Joint demos on machining challenges
Bobingen, June 5, 2024 – Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH and Röders GmbH are further expanding their strategic partnership. Since last year, the two companies have been working together to develop efficient processes with special tools, especially in the areas of graphite, steel over 60 HRC and ceramic materials. Now there are joint workshops and trade fair appearances with live presentations, such as most recently at Ceramitec in Munich, where the partners presented the results of their joint tests to optimize the micro-machining of technical ceramics. The material, which was challenging for machining, was supplied by the Dortmund company DOCERAM and was milled with coordinated special tools on the 5-axis milling center RXP 501 DSC from Röders, a highly agile and thermally constant machine.
Hufschmied covers two processing steps for technical ceramics with its tools. The processing example for machining ceramic that has not yet been sintered: A watch case made of the zirconium oxide high-performance ceramic Cerazur is processed with the special tools from the “Graftor” series. Due to their special geometry, these have pulling and pushing cutting edges. As a result, the tool generates a neutral cutting pressure and avoids “lifting” the component. Vibrations are minimized, which increases process reliability with brittle materials. This means that significantly higher speed-feed ratios can be achieved. Users benefit from stable processes and can produce cost-effectively.
Machining non-sintered ceramics has advantages for special applications. The workpieces are given an oversize of 20% to 25%, machined and then subjected to the sintering process. Diffusion processes ensure “shrinking” to the set actual size. However, post-processing may often be necessary.
For this reason, the two companies have also taken on the challenge of machining sintered ceramics. For this purpose, special full-head PCD tools (polycrystalline diamond tools) were used and the process parameters were jointly optimized so that economical machining is also possible for this extremely hard ceramic.