I have a part to remachine, it is metal form roller, D2 hardened to Rc61. The operation would require one continous cut, .005 DOC with a toolpath length of 2.721in. We are simply reprofiling the roller once it is worn down to the customers tolerance on the formed metal. I checked with Kennametal and Valanite, which is who we usually buy from. I was thinking of going with the KennaPerfect insert, Ceramic VNGA331 grade KY440 PVD coated which will get into all the profiles without interferance. Neither company could provide info on tool life for the recommended inserts for our application although they didn't have a problem with the geometery I had chosen.

To firm up the quote the main question is tooling cost and I don't know what to figure. Both are saying run 350sfm and .006 ipr feed rate which is giving me the RPM of 200 max for the smallest dia of 7in, with a cycle time of roughly 2.27 of actual cutting time, largest D is 7.1. Has anyone had any experiance with cutting this hardness material with that type of insert that can help me out?

Thanks,
Scott

I've never had experience with D-2, but I used to cut 440C that was about that hard. We used CBN inserts. Looking at the Kennamatal catalog quick, you might be better served by stepping up to the KB9610, which is a CBN insert with multiple coatings. CBN is much harder than ceramic and second only to a diamond for hardness. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem with the tool wearing out. In our plant, the tools ended up getting chipped from handling long before they ever wore out.

:cheers:

I've never had experience with D-2, but I used to cut 440C that was about that hard. We used CBN inserts. Looking at the Kennamatal catalog quick, you might be better served by stepping up to the KB9610, which is a CBN insert with multiple coatings. CBN is much harder than ceramic and second only to a diamond for hardness. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem with the tool wearing out. In our plant, the tools ended up getting chipped from handling long before they ever wore out.

:cheers:

Thanks, that will help a lot. I'll grab a catalog down after lunch and take a look.