running at 90 m/min cutting speed, 1,433 mm/min table feed, 18 mm depth of cut and 0.75 mm width of cut, tool life increased by 28%; up from 360 minutes to 450 minutes.
“MonsterMill TCR is part of Team Cutting Tools’ Performance Line of cutters from WNT, in which tools are designed for specific applications, and used where customers are placing high demands on production and require premium products to achieve those demands,” says Tony Pennington, managing director at Ceratizit UK & Ireland. “The continuing success of the UK aerospace and medical sectors will increase pressure on manufacturers to deliver a secure, efficient manufacturing process. Developments such as MonsterMill TCR are assisting in that drive for efficiency.”
MonsterMill TCR cutters are available in a range of diameters from 4 to 20 mm, and in a variety of flute and body lengths to suit different applications such as ramping, interpolation and full slot milling. With the aerospace sector in mind, various corner radii options are available, extending from 0.4 to 6.3 mm, depending on cutter diameter, as well as Torus and ball-nose variants. Customers can access 2D (DXF) and 3D (STEP and STL) files for the full range of MonsterMill TCR cutters to aid programming.
