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Watch Solutions for Hard Milling
Makino demonstrates the latest techniques and technologies for high-speed machining of hardened materials for die or mold applications. Check out tips, tricks, and new technologies you can use to mill the toughest steels, shortening your lead times, lowering your costs, and eliminating bench work.

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I would like to talk about now are the requirements in order to get to 60 Rockwell high performance machining: machine construction, spindle construction, control technology, tool holders, cutters and cam software. So these are the things it really takes to get to the high performance machining or hard metals.

The first thing we are going to discuss is the machine construction. Makino's philosophy on machine construction is to have a very rigid, solid casting design. This allows for good dampening. Dampening is especially critical as you get into the hard materials above 60 Rockwell. The energy created when milling hard metals has to be absorbed somewhere. That energy can be easily absorbed in a box way construction or a box way design machine.

In a design it is important to also know that if we are trying to eliminate vibration we shouldn't have overhangs or a C-frame type construction, where you could have excess vibration because the saddle or table is hanging over dead space.

So it is important to have good construction and a good machine design. Hand scraping of the guide ways can also play a part in improving accuracy and performance while providing machine longevity.

Spindle construction also plays a key technical component in being successful in hard milling. Having spindle with the ability to run at super-high rpm's isn't always important in 60 Rockwell materials. Having the 30,000 and 40,000 rpm's isn't always a big deal, because in a lot of cases, based on the hardness in material, you can't get your surface footage up high enough to maximize that speed of an rpm. So a lot of cases just making sure that you have stable, rigid spindle technology that will allow good vibration dampening, and repeatable, controllable spindle growth are more important than speed.

Control technology also plays a part in how well the machine tool can hard mill. Being able to effectively control and move through the tool path is especially important. The control technology used must produce a tool path that has a high tolerance so that your tool is staying at its most effective feedrate to prevent rubbing the material. A lot of acceleration and deceleration is required when cutting 60 Rockwell materials, so ineffective control technology can cause reduced tool life because the tool will end up rubbing and will increase your cutting time.