Why Profile Milling Inserts Are So Useful for Mold Making?

Profile milling inserts, also known as copy milling inserts, are mainly used for the milling of facades or slopes and are often used for rough machining in mold making.

Profiling Milling Inserts in Mold Making Field

Profile milling is mainly used for the processing of mold manufacturing. When the mold cavity is a complex three-dimensional surface, it is difficult to decompose into several simple surfaces for processing.

At this moment, profiling milling has high processing efficiency and is especially suitable for rough machining of the cavity.

It could cover multi-axis milling of convex and concave shapes in 2D and 3D.

The larger the part and the more complex the shape to be machined, the more important process planning becomes.

Compared with other milling methods, the round inserts for profiling milling mostly use circular arc edges, which can effectively improve surface processing quality and are very suitable for cavity processing.

What Role does the Round Insert Play in Mold Making

The selection of profiling tools can be determined according to the working conditions of the application. Mold processing, especially the processing of its main cavity part, mainly relies on various end mills.

Generally, small molds are processed with integral end mills, and large molds are processed with machine-clamped end mills with indexable inserts in consideration of economy and processing efficiency. However, solid carbide end mills are typically used for finishing operations.

Round insert, a typical copy insert is great for roughing. The main goal of mold roughing processing is to pursue the maximum material removal rate per unit of time and prepare the geometric profile of the workpiece for semi-finishing.

The rough machining cavity is usually processed with a circular insert tool, which has a large arc radius and strong insert strength.

Why Profile Milling Inserts Are So Useful for Mold Making?

Round Inserts Why so Suitable for Mold Making

Round inserts are one of the profiling milling tools, they will make the profiling milling have a variety of advantages. Round inserts can achieve a small amount of back-cutting and a large feed, which is high-speed machining.

A complement to the development trend, round inserts have the following characteristics.

  • Strong feeding ability

Some profiling milling inserts round can directly feed and cut into the workpiece like a drill bit.

  • Helical interpolation

The comprehensive use of profiling milling inserts and helical interpolation can process large-diameter holes easily and quickly.

  • Cutting edge strength

Due to the absence of sharp corners, round shape inserts can withstand greater tool deflection and vibration. It would allow increased speed and feed during machining while reducing the risk of chip broken.

  • The number of cutting edges

The circular insert has more available cutting edges. As the size of the insert and the amount of back engagement, the round insert can have 4-8 effective indexing times. Meanwhile, the material removal amount is at least ordinary diamond and square inserts twice. This advantage can reduce the number of operator tool changes, high efficiency, and good economy.

  • High-efficiency cutting

The use of round inserts does not require high machine power to have a high technical cutting rate. Because of the strength of round inserts, larger feed rates than right-angle cutters can be used, and even heavy-duty roughing can be performed on light-duty machines.

  • The surface precision of the workpiece after rough machining is high

The surface after milling with a round insert does not have obvious unevenness after rough machining with a right-angle tool. The surface residual height is low. The surface precision of the workpiece after rough machining with a round insert is high, and it can be directly semi-finished.

Precautions for Profile Inserts use

The main factor causing the failure of the inserts used in mold manufacturing is high temperature, the chip around will appear to crack wear. Finally, make the edge collapse.

In the process of profile milling, due to improper tool selection or parameter setting, there will be a variety of processing problems.

Analysis of problems in mold processing (as shown below). The above problems may occur in the process of mold processing, including milling inserts problems.

Why Profile Milling Inserts Are So Useful for Mold Making?

Based on the characteristics of the problem, timely and accurate determination of the cause of the problem, and making reasonable standard corrections, can avoid production accidents, reduce production costs and improve production efficiency.

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