Ball Nose End Mill Views
End mills (middle row in image) are those tools which have cutting teeth at one end, as well as on the sides. The words end mill are generally used to refer to flat bottomed cutters, but also include rounded cutters (referred to as ball nosed) and radiused cutters (referred to as bull nose, or torus). They are usually made from high speed steel (HSS) or carbide, and have one or more flutes. They are the most common tool used in a vertical mill.
Ball nose cutters (lower row in image) are similar to slot drills, but the end of the cutters are hemispherical. They are ideal for machining 3-dimensional contoured shapes in machining centres, for example in moulds and dies. They are sometimes called ball mills in shop-floor slang, despite the fact that that term also has another meaning. They are also used to add a radius between perpendicular faces to reduce stress concentrations. There is also a term bull nose cutter, which refers more to a cutter having a corner radius less than half the cutter diameter; e.g. a 20 mm diameter cutter with a 1 mm radius corner.
The present invention relates to a ball end mill with two cutting inserts, and to these cutting inserts. In particular, the invention makes it possible to use two substantially identical cutting inserts in the two insert seats of the ball end mill, and to prevent the inserts from being fastened incorrectly in the insert seats.
Ball nose end mills are used in many metal working applications including mold making where the inherent strength and milling advantages of a fully radiused cutting edge for the copy milling of a mold cavity is best demonstrated. Its ball shape allows the end mill to attack the mold cavity from any angle or direction. The cutting edge when generated through the end of the ball mill becomes helical with rotation. This promotes shearing of the metal to be cut in an efficient manner.
Ball Nose End Mill Images
