T-Type Milling Tool with Composite Head Cooling for Reduced Wear
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing milling tools for hard materials face challenges in achieving a cost-effective balance between performance and efficiency, with integral tools made of low-cost materials experiencing high wear and high-performance tools being expensive, while composite tools suffer from joint weakness and limited cooling capabilities, leading to rapid tool deterioration and high machining costs.
Innovation Solution
A 'T' type milling tool composed of separate shank and head made of different materials, with internal cooling channels and hot-brazed joints that ensure alignment and integrity, allowing efficient cooling and reduced wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If integral tools are made of low-cost material such as steel or HSS, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but machining speed becomes very slow and cutting edge wear increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tool is divided into two separate components: a shank made of low-cost material (steel or HSS) and a cutting head made of high-performance material (carbide or cobalt alloy). This segmentation allows each part to be optimized independently - the shank for cost-effectiveness and the cutting head for high-speed machining performance, thereby resolving the contradiction between manufacturing cost and machining speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The tool employs a composite construction combining dissimilar materials - a metal shank (steel/HSS) joined with a carbide or cobalt alloy cutting head. This composite approach enables the tool to simultaneously achieve the low cost of steel construction and the high performance of carbide tools, eliminating the need to choose between cost and productivity.
2Productivity
If high-performance carbide tools are used, then machining performance is excellent, but manufacturing cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the tool into a shank and a cutting head, the expensive carbide material is confined only to the cutting head where it is most needed for high-performance machining. The shank can be made of inexpensive steel or HSS, significantly reducing the overall tool cost while maintaining excellent machining performance at the cutting interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The high-performance carbide material is applied locally only to the cutting head portion of the tool where cutting edges are formed and machining performance is critical. The shank, which does not require high hardness or wear resistance, is made of lower-cost material, optimizing the cost-performance ratio by applying expensive material only where locally necessary.
3Adaptability or versatility
If tools are made by combining separate parts through hot-brazing, then material selection flexibility increases, but joint tightness becomes precarious due to reduced joining surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The joining surface is extended from a simple end-face connection to a circumferential surface connection. The shank is inserted into a cylindrical cavity within the cutting head, creating a large-area circumferential joining surface that provides superior mechanical interlocking and thermal contact for hot-brazing, thereby enhancing joint tightness and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The shank is nested within a cylindrical cavity in the cutting head, creating a telescopic fit that maximizes the joining surface area. This nested configuration allows the hot-brazing material to be applied over a large circumferential area, ensuring strong and reliable joints while maintaining the flexibility to use different materials for the shank and cutting head.
4Temperature
If cooling channels are added to composite tools, then thermal management improves, but manufacturing complexity and alignment precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling channel system is segmented and distributed across both the shank and cutting head components. Each component can be manufactured with its own cooling channels independently, then assembled together. This segmentation simplifies manufacturing compared to creating complex internal channels in a monolithic tool, while still achieving effective thermal management through the combined channel system.
Solution Approach 2:
Cooling channels are pre-formed within the shank and cutting head components during their respective manufacturing processes before assembly. This preliminary action allows each component to be optimized and manufactured separately with standard cooling channel techniques, reducing overall manufacturing complexity. The alignment of cooling channels is achieved through precise positioning features during assembly, avoiding the need for complex post-assembly channel alignment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The tool achieves enhanced performance and cost-effectiveness by maintaining tool integrity and reducing wear through separate material construction and internal cooling, thereby improving machining efficiency and reducing operational costs.
Implementation Method 1
internal channels for the passage of a refrigerant liquid... allowing efficient cooling
Implementation Method 2
channels for the passage of a refrigerant liquid which is directly supplied into the machining area through the tool itself
Implementation Method 3
hot-brazed joints that ensure alignment and integrity
Data Source
Figure 1a~1d
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~6
AI summary
A tool (10) of the "T" type used for milling metal products or other hard materials, such as for making grooves with undercuts on a workpiece holder or the like, comprises a substantially axially symmetric shank (11) comprising an end (18) thereof provided with an appendage (19) and a head (12) of substantially discoidal conformation having a greater diameter than said shank (11) and delimited by two opposite faces (14, 15) of which the face (15) facing said shank (11) comprises a first substantially circular slot (16), arranged with the main axis thereof parallel to the rotation axis of the tool, inside which a second slot (17) is also obtained, also substantially circular, concentric and arranged coaxially to the main slot (16). The head (12) is provided with respective radially arranged holes (23) with the rotation axis of the head (12) coinciding with the axis of the shank (11), where said central channel (21) and holes (23) of the head (12) are configured so that the mutual connection between the shank (11) and the head (12) causes a passage of refrigerant fluid introduced from the base of the shank and delivered by the radial holes (23) of the head (12).