Monthly Archives: July 2010

A modern injection mold making, tool and die or precision machining operation uses a great variety of carbide cutters and inserts. The high speed machining center and hard milling applications have increased this dramatically.

In the past carbide was somewhat of a luxury in the small tool shops that dotted the country. High speed steel seemed to work just fine. Then the jobs became more complex, the lead times shortened by weeks, and the global competition pushed speeds and feeds to the limit.

Now the carbide end mills, micro end mills and carbide inserts that are used today are of exceptionally high quality and more cost effective. The cutters may cost more, but the amount of precision milling they can do is remarkable.

All of these carbide cutters need to be manufactured and oftentimes resharpened. This is where the CNC grinding machines and diamond grinding wheels excel. These remarkable machine tools are capable of grinding large cutters and incredibly tiny end mills.

Carbide is extremely difficult to machine in any case, yet these grinders produce high quality, very accurate cutters all day long. Some of the machines are self contained in that they are nearly silent, emit no dust or coolant spray into the shop. The ground cutters are inspected right in the machine by lasers and then sent on their way to be packaged.