Development and test of monolithic ceramic end milling cutters for high speed machining of nickel-based-alloys

This paper presents the development of monolithic ceramic milling cutter made of SiAlON with a diameter of 8 mm with 8 to 12 teeth. Work piece material was the fine grain cast nickel base alloy MAR M247. The cutters were tested with a cutting speed of 600 m/min up to an material removal of 3600 mm³. The results show that complex geometries can be used for monolithic ceramic milling cutters. The geometry with lowest process forces had 8 teeth, helix angel of 55°, feed velocity vf of 9550 mm/min and a material removal rate Qw of 7.64 cm³/min.