When mold manufacturing collides with Industry 4.0

Like other tool manufacturers, mold making is also an important customer group for Iscar. This branch of industry not only consumes more and more tools, but also constantly puts forward new requirements, which has a major impact on the advancement of tools. These requirements are typical for all machining fields: customers are always interested in tools with higher productivity, more reliability and higher precision. However, the particularity of mold manufacturing makes it more necessary to make special design considerations than general requirements.
Processing materials, processing shapes and processing strategies are the three significant characteristics of mold manufacturing, which have a significant impact on the demand for cutting tools. Iscar believes that only a comprehensive tool development concept based on these characteristics, combined with the integration of digital development inspired by Industry 4.0, can bring successful solutions to the mold industry.
　　 Challenging workpiece materials
The main component material in the mold industry is usually hardened steel. The hardness of the workpiece is the main factor that affects the grade of the tool and the cutting geometry. Various repair methods for mold wear or damage include welding, thermal spraying, and laser treatment on the damaged surface. Further processing of these surfaces requires the use of cutting tools to remove parts that have both hard and softer material layers. This cutting condition will greatly shorten the service life of the tool, for which it requires the tool manufacturer to make every effort to balance and ensure its necessary durability.
　　Complicated shape
Molds usually have complex shapes. 3D contour is a typical machining surface of a mold group, and the ability to effectively process 3D surfaces is a primary requirement for cutting tools. Tool manufacturers need to provide tools with the required parameters for machining shape accuracy and surface finish, and to ensure that the workpiece shape or specific curved surface machining needs to be completed in one operation at an appropriate level of tool life.
　　 processing
Manufacturing molds involves a variety of processing techniques: turning, milling, drilling, reaming, etc., with milling as the first. The specific attributes of these mold industries are mainly non-rotating parts, the surface shape of the machining is complex, and the cavity must be produced and processed to remove a large amount of material, etc., making the milling cutter the most important tool in this field.
Because of its need to continuously improve the productivity of new products, the mold industry often becomes the first user of advanced processing methods: such as high-speed milling (HSM) and high-feed milling (HFM), and it is necessary to develop efficient processing strategies.
The adoption of advanced methods and technologies has had a great impact on the cutting tools, and has also put forward new requirements on the cutting tool manufacturers. Over the years, the requirements have become more and more stringent. Today's mold manufacturers represent one of the most stringent tool consumer groups and hope that tool manufacturers will respond to this industry trend.
Iscar, as a leading tool manufacturer, has maintained successful cooperation with the mold industry for many years. By launching new products and upgrading existing products, it continuously improves its mold manufacturing solutions, while providing complex tool projects and related consulting.
　　 Tool brand
In mold manufacturing, indexable corn (also called long-edge) milling cutters are usually used for rough machining of cavities and wide grooves. When the tool is operating under high load conditions, the grade of indexable insert is a key factor in improving tool life. Not long ago, Iscar launched IC845, a cemented carbide grade, which is characterized by a new PVD nano-coating using a new ductile cemented carbide substrate and SUMO TEC post-processing technology. This grade is specially designed for cutting under heavy impact loads. The blade made of IC845 has a longer life, which in turn also improves the performance of the corn milling cutter and slot milling cutter with the blade.
Iscar added the IC702 carbide grade to the solid carbide end mill series, aiming to efficiently process hardened materials (hardness≤HRC65).
　　Profile milling at the forefront of technology
When machining complex surfaces, the real main force is the milling cutter and the ball end milling cutter that clamp the round inserts. ISCAR provides tools with the following designs for moldmakers: indexable insert milling cutters, interchangeable head end mills and solid carbide end mills. According to the difference in the distribution of workpiece hardness from low to high, the tool's nominal size, accuracy, clamping method (toolholder type or mandrel type) and application range are different.
Small and medium-sized enterprises account for a large proportion of the mold manufacturing industry. For these manufacturers, tool versatility (versatility) is a major element of their tool selection.
Iscar’s recent LOGIQ series has launched a new product specifically for this challenging market-the TOR6MILL series indexable milling cutter. The TOR6MILL milling cutter can hold four different geometry inserts. It can be converted into a fillet milling cutter, 90° entering angle milling cutter, 45° entering angle milling cutter or high feed milling cutter by matching the corresponding insert on the cutter body. The tool can be used for machining 3D curved surfaces, square shoulders, planes, chamfers or for rough milling with large feeds.
  Innovative Technology
It has been verified that high-feed milling and high-speed milling can significantly improve processing efficiency, while reducing manual operations, thereby greatly shortening the production and manufacturing cycle. In the 1990s, the mold industry largely relied on the timely introduction of these high-efficiency methods to successfully fill the rapidly increasing production demand.
　　 high feed milling
Nowadays, tool manufacturers can basically provide customers with a large number of large feed (also known as fast feed or FF) milling cutters to choose from, and the range of options provided by ISCAR seems to be the most extensive . Iscar's standard high-feed milling series includes more than a dozen different tool series, their design concepts (indexable, integral, interchangeable head), nominal diameter, cutting geometry, installation method and applicability ( Face milling, cavity milling, deep cavity milling) are all different. This diversified range allows mold manufacturers to choose the best tool according to their needs.
Iscar has insight that the use of high-feed milling cutters is an important means to improve productivity, and continues to promote the development of high-feed milling cutters by introducing new product series and upgrading existing product series. As expected, it has introduced advanced high-feed milling cutters in the latest LOGIQ tool series.
NAN3FEED and MICRO3FEED are the latest two indexable high-feed milling cutters launched by Iscar, with a diameter range of 8-16mm (.315-.625 inches). Although solid carbide end mills have always been dominant in this diameter area, Iscar’s experts believe that the advantages of the indexable insert concept in rough milling will make this series of products a replacement. A cost-effective alternative to cemented carbide design.
LOGIQ4FEED series rapid feed milling cutters are characterized by "bone-shaped" double-sided inserts. This unique insert shape provides four cutting edges, and the impressive ramp milling capability defines the main purpose of this series: efficient rough milling of cavities, especially deep cavities. This milling cutter is suitable for processing workpieces with hardness ≤ HRC50.
　　 high-speed milling
In order to expand the application range of high-speed milling products, Iscar has developed a multi-tooth solid carbide end mill with a diameter of 2-20mm (.250-.750 inches) for high-speed finish milling and semi-finish milling. The end mill is made of ultra-fine grained IC902 cemented carbide grade, which can process hardened materials with a cutting length-to-diameter ratio of up to 6xD. The maximum speed of the milling cutter can reach 20,000 rpm. Through trochoidal milling technology and high metal removal rate (MRR), the rough machining ability of solid carbide end mills in slot milling and open cavity milling has been favored by mold manufacturers.
　　 Transformers End Mill Series
The demand for customized molds for products is the main factor that causes mold manufacturing to often be produced in small batches or even single-piece production. This is also the reason why mold companies are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. For these manufacturers, effective use of tools and good operational management of inventory are essential. However, customization usually means that special tool structures are required to machine hard-to-reach parts. Not all tools in stock are capable of this type of processing, and specially designed customized tools are far from the best solution.
Using Iscar's Transformers MULTI-MASTER series interchangeable head combination tool can effectively overcome these difficulties.
According to the concept of MULTI-MASTER, the cutter head is suitable for installation on different cutter bodies (tool holders), and the cutter holder can also be equipped with different cutter heads. For different processing applications, the design of cutter head shape, cutting geometry and size is different due to 3D surface milling, shoulder milling, slot milling, chamfering and hole processing. The cylindrical straight shank and the tool holder with tapered neck have multiple sizes to adapt to the needs of different overhangs; its design can ensure that it is directly clamped on the tool holder, circlip or machine tool spindle.
MULTI-MASTER series has a rich variety of cutter heads, cutter bars, reducing rods, extension rods, and can be assembled with more than 40,000 kinds of tools. Because no additional installation steps are required to replace worn heads, the MULTI-MASTER series fully meets the requirements of the important principle of "no tool setting". The cutter head can be changed on the machine without removing the cutter from the machine tool, which greatly reduces downtime. The above features make the MULTI-MASTER series very popular in the mold industry.
　　Digital tool integration
The small-batch characteristics of mold manufacturing and the high-precision requirements for processed shapes make any deviation in specifications become a fatal weakness, even a small error will threaten the quality of the entire product. Driven by the development of Industry 4.0, the digitization of modern manufacturing provides mold manufacturers with an effective tool to overcome this obstacle-computer modeling of processing technology. This ensures the implementation of production and processing strategies, optimization of tool paths and cutting data, and prevention of possible collisions.
Iscar has expanded its digital field by adding options for milling cutter components to its electronic catalog (E-CATA), which includes accessible and accurate digital pre-machined tool data. The digital representation of tool assembly created based on the ISO 13399 standard helps to accurately transfer tool information between software systems. Integrating this new function into the CAD/CAM system of the mold maker can prevent errors in the workshop process, and the ability to plan multiple assembly components saves users time and cost. Iscar plans to expand its Industry 4.0 data-driven products to connect the digital and virtual world of modern manufacturing for moldmakers.
　　 Conclusion
Many products around us are made with molds, and the demand for these products is still growing. The development of various industrial fields has had a huge impact on mold manufacturing, such as the automobile industry, one of the main forces of mold consumption. More requirements for molds mean that the requirements for machining tools will also reach a new level. Iscar believes that tool manufacturers should anticipate these needs and provide the necessary solutions accordingly.