ITC Pockets New Widia Aluminium Milling Range

Widely recognised as the industry benchmark for aluminium machining cutting tool solutions, Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) Ltd has further added to its comprehensive line-up with the arrival of the Widia Victory High Speed Cutting (VHSC) Series of milling cutters. This versatile new line-up is suitable for everything from face milling, pocketing, ramping, circular interpolation boring, slotting and shoulder milling.

The innovative new range of end mills incorporates a proprietary pocket design that enables the end user to integrate multiple insert radii of one body definition. Furthermore, the inserts retain their axial positioning regardless of the insert corner nose radius. The high speed aluminium profiling and pocket milling range is capable of machining at speeds up to 3000m/min with high speed cylindrical end mills, cutting monoblocks and shell mills available in diameter ranges from 25 to 32mm, 25 to 50mm and 40 to 80mm respectively.

With a technologically advanced cutter body design, the new VHSC Series permits heavy feeding and ramping whilst the flute design and internal coolant channels are engineered to evacuate chips with the utmost efficiency. This best-in-class solution is capable of a staggering 8600cm3/min material removal rate. This performance is credit to the tool body design and the high-speed cutting XDET-ALP insert geometry line. This super positive ALP geometry is manufactured from wear-resistant micro-grain carbide that has a polished rake face to reduce built-up edges. The inserts are offered with two geometries, the FR-ALP with an ultra sharp cutting edge for rough to finish machining on lower powered machine tools that demand low cutting forces. The ER-ALP designated inserts have a honed cutting edge and high-strength geometry for rough machining and the processing of cast components and other challenging aluminium applications.

The multi-purpose insert seats permit the installation of both large and small corner radii inserts, a feature that offers a great impact on costs for the end user. This cost saving is credit to the insert seats that allow customers to load inserts with corner radii from R0.4 to R6.0mm. regardless of the chosen insert, the axial gauge length on the cutter will always be the same and the Ap1 max will always remain 16mm.

With regard to the tool body designations, the new Widia VHSC from ITC has an end mill offering with a two insert 25mm and a three insert pocket 32mm diameter that is available with an overall length of 131 or 135mm. The larger diameter monoblocks are available with diameters of 25, 32, 40 and 50mm and the option of 2, 3 or 4 insert seats depending upon the chosen diameter. For higher material removal rates on larger surfaces, the high-speed shell mills have been designated with diameters of 40, 50, 63 and 80mm with an overall length of 45 or 50mm. This short length design retains rigidity and performance whilst the 3, 4 and 5 insert pocket options give the customer a solution for all their high feed machining needs.