| A modern injection mold making, tool and die or | | | | cutters all day long. Some of the machines are self |
| precision machining operation uses a great variety of | | | | contained in that they are nearly silent, emit no dust or |
| carbide cutters and inserts. The high speed machining | | | | coolant spray into the shop. The ground cutters are |
| center and hard milling applications have increased this | | | | inspected right in the machine by lasers and then sent |
| dramatically. | | | | on their way to be packaged. |
| In the past carbide was somewhat of a luxury in the | | | | Diamond grinding wheels are also quite expensive, but |
| small tool shops that dotted the country. High speed | | | | very cost effective when used correctly. With proper |
| steel seemed to work just fine. Then the jobs became | | | | care a wheel on a small tool and cutter grinder can |
| more complex, the lead times shortened by weeks, | | | | last a very long time. Most tool shops have at least |
| and the global competition pushed speeds and feeds | | | | one Deckel type cutter grinder for special applications, |
| to the limit. | | | | such as single lip cutters. |
| Now the carbide end mills, micro end mills and carbide | | | | This little machine has many other unique uses, such as |
| inserts that are used today are of exceptionally high | | | | relieving cutters, sharpening punches and end mills. In |
| quality and more cost effective. The cutters may cost | | | | the past many injection mold rib details were machined |
| more, but the amount of precision milling they can do is | | | | using cutters made in this machine. Thankfully, these |
| remarkable. | | | | are cut in a machining center now! |
| All of these carbide cutters need to be manufactured | | | | Another type of CNC grinder is the automatic, |
| and oftentimes resharpened. This is where the CNC | | | | programmable surface grinder. If you have a large |
| grinding machines and diamond grinding wheels excel. | | | | amount of similar work to grind, this is the way to go. |
| These remarkable machine tools are capable of | | | | Large companies that produce mold bases, die bases |
| grinding large cutters and incredibly tiny end mills. | | | | and shoes use these grinders in a production set-up to |
| Carbide is extremely difficult to machine in any case, | | | | produce high quality components for the industry. |
| yet these grinders produce high quality, very accurate | | | | |