Straight-tooth three-sided milling cutter

Core Function of Straight-tooth three-sided milling cutter:

The core function of the straight-tooth three-sided milling cutter is to efficiently and precisely machine shoulders, grooves, and straight slots requiring strict width tolerances, where these features are perpendicular to the cutter axis. It is also suitable for generating cylindrical gears, worm wheels, and other toothed components using the generating method. The cutter’s peripheral teeth and side teeth feature a rake face forming a continuous plane, simplified through one-time milling and sharpening processes. All three cutting edges possess relief angles, resulting in sharp edges that enable smooth and low-cutting-force operation.

1. Shoulder Milling:This is its most characteristic function. It can simultaneously machine the top face and the side face of a workpiece, creating a precise shoulder in a single pass. For example, milling shoulders on components like guide rails or sliding blocks.
2. Slot Milling:Used for machining straight slots with specific width and depth, such as keyways. Because its two side faces possess cutting edges, it simultaneously ensures the slot width, parallelism of the two sidewalls, and surface finish. The machining quality is superior to that achievable with end mills, which rely solely on peripheral teeth.
3. Gang Milling:Multiple side-and-face milling cutters can be mounted on the same arbor. By adjusting spacers to set the distance, multiple parallel shoulders or grooves can be machined simultaneously in a single pass, significantly boosting production efficiency.

Core Advantages:

Selecting a straight-tooth three-sided milling cutter is primarily based on its unique advantages in specific machining scenarios:

1. Simultaneously Ensures Slot Width and Sidewall Quality:

• This is the fundamental difference compared to slitting saws and end mills. Slitting saws primarily rely on peripheral teeth for cutting, with limited side tooth functionality. End mills require multiple passes to machine wide slots, making it difficult to guarantee sidewall quality and width accuracy.
• The two side cutting edges of the side-and-face milling cutter act like scrapers, performing fine finishing on both sidewalls of the slot, ensuring straightness, surface finish, and perpendicularity to the datum plane.

1. High Machining Efficiency:

When milling shoulders, it simultaneously uses peripheral teeth to mill the horizontal surface and side teeth to mill the vertical surface, completing the machining of two surfaces in one pass, offering very high efficiency.
The efficiency advantage becomes even more pronounced through gang milling, making it particularly suitable for batch production.

1. Good Rigidity and Stable Machining:

Its structure is substantially more robust than that of slitting saws. Consequently, it exhibits good rigidity during cutting, is less prone to deflection and vibration, can withstand higher cutting parameters, and achieves higher machining accuracy.

1. Excellent Economical Efficiency (Relative to Multiple Tool Setups):

For single-step shoulder or slot machining, it is a highly cost-effective standard tool. Although the initial cost may be higher than a slitting saw, its comprehensive machining capability and efficiency make it very economical.

Application Examples:

• Machine Tool Guideway Processing:Milling various shoulder surfaces and guide grooves on guide rails.
• Transmission Housings:Machining installation shoulders for bearing seats.
• Keyway Machining:Especially for wider keyways with high requirements.
• Mold Manufacturing:Machining various positioning slots and shoulders on mold bases.

Summary

The straight-tooth three-sided milling cutter is a classic tool specifically designed for efficiently milling shoulders and rectangular slots. Its most significant characteristic is the presence of cutting edges on both the periphery and the two side faces, enabling high-quality completion of shoulder surface machining in a single operation.