Cutting tool with enhanced chip evacuation capability and method of making same

Abstract

A milling cutter includes a shank and a cutting head attached to the shank. The cutting head has a plurality of helical teeth, each tooth including a cutting tip, a leading face and a rear face. A flute is defined between the leading face of a trailing tooth, and a rear face of an immediately preceding tooth. A gully of the flute has a flute base with a portion that is planar or convex in profile to provide additional volume for effective chip evacuation. A method for manufacturing the milling cutter includes rotating a cylindrical blank about its own longitudinal axis, rotating a disc-shaped flute grinding wheel) about a rotational axis of a flute wheel and moving the grinding wheel in a longitudinal direction so as to form the helical flute with the gully having the flute base with the planar or convex portion in profile.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.