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Cutting Diamond
In manufacturing parts from composites, drilling
is widely regarded as the major cutting operation.
Improving capabilities of drilling tools has had a direct
impact on the effectiveness of machining composites
and composite stacks.
Most recently, ISCAR introduced a series of new
solid drills, in the diameter range of 3.3-12 mm
(.130-.500"), which are specially designed for
composites. The common feature of these tools is
the use of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) or diamond
coating to ensure high abrasion wear resistance. There
are several types of these new drills; one of them is
based on using a PCD nib as a central point of a drill,
and another type has a diamond wafer. Both drill types
offer a large area for multiple regrinding.
The third type of drills are solid carbide tools with a
diamond-coated cutting area. Their wavy cutting edge
facilitates reducing burr formation, specifically when
drilling carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and
CFRP-Aluminum stacks.

Exotic for Exotic: advantageous ceramics ceramics. The mills are intended mostly for rough
Cemented carbide is still the main cutting material for and semi-finish machining of planes and 3D surfaces
machining. Introducing carbide tools revolutionized at extremely high cutting speeds. The economical
the metalworking industry ensuring a significant double-sided insert design provides high ceramics
growth of productivity due to sharply increased cutting utilization. The inserts are made from several ceramic
speeds. However, despite this, even today cutting grades such as "black" ceramics, whisker reinforced
speeds for difficult-to-machine Ni- and Co-based ceramics and SiAlON (a type of silicon-nitride-based
high-temperature superalloys (HTSA) are low: typically ceramics). Applying the new mills is directed on
within the range of 25-50 m/min (80-160 sfm). How maximizing metal removal rate (MRR) and dramatic
do we expand the speed boundaries? reduction in cycle time.

Exotic ceramic materials have already found One more example of successful usage of cutting
themselves as cutting materials. Using exotic ceramic ceramics is another of ISCAR's latest products: a
material ensures a totally different level of cutting family of solid endmills from SiAlON. The endmills
speeds. For example, machining the superalloys by were designed specifically for productive rough
ceramic tools, the cutting speed 1000 m/min (3300 machining Ni-based superalloys such as various
sfm) is completely real. Therefore, ceramic tools grades of Inconel, Incoloy, Haynes, etc. in the
become more and more common in machining HTSA. aerospace industry. In comparison with typical solid
Recently, ISCAR developed a family of indexable carbide endmills, SiAlON endmills allow an increase in
shell mills carrying double-sided inserts made from cutting speed of up to 50 times!

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