Tooling and mold making are traditionally important industries. As a specialist in the metal cutting industry, the use of solid carbide mills and high-performance end mills offers a comprehensive range of milling cutters for demanding milling applications, whether it is the need to remove bulky materials or the mirror quality Excellent performance.

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Josef Giessler, head of development at Walter Rotary Tools, explains: "Carbide materials for tool and die construction are standard and can be machined in other areas," he recalls. "These cutting materials still retain a 10% cobalt content and can be used as a material with a hardness of about 52 HRC." This describes the beginning of the 1990s. At this point, Walter's brand Prototyp, the dominant brand, introduced the first solid carbide cutter family exclusively for moldmakers. Milling tools for tool steel or hard cutting make up a large part of this series, as well as a few specialized material groups for graphite and copper electrodes.

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Followed by development is the problem of optimization, the situation here is the same. Walter Prototyp's experts have discovered ways to improve the substrate by modifying the substrate in terms of grain size and composition. The fourth generation of cemented carbide end mills have been used in the current Proto • max ™ Ultra series solid carbide end mills for tool and mold making.

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But this is not just an increase in the hardness of the material, but the accuracy is also greatly improved. Now, the tolerance of one hundredth of a millimeter is quite normal, and sometimes the demand is even higher. Therefore, the customer's requirements for concentricity are very high. The current requirement is four times higher than that of 15-20 years ago.

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Achieving a high level of production quality can only be achieved if the milling cutter is more durable than the part. For every mold maker, tool change during machining, especially when it comes to finishing, is definitely the worst case scenario. Therefore, in order to increase the tool life, developers not only focus on the substrate, but need to adjust all the adjustment screws, especially the shape and coating of the cutting edge to make improvements.

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Over time, an optimized product portfolio has been developed in this way: the tip fillet cutter in the Proto • max ™ Ultra range. Proto • max ™ now represents the highest level of processability. This milling cutter uses a new TAS coating on the TiAlN substrate and special microgrooves for cutting hardened materials up to 70 HRC. In Walther's product range, there is a new product with a diameter of only 0.1mm. Twenty years ago, 1mm was considered a particularly small diameter. Milestones: Modular products using threads

Another significant development is mainly the desire for greater flexibility (flexibility), which reduces tool costs - the current modular solution.

In principle, this idea is not new. Tungsten Carbide Tool Changers Pioneer for Attempt and Testing: The ScrewFit Interface with Blade Mills. Grinding taper and support end face to ensure the system's high precision and high stability. The introduction of ScrewFit is a milestone in the use of a cutter with a blade in the 90s. The system has made great strides since it was introduced and has continued to this day. WolfgangVötsch emphasizes: "So, as long as the milling cutter itself is suitable for the system, we have a ScrewFit interface for each type of milling cutter with a blade." Long cutting edges for deep cavities

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One of the most successful indexable insert tools for tooling and tooling typical applications such as cavity milling or sloping insertion is the use of the F2330, a high performance endmill with a Trigon indexable insert, whose expertise It is high feed milling. Like other milling cutters, Walter has further developed this type of milling cutter to provide it with the typical features of Xtra • tec®, such as indexable inserts with six cutting edges. Due to a design upgrade, the new name for the tool is F4030. Indexable insert with six cutting edges, available in two models. Both models have a depth of cut of up to 2 mm, which means that the high-feed end mill reaches the very depth of the pocket.

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