The extremely soft-cutting MaxiMill 271 tool system can be used for a wide variety of applications and offers a range of effective options to produce high quality surface finish. Further advantages are that the design of inserts and cutter bodies also enhance tool life and aid effective removal of swarf from the hot zone.
MaxiMill 271 is designed, therefore best suited, to applications where face, slot and chamfer milling are required. To ensure maximum performance the cutters can be specified with either a 45° approach angle or as a high-speed tool with a 17° approach angle combined with the options of fine and coarse pitched cutter bodies to provide maximum application flexibility. Further extending the MaxiMill series to meet market expectation, Ceratizit has added a 12mm insert system to the range. The advantage of these smaller inserts is that a greater number can be used, which in turn results in longer tool life and higher chip removal rates.
A key feature of the MaxiMill inserts is that they have eight usable cutting edges, making the system extremely cost-effective. In addition, the cutting-edge design delivers a sturdy and robust interface between the insert and material being cut, consequently achieving high cutting speeds and the highest levels of process security. The inserts form part of the story with the cutter bodies also playing an important role.
As such, extremely tight tolerances are demanded to ensure the MaxiMill 271 milling cutters produce the best face and concentricity properties. With the irregular pitch of the insert pockets the cutters also achieve extremely quiet machining, which when combined with the precision ground Masterfinish geometry of the indexable inserts will deliver outstanding surface finishes. The availability of inserts, with a variety of geometries, covering ISO categories P, M, K and S also means that MaxiMill 271 can be applied to a wide variety of materials and applications.
Putting some numbers to the claims for MaxiMill 271 when run against a comparable cutter from a competitor the results proved conclusive. Machining unalloyed S355 structural steel, a 125mm diameter MaxiMill 271 face mill achieved a 50% higher feed per tooth along with an increase of 200% in cutting depth. The volume of swarf removed was also dramatically increased by a staggering 430% with MaxiMill 271 achieving a volume of 523cm³/min as opposed to 97cm³/min from the competitor tool. The overall result was a 50 per cent increase in components produced.
