"Another surge in tungsten prices!" ——This has become the persistent concern for every mechanical processing professional. As the most widely used tool in workshops, tungsten steel milling cutters face skyrocketing costs that further erode the already slim profit margins. But what alternatives exist? Changzhou QT Tools tackled this challenge head-on through extensive trials, developing ceramic milling cutters as the optimal replacement. These mass-produced alternatives slash production costs, making them affordable, accessible, and truly painless for manufacturers to adopt!
While ceramic milling cutters from leading brands have long been available, their high cost has always been a concern. The secret lies in the cutting-edge materials: these precision tools are crafted from hard inorganic compounds like alumina and silicon nitride through advanced powder metallurgy processes. Combining exceptional hardness, high-temperature resistance, and chemical stability, they deliver unmatched performance when machining specialized materials – proving that superior quality can be surprisingly affordable!
What materials can ceramic milling cutters process? Let's take a look
1. quenched steel, high-hardness cast iron, cold-hardened cast iron (about HRC45-65). These high-hardness materials can be processed by ceramic milling cutters to achieve "milling instead of grinding / turning instead of grinding", which can significantly improve efficiency while maintaining the size and surface quality; suitable for hardened layer removal and allowance precision machining in the mold industry.
2. the high temperature alloy and nickel-based alloy materials most used in the field of aero-engine. Under the working conditions where traditional tungsten steel fails due to high cutting temperature, workpiece processing hardening and tool welding, ceramics can maintain sharpness and stability by virtue of high temperature hardness and chemical stability, realizing high speed shallow cutting and short time efficient removal.
Ceramic milling cutters are excellent for high - speed machining of cast iron materials like gray and ductile cast iron. They allow extremely high cutting speeds and greatly improve the material removal rate per unit time, so they are essential for mass production.
Is the ceramic milling cutter so good that it can completely replace the tungsten steel milling cutter? The answer is no. Below, Changzhou QT TOOLS will make a comprehensive comparison between the ceramic milling cutter and the tungsten steel milling cutter:
Comparative dimensions | Ceramic milling cutter | Tungsten steel (hard alloy) milling cutter |
core advantage | High temperature performance, chemical stability, very high cutting speed | Good versatility, toughness and mature technology |
Hardness (at room temperature) | polar altitude | tall |
High temperature hardness (red hardness) | Excellent, low hardness loss at high temperatures | The hardness is poor and drops sharply after a certain temperature |
cutting speed | Very high, 2-10 times that of tungsten steel | Medium to high, limited by red hardness |
abrasion performance | Excellent, especially when processing specific materials | good |
chemical stability | Excellent, not easy to produce affinity with metal | Relatively poor, easy to produce chondroma in certain cases |
Applicable materials | Specializing in high hardness materials, high temperature alloys, cast iron | The scope is very wide, from ordinary steel to stainless steel, aluminum alloy and so on |
Requirements for machine tools | High, the machine tool requires good rigidity, high power, no vibration | Universal, adaptable |
prime cost | The unit price of the blade is higher, but the overall efficiency cost may be lower | The unit price is relatively low and cost-effective |
Summary | "Special Forces": A high-speed weapon for specific, difficult missions | "All-rounder": The most widely used universal milling tool |
Now, if you are engaged in machining, will you choose ceramic milling cutter? If there are the following processing conditions, please choose to try our Changzhou QT TOOLS ceramic milling cutter:
1. Pursuit of extreme efficiency: batch piece period is the bottleneck, and the rigidity of tooling and machine tools can be achieved.
2. Hard cutting materials: nickel based high temperature alloy, cold hardened cast iron, quenched and hardened steel with residual removal or precision machining instead of grinding.
3. "Mill instead of grinding/drill instead of grinding": surface roughness and flatness are required, but shallow high speed cutting is allowed.
If you still do not know how to switch from tungsten steel milling cutter to ceramic milling cutter cutting program, please click Changzhou QT TOOLS, we will provide you with a free "ten-step import method" from tungsten steel to ceramic, so that you can immediately start and do not take a detour!
