facemilling, drilling and boring cylinder heads and engine blocks made from high-silicon aluminum, which is challenging to machine. Pure aluminum is lightweight and soft, but adding silicon carbide and other forms of silicon dramatically increases its strength, hardness, stiffness and longevity. However, it also makes it very abrasive. The higher the silicon content, the more abrasive the alloy. For example, Reynolds 390 aluminum is 17–19% silicon carbide and very abrasive. As a result, very hard, micrograin solid- carbide tools or diamond cutting tools are preferred. However, diamond has the clear advantage in this application. Even very hard carbide grades have extremely short tool life, about 3–5 minutes, compared to 1 hour for diamond, according to Seco Tools’ Graham.


These automotive applications typically


require large-diameter milling cutters. Seco Tools is applying its Quattromill, with four carbide cutting edges, and Double Octomill, with 16 cutting edges, in these applications. “However, it’s more likely that we will use mill- ing cutters that take special diamond tools, including solid-diamond and diamond-tipped drills,” said Graham. “Some are standard tools, but a lot of the orders involve specials.” The machinability of silicon-aluminum is inversely proportional to the silicon content, according to Aaron-Michael Eller, product manager, advanced materials for Seco Tools. “There are many aluminum alloys, and the silicon content usually determines the ma- chinability,” he said.


Sandvik Coromant performed test milling of TiAl with the CoroMill 300.


Since aluminum alloys are soft, they are susceptible to BUE—workpiece material that


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With 50 years of experience, learn why manufacturers choose ŝŶŶŽǀĂƟ ǀĞ ƐŽůƵƟ ŽŶƐ ĨƌŽŵ ůŝŐŶ WƌŽĚƵĐƟ ŽŶ ^LJƐƚĞŵƐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞŝƌ ůĞĂŶ ŵĂŶƵĨĂĐƚƵƌŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ŵĂƚĞƌŝĂů ŚĂŶĚůŝŶŐ ŶĞĞĚƐ. tŝƚŚ ĂŶ Ăƌ- ƌĂLJ ŽĨ ƐƚĂŶĚĂƌĚ ĂŶĚ ĐƵƐƚŽŵ ĞŶŐŝŶĞĞƌĞĚ ƐŽůƵƟ ŽŶƐ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ, ůŝŐŶ WƌŽĚƵĐƟ ŽŶ ^LJƐƚĞŵƐ ŚĂƐ Ă ƐŽůƵƟ ŽŶ ƚŽ ŵĞĞƚ LJŽƵƌ ŶĞĞĚƐ.


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January 2017 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 53


Photo courtesy Sandvik Coromant


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