Milling cutters come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes, and styles! From end mills to roughing and finishing mills, each type of milling cutter is designed to be ideal for a specific application. Milling cutters may be designed to cut a specific shape or size of slot, to leave a certain desired finish on a piece, or to engrave a screw thread into a hole. But milling cutters also come in a large variety of different materials, each with its own unique strengths and advantages! Let’s take a look at some of the materials milling cutters can be crafted from:
High Speed Steel (HSS)
High speed steel replaced older high carbon steels, and the increased durability meant that these steels were able to be used in much higher speed operations, giving it the name “high speed steel”! High speed steel milling cutters like our HSS Solid Spiral Tooling are perfect for machining foams, woods, and wood composite materials. Some high speed steel tooling can tungsten carbide tipped (TCT) for longer longevity and higher durability.
Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD)
Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) is one of the hardest materials on earth, making it perfect for tooling non-ferrous metals, non-metallic materials, and composite materials. Our PCD ranges include PCD end mills, PCD compression router cutters, and PCD slatwall tooling. Our PCD tooling is created using the finest sintered PCD discs which we cut to shape and braze onto the steel bodies of our tools.
Tungsten Carbide (Carbide)
Tungsten carbide is simply known as “carbide” in the tooling industry! Tungsten carbide is created from the combination of tungsten and carbon, which both have incredibly high strength, durability, and heat resistance! All of these features are also enjoyed by tungsten carbide, making it perfect for machining hard metals like steel, cast iron, and titanium. Our extensive ranges of carbide tooling include our carbide end mills, our carbide drills, and other milling cutters like threading taps.
The wide variety of materials our milling cutters are available in means that no matter what task you’re looking to complete, Prima has the tooling for you! Our collections of milling cutters are suitable for all manner of applications. If you’re unsure what type of tooling is right for you, visit our shop or get in touch with our expert team today!