Guhring CFRP milling cutter counters delamination issues
Guhring's composite materials research centre has developed a milling cutter with an innovative cutting edge arrangement to meet the challenge of the trend towards lower resin content carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) and unidirectionally oriented fibres.
Compared with woven fibres, firmly embedded in resin, fibres lying side by side are less secure. The lack of interlocking fibres can affect the reliability of machining processes for these materials. In the case of milling, fibres can easily tear out of the composite – the higher the cutting forces, the greater the problem.
In the Guhring cutter, the two cutting edges are positioned in a helix angle of 25º in relation to each other. In addition the cutter has unequal spacing of the cutting edges at the circumference – a geometry perfected with carbide milling cutters and reamers. Benefits cited in machining CFRP are that there is no tendency to delamination, extremely smooth operation, even with unstable clamping, and longer tool life.
