Milling Nickel With Ceramics

[robk]

I'm about to start on a project that will roll out on the floor in about 2 months. It's a compressor case out of NI Alloy (AMS 5663).

We already do quite a bit of turning with ceramics, but this will be my 1st milling project with ceramics.

This part will be going on our Mazak Variaxis.

We mostly use Greenleaf, but for this project it will be Sandvik that will supply the tooling.

I am pretty excited to try this, but also a little nervous... A couple of things that I am aware of is that I will be running the tools dry. I also have to look into additional filters for the fine chips.

Is there any thing else that I need to consider at this point? Any tips and/or tricks that could help me?

[Tom L]

Rob,

Absolutely dry.

Break your toolpath to run for the planned failure (3-4 minutes of chip time per edge).

You should also tweak your toolpath for very smooth transitions into the cut.

In our application, I had found that trying to ramp with a mill did not gain enough tool life for the effort.

I would keep a fire extinguisher handy.

Expect to see something like this.

 

 

 

 

HTH

[trumper777]

Stick with the Greenleaf... The composite make up in their ceramics are a ton better than Sandviks. I found when cutting the Ni materials by lowering the SFM and raising the Feed, i was getting better tool life and make a good chip.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

[ak762]

quote:

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Stick with the Greenleaf... The composite make up in their ceramics are a ton better than Sandviks.

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trumper777,

 

Did you simple exchange ceramic inserters in Sandvik mill or bought both Greenleaf inserters and mill?

[robk]

Thanks for the photos Tom. That looks too cool

I am really looking forward to giving this a try.

What SFM are you using? I was told anywhere between 3500 and 5000 depending on the hardness of the material which I don't know yet. Our Variaxis has has a 10K spindle. A little low, but it does no aluminum work @ all.

 

quote:

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Stick with the Greenleaf...

---

Like I said this is a Sandvik project.

A little bit to each manufacturer will keep everyone happy (as long as the results will be good).

[Tom L]

Rob

AMS 5663 is a 718 Inconel.

All that we have learned with ceramics is with hardend 625.

http://www.indmetal.com/productslist.asp?m...m=Bar&cmd=reset

The iron content in 625 makes it a different animal than 718.

I have found that milling the 625 with ceramics takes some effort to find the sweet spot. It may be a little easier with the 718.

At the time I spoke with Sandvik and Ingersoll, I was given the parameters for 718, (it was all they had test data for in the Inconel)

3300 SFM

.08 MAX DOC

.004 CPT

Sandvik stated a 3-4 minutes life per edge.

Ingersoll stated 4-6 minutes life per edge.

 

quote:

---

I found when cutting the Ni materials by lowering the SFM and raising the Feed, i was getting better tool life and make a good chip.

---

Dead on trumper777

I ended up running 550 SFM, .08 DOC, .010 CPT.

2" facemill 4 inserts 1051 RPM @ 42.0 IPM.

 

We went from 4 hours 20 minutes CHIP TIME on two machines(carbide) to 48 minutes CHIP TIME on one machine.

[robk]

Well finally got to cut the part.

After some testing we ended up finding the sweet spot @ 4000 SFM with .004 chip load. The DOC is @ .040

Tool life is about 2.5 minutes per edge (we could push it further, but this is very acceptable).

 

The toolpath was a little difficult to get right because of the shape of the part. I found out that using ceramics with 5 axis toolpaths is extremely tricky and not very forgiving, but after taking my time and triple-checking everything the paths came out mint. Still have a lot of finishing paths to create, but the difficult work is done...

 

[Hardmill]

SWEEEEET

 

 

PEACE

[Mic]

Ceramic inserts also works well for Inconel.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gGSsAJzUrs

 

Deckel Maho DMU 100P duoBLOCK with a HSK-A100 spindle. But it sounds like there is some small vibrations from time to time.