Fundamental Investigation of Manufacturing and Application of Ball Nose End Mills Made of Binderless Tungsten Carbide for Machining AlMgSi1

This study provides a fundamental assessment of the manufacturing and application of bWC ball nose end mills for machining AlMgSi1. The manufactured bWC tools exhibited cutting edge radii rβ comparable to WC-10Co but markedly a lower initial cutting edge chipping RS. In finishing trials, bWC achieved a lower surface roughness of ΔRa = - 34 % and outperformed WC-10Co in most investigated parameter strategies. The RSM revealed flatter gradients and lower parameter sensitivity for bWC, indicating higher predictability and process stability. The wear tests showed that each substrate provided the best performance depending on the identified optimised parameters in each case, whereas the cross-application accelerated a specific degradation. Accordingly, bWC ball end milling tools should be regarded as a targeted complement rather than an universal substitute. It is particularly suitable for finishing processes with small widths of cut ae, where maintaining material separation through shearing, suppressing BUE and meeting surface quality and dimensional accuracy requirements are of utmost importance. Conventional WC-10Co tools remain a preferable option for roughing processes and other high-load, large-engagement conditions.