Sandvik Coromant launches 3D printed Lightweight CoroMill 390

Swedish tooling system specialist Sandvik Coromant has introduced a new metal cutting tool produced using additive manufacturing, the Lightweight CoroMill 390. The new product benefits from a lighter weight than the traditional CoroMill 390, which minimizes vibrations and improves security when machining with long overhangs. The Lightweight CoroMill 390 also unlocks new levels of productivity.

In some ways, additive manufacturing offers an alternative to more traditional machining processes. In more ways, however, it complements and supports existing manufacturing technologies. In this case, Sandvik Coromant has used 3D printing to directly produce a more effective metal cutting tool.

The company leveraged powder bed fusion technology’s capacity to produce complexly structured, lightweight parts to redesign and manufacture the tool body for its CoroMill 390. The tool body was 3D printed from a strong titanium alloy and integrates topology optimization features that would have been impossible to produce using metal cutting.

“When designing our new lightweight CoroMill 390, material has been tactically removed to create the optimal cutter design for minimizing mass,” said Magnus Engdahl, Product Application Manager at Sandvik Coromant. “This is called topological optimization and it makes the cutter more compact and significantly lighter than a conventional version, thus helping machine shops to boost the productivity of their long-overhang milling operations. Moreover, a shorter distance between the damper in the adaptor and the cutting edge improves performance and process security.”

Looking at the security benefits of the 3D printed tool body, Sandvik Coromant highlights the importance of minimizing vibrations when producing features like deep cavities in parts with long overhangs. These types of features, which are common in the aerospace and oil and gas industries, can be compromised by tool vibrations. Broadly, the manufacturing process can suffer from slower production rates, shorter tool life and poor surface finish quality.

The 3D printed CoroMill 390, however, is lightweight enough that vibrations can be minimized. Its efficiency is also supported by Silent Tools milling adaptors, which help to reduce vibrations and increase productivity for parts with long overhangs.

In terms of specific applications, the CoroMill 390 is suitable for long-reach face milling, deep shoulder and side milling, cavity milling and slot milling. Sandvik Coromant is offering the new cutting tool in both 40 mm and 50 mm diameter versions. Three or four size 11 inserts can be specified for a given application and differential pitch and internal coolant are supplied for all CoroMill 390 cutters.