Milling Cutter With Exchangeable Hub And Protrusion Engagement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing milling cutters with exchangeable hubs face issues such as time-consuming assembly, potential damage from shear forces, and limited flexibility in using different shaft diameters, which restricts the depth of cut.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates adapter members with protrusions and a drive keyway system that securely attaches to the cutter body, allowing for easy exchange and firm attachment without screws, enabling use with various shaft diameters and increasing the depth of cut by adjusting the hub dimensions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If screws are used to attach the hub to the cutter body, then the hub can be securely attached, but the assembly process becomes time-consuming and the screws are exposed to damaging shear forces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the screws from the attachment mechanism entirely. Instead of using threaded fasteners, the invention employs a press-fit interface where the hub is directly pressed onto the cutter body bore, eliminating the time-consuming screw assembly process while maintaining secure attachment through friction and interference fit.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the screw-threaded mechanical fastening system with a direct press-fit mechanical interface. The hub features an outer diameter that is slightly larger than the cutter body bore diameter, creating an interference fit that secures the hub without requiring screws or additional fastening elements.
2Device complexity
If the hub has a fixed hole diameter, then the structure is simple, but the milling cutter cannot be used with shafts of different diameters
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the hub into a separate, exchangeable component that can be replaced with different hub sizes. The cutter body remains unchanged, but the hub can be swapped to match different shaft diameters, providing versatility while keeping the overall structure relatively simple through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutter body design incorporates a universal bore size that can accommodate multiple hub sizes. By making the cutter body bore larger than any single hub diameter, the system achieves multi-functionality where one cutter body can work with various hubs of different diameters, enhancing adaptability without requiring multiple specialized cutter bodies.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the hub diameter is reduced to accommodate smaller shafts, then versatility increases, but the depth of cut capability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the hub diameter parameter from the cutter body bore size. By making the hub an exchangeable component with its own outer diameter (rather than the bore being the limiting factor), the system allows small-diameter hubs to fit in the cutter body while the cutting elements can still extend sufficiently to achieve deep cuts, decoupling these two parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutter body bore is designed to be universally larger than any hub diameter, allowing the same cutter body to accommodate hubs of various sizes. This universal bore design enables the system to maintain depth of cut capability while accepting smaller hubs for smaller shaft applications, as the bore size is not constrained by any single hub dimension.
Data Source
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AI summary
A milling cutter (20, 12, 220) includes a disk like cutter body (22) having radially directed slots (92) and a central aperture (88). An exchangeable hub of the milling cutter has two adapter members (40, 42, 240, 242) located on either side of the cutter body (22) and having an inner side wall (44, 52; 152; 244, 252). One of the adapter members (42, 242) has at least two protrusions (68, 268) formed on the adapter inner side wall (52, 152, 252) and one of the two adapter members (42, 240) has a raised portion (80,180, 280) located on the adapter inner side wall (52, 152, 244). The adapter members (40, 240, 242) maybe secured to the cutter body by the protrusions positioned in the slots and the raised portion positioned in the central aperture.