End mill having teeth and associated flutes with correlated physical parameters
AssigneeIscar, Ltd.
InventorLeonid Shpigelman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An end mill includes a plurality of teeth and flutes. The teeth and their associated flutes include one or more correlated physical parameters. One such correlated parameter is that, at an axial location in a front half of an effective cutting length, at least one tooth of the plurality of teeth has a rake angle smaller than an average rake angle value of the plurality of teeth, and, at the same axial location, a flute preceding each such tooth has a helix angle larger than an average helix angle value of the plurality of flutes.
Claims28
A finish end mill configured for rotating about a central rotation axis (AR) defining opposite axially forward and rearward directions (DF, DR), and opposite rotational preceding and succeeding directions (DP, DS), the preceding direction (DP) being the cutting direction, the end mill comprising:
- a shank portion;
- and
- a cutting portion extending forward from the shank portion to a cutting end face;
- the cutting portion comprising:
- a diameter DE;
- an effective cutting length LE;
- wherein the effective cutting length LE is greater than 2.5DE;
- five or more integrally formed teeth;
- and
- flutes alternating with the five or more teeth, each flute having a helix angle and a flute depth;
- each tooth comprising:
- a rake surface;
- a relief surface succeeding the rake surface and having a relief surface width measurable in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis (AR);
- a cutting edge formed at an intersection of the rake and relief surfaces;
- a relief edge spaced apart from the cutting edge and formed at an intersection of the relief surface and a flute surface of the flute succeeding the tooth;
- and
- a tooth area defined between a first radial line extending from the cutting edge to the central rotation axis and a second radial line extending from the central rotation axis to a nadir of the succeeding flute;
- wherein at an axial location in a front half of the effective cutting length:
- the flutes have an average helix angle value, with one or more flutes having a smallest helix angle value, and one or more flutes having a largest helix angle value;
- the flutes have a helix angle variance of 6° or less;
- the teeth have an average radial rake angle value, with one or more teeth having a smallest radial rake angle value, and one or more teeth having a largest radial rake angle value;
- at least three of the five or more teeth have different radial rake angles;
- and
- at least some of the different radial rake angle values being different from all other non-identical values by 2° or more.
A finish end mill configured for rotating about a central rotation axis (AR) defining opposite axially forward and rearward directions (DF, DR), and opposite rotational preceding and succeeding directions (DP, DS), the preceding direction (DP) being the cutting direction, the end mill comprising:
- a shank portion;
- and
- a cutting portion extending forward from the shank portion to a cutting end face;
- the cutting portion comprising:
- an effective cutting length LE;
- a diameter DE;
- exactly 5, 7 or 9 integrally formed teeth;
- and
- flutes alternating with the exactly 5, 7 or 9 integrally formed teeth, each flute having a helix angle and a flute depth;
- each tooth comprising:
- a rake surface;
- a relief surface succeeding the rake surface and having a relief surface width measurable in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis (AR);
- a cutting edge formed at an intersection of the rake and relief surfaces;
- a relief edge spaced apart from the cutting edge and formed at an intersection of the relief surface and a flute surface of the flute succeeding the tooth;
- and
- a tooth area defined between a first radial line extending from the cutting edge to the central rotation axis and a second radial line extending from the central rotation axis to a nadir of the succeeding flute;
- wherein at an axial location in a front half of the effective cutting length:
- the flutes have an average helix angle value, with one or more flutes having a smallest helix angle value, and one or more flutes having a largest helix angle value;
- the flutes have a helix angle variance of 6° or less;
- the teeth have an average radial rake angle value, with one or more teeth having a smallest radial rake angle value, and one or more teeth having a largest radial rake angle value;
- at least three of the integrally formed teeth have different radial rake angles;
- and
- at least some of the different radial rake angle values being different from all other non-identical values by 2° or more.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.