Critical assessment of carbide and PCBN tool performance in high speed milling of dies and molds

This paper presents a comparative experimental study on the performance of carbide and PCBN ball nose end mills during high speed milling (HSM) of tool steel (H13, 55 HRc). Several critical issues such as chip morphology, tool wear mechanisms, tool life and cutting forces were investigated. The experiments were planned to provide a comprehensive assessment of the use of carbide tools in this application (in comparison to PCBN tools), which would result in significant cost savings. The influence of various process parameters on tool performance was also investigated. The results obtained confirmed the viability of using carbide tools during HSM of dies and molds. The results show that a cutting length of about 2400 m was achieved when carbide tools were used at a spindle speed (N) of 10,000 rev/min, feed (f) of 0.05 mm/tooth and axial depth of cut (ADC) of 0.64 mm and radial width of cut (RWC) of 0.25 mm.