Overcome Cutting through Precipitation-Hardened Steels

Hard milling is becoming an essential part of mold manufacturing by eliminating time-consuming processes and costly finishing operations, while producing higher-quality parts than those manufactured with traditional machining methods. In order to machine rough hardened stainless steel, shop floors require a machining center built to handle the challenging parameters of hard-to-machine metals.

The machine construction of Toyoda’s FH630SX-i horizontal machining center withstands large cutting resistance and inertial forces of feed acceleration and deceleration, while the Meehanite cast iron base and column promote superior strength. Another key element when it comes to milling hardened stainless steel is the spindle design. The 8,000-rpm, 1,009-Nm (744 ft-lb) high-torque spindle on the FH630SX-i HMC is equipped with four bearings at the front of the spindle, double row cylindrical roller bearings located over the taper to provide radial rigidity, and dual angular bearings to maximize axial stability. This combination keeps the tool stable and allows for faster removal rates under heavy radial loads. The FH630SX-i high torque spindle is supported by dual ballscrews and motors on the Y and Z axes for rapid acceleration and consistent accuracy without any imbalanced cutting forces.

At IMTS, Toyoda will be featuring an on-site demonstration of Toyoda’s FH630SX-i horizontal machining center cutting through 17-4 PH stainless steel using Tungaloy cutting tools designed specifically for difficult-to-machine materials.