An Automotive customer was experiencing problems with a competitor’s cutter, which was forming burrs when face milling cast aluminium with a Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) cutter. The component then had a secondary milling operation to rough mill the cast iron crankshaft bore.

After examining the problem, we suggested that not only could we eliminate the problem of burrs, but we could potentially combine both operations into one. This would be achieved by manufacturing a hybrid cutter having PCD held in an aluminium outer section for machining the cast aluminium, and carbide inserts held in a steel section at the centre of the cutter for machining the cast iron crankshaft bore.

Although sceptical to begin with, the customer agreed to trial our idea.

The result was as we predicted, a complete operation was removed from the cycle, with no burrs being generated at the edges of the cast aluminium.