Sumitomo’s RSX milling cutters suits exotic alloys

The high rigidity RSX series of face milling cutters from Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal offers low cutting resistance with minimal vibration on difficult to machine exotic alloys and stainless steels. The cutters achieve this via a combination of:

• Three newly developed ACM milling insert grades • The latest ultra-hard 'Super' coatings • A newly conceived insert positioning mechanism A trial on Inconel 718 generator components pitched 50 mm diameter RSX cutter bodies with four-tooth, 12 mm grade ACM200 inserts against a competitor five-tooth equivalent. The Sumitomo tooling was run at 70 m/min with a feed rate of 0.45 mm/tooth against the competitor's cutting data of 50 m/min and 0.15 mm/tooth. Both tools had 1.5 mm depth of cut with a 50 mm cutting width under dry conditions. In the final analysis, and with one less insert, Sumitomo says the RSX cutter produced more than twice the number of components.