With the increasing requirement of quick handboard or custom parts every month and urgent orders with more accurate components, the modern industry must be rapid manufacturing. With its light, strong, durable, and corrosion resistance, the Aluminium alloy is one of the most widely used alloys in modern production.
In the modern industry, one of the most successful aluminum processing methods is CNC high-speed milling. Compared with conventional milling, the difference is that CNC high-speed milling is much faster. In addition, the producers improve the cutting feed through high-speed milling.
Higher efficiency
The feed can be tripled (for softer aluminum alloys) by increasing the cutting speed to three times that of conventional aluminum milling. As far as we know, machining feed is the parameter that defines the productivity of the whole milling process. That is to say, high-speed machining can be much more efficient than conventional milling. The machinability of aluminum can increase.
Such high material removal rate makes aluminum processing services to be a profitable product for the automotive and aerospace industries. In this case, a large amount of material needs to remove from the car handplant, and it is best to have as few milling Settings as possible. Also, there are many long and large parts, grooves, and thin walls. In addition, aluminum alloy is needed for aircraft and rockets to contain up to 80%.
Lower cutting temperature
It has shown that the cutting temperature varies with increasing speed. As the speed increases, so does the temperature. However, as the speed continues to increase, the temperature starts to drop sharply until at some point it stops changing. Increasing the cutting speed will only reduce the temperature to a small extent. For example, when milling at a speed of 300-500 m/min, the temperature may reach 600-800 degrees. However, if you increase the speed to 1200, the temperature drops to less than 200 degrees and only 150 degrees at 1800 m/min. From then on, faster cuts made no sense.
Just only 150-200 degrees! Due to local heat treatment, the material properties of the cutting area do not change, no metal grains are added, and cooling requirements are much smaller.
Longer tool life
It seems very odd because of the larger cutting speed as to the tool wear. However, if we are going to HSM aluminum cutting tools compared with traditional milling cutting the amount of material instead of shortening tool life to a few minutes, you will see the difference is obvious and is of high-speed milling of aluminum. What are the reasons for extending tool life? First of all, the cutting temperature is low, which means the strength of the tool material is high. Then, the chip width at high-speed milling is much smaller (even as the feed increases and the tool turns faster and manages to cut thinner chips).
In addition, when machining aluminum, one of the main problems is that aluminum is too soft and will stick to the cutting edge of the tool during processing. This reduces tool clarity and increases cutting force, which shortens tool life. But it doesn't happen at speed.
Higher precision
It is agreed that a higher feed will reduce the finish of the aluminum surface because the cutting edge of the tool moves further and the tool can turn and cut. Typically, this results in wider chips, higher cutting forces, and a poorer surface finish. However, in HSM, the tool speed is higher despite the large feed, so the chip is thinner than in conventional milling.
Constant tool engagement Angle
One of the main problems in cutting a cavity with an end milling cutter is to make the cavity Angle. The end mill must be rotated 90 degrees to produce the cavity, and at this point, the material it cuts must be doubled (from both sides of the cavity). This results in a local increase in cutting forces and is very detrimental to tool life and part accuracy. However, HSM aluminum milling has several predetermined tool path generation strategies, including a constant tool engagement Angle. This means that the tool gradually approaches the Angle as it processes all material around it in a circular trajectory. In this way, the cutting force remains constant and the accuracy remains the same. In addition, tool life can be extended.
Less use of coolant
Some HSM strategies for aluminum processing do not use coolant at all, which means that processing at 200 degrees requires almost no cooling material or cutting tools. However, some extremely precise operations still use coolant to improve part quality, but in much smaller quantities than traditional machining. Some aluminum high-speed milling processes use what is called minimum lubrication. The amount of coolant applied is only sufficient to form a film, which reduces friction and provides some cooling.
Therefore, it is very clear that high-speed aluminum milling is an innovative production method for the manufacture of custom parts, aluminum alloy hand plates as well as small batch production.
Established in 1993, Guangdong Zhonglian Aluminum is a large comprehensive aluminum profile enterprise that specializes in customizing aluminum profiles for over 29 years, with one-step service of mold opening、extrusion、spray、oxidation、CNC processing, and screen printing.
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