Sandvik Coromant has launched a new high-feed milling tool. The CoroMill MH20 is primarily designed for milling cavities, or pockets, in ISO S, M and P materials. Ensuring secure and vibration-free machining, especially at long overhangs, the CoroMill MH20 delivers best-in-class edge security for a variety of industries and is particularly suited to machining aerospace components.

The CoroMill MH20 complements existing products in the CoroMill range and fills a strategic gap in the high-feed indexable milling product line. Designed to deliver reliability with minimal vibration, the CoroMill MH20 has been adapted for applications where components are notoriously difficult to machine, such as in the oil and gas, mold and die and aerospace sectors.

The tool’s ability to machine at long overhangs makes it especially beneficial for the aerospace sector. This method is an important requirement when machining deep, narrow pockets to produce the components that form an aircraft’s frame, such as the supporting beams found within the sub-segment aerospace frame. These beams are often machined from forged titanium. When paired with the requirement for long overhangs, this creates a difficult machining environment with a high risk of vibration. 

In contrast to the conventional four-edge concept, the CoroMill MH20 is designed with a two-edge insert. This is especially beneficial as it means the weakest section of the insert is far away from the main cutting zone, delivering greater reliability and protection against wear. It also means that machining against a corner or wall will not impact the next edge or leading corner, ensuring equal performance per edge. 

Another area of innovation is the CoroMill MH20’s insert cutting edge geometry. While the sloped edge design delivers a gradual, light-cutting action that requires less power consumption to enable the use of smaller machines, the optimized edge line of the main cutting edge and insert corner radius offer further process security, enabling reliable, unmanned machining.

“Machining components for industries like aerospace, oil and gas and mold and die can be challenging,” said Sangram Dash, application manager at Sandvik Coromant. “In the aerospace sector alone, manufacturers must handle conditions such as thin floors and walls, deep pockets and tight corners. When designing the CoroMill MH20, we kept the stringent requirements of all these sectors at the fore. For example, the tool is capable of completing several different operations to reduce the number of tools, changeovers and tool handling required during manufacturing, thus reducing cycle times and improving manufacturing economics. Furthermore, for the first time within high feed concepts, Sandvik Coromant is introducing dedicated insert geometries for different ISO areas to deliver further optimized process security and productivity.

“In particular, engineers working in aerospace machining cannot afford to make mistakes, especially when the quality control standards for aircraft engine components are so high, so being able to deliver reliable tools with consistent tool life is a top priority for Sandvik Coromant.”

Extending the tool life and increasing reliability were extremely important when designing the CoroMill MH20. In fact, when compared to another Sandvik Coromant high-feed milling tool, the CoroMill 415, it demonstrated a 32% increase in tool life with a significantly better component quality when machining a titanium aerospace wing support component. In addition, further testing against competing tools demonstrated superior reliability and more secure machining performance when machining steel and stainless steel workpieces.