Solid Ceramic End Mills Offer Increased Feed Rates, Broader Speed Range

Greenleaf Corp. says its XSYTIN-360 line of high-performance solid ceramic end mills combines a phase-toughened XSYTIN-1 substrate with a unique cutting geometry to offer ten times more productivity and tremendous cost savings.

These end mills are said to be extremely versatile with twice the feed rate capability and a much broader speed range. The strength of the material enables users to apply chip loads similar to solid carbide end mills with higher speeds common to ceramic tooling. These ceramic end mills provide users with significant increases in productivity over current solid carbide or ceramic products.

The XSYTIN-1 material is engineered to machine a wider variety of materials. The structure of this phase-toughened ceramic exhibits high wear resistance and thermal shock resistance, which makes the XSYTIN-360 end mills highly predictable, very versatile, high- performance products, the company says.

XSYTIN^-360 end mills have shown high material removal rates, resulting in increased productivity on a wide range of materials. The company says these end mills are extremely effective when machining a variety of different materials, including high-temperature alloys, 3D-printed sintered high-temperature alloys, hardened steels, ductile cast irons and compacted graphite iron (CGI). In hardened steels, specifically, the tool life of XSYTIN-360 end mills has shown to be equal to high-performance carbide end mills when run at high-end speeds (11,460 rpm), while also removing over 73 cubic inches (over 1,200 cubic cm) of material.

The end mills also have a unique flute design that minimizes cutting forces, which reduces vibrations and optimizes tool life. A four-flute design enables maximum material removal in slotting, pocketing and profiling applications. The overall length of the end mills provide optional regrind capabilities. A broad application range means numerous machining centers are capable of running these end mills. Quality tool holders such as shrink fit and hydraulic are recommended with these tools, and they should be run without coolant.