The production of a high-quality milling cutter involves four major processes: billet compaction and forming, high-temperature sintering, precision grinding, and surface coating. While high-end coating technology has long been monopolized by foreign entities, domestic research teams have successfully developed an independent low-pressure CVD coating technology. This breakthrough led to the creation of the fcc-AlTiCNO coating-a proprietary innovation-which utilizes a nano-superlattice structure to achieve an optimal balance between hardness, toughness, and adhesion. This technology extends tool service life by 3 to 5 times, marking a significant breakthrough in the development of domestically produced, high-end coated milling cutter grades.
Milling cutter inserts are available in a wide variety of material grades, including KR5005, KR5020, and PR5040. Coating types include PVD TiAlN, as well as CVD TiCN+Al2O3+TiN. Different combinations of materials and coatings are tailored to suit specific workpiece materials (such as steel, stainless steel, cast iron, and heat-resistant alloys) and machining conditions (such as dry/wet cutting or roughing/finishing operations). For instance, the KR5005 grade (featuring a PVD TiAlN+TiN coating) is renowned for its exceptional wear resistance, making it ideal for the finishing of steel and stainless steel; conversely, the OR5000 grade (featuring a CVD TiCN+Al2O3+TiN coating) strikes a balance between wear resistance and toughness, rendering it suitable for machining steel and titanium alloys.
Innovations have also been realized in tool structural design. For example, a patented design for "thread milling cutters for high-hardness materials" features a unique arrangement on the cutter head: roughing teeth, finishing teeth, and burnishing teeth are positioned in sequence. This structural configuration effectively mitigates wear and prevents tool deflection during the machining of high-hardness materials, thereby extending tool life and enhancing machining precision.
