The clean, delamination-free machining of composite materials is a challenge that Hufschmied has been successfully meeting for years. With cutting geometries and diamond coatings tailored to the material to be machined, roughing and finishing is sometimes possible in a single operation and without changing tools. The stars at the trade fair stand are the T-Rex and Hexa Cut-Eco tool series. T-Rex is a constantly expanding group of tools originally developed for combination materials with glass layers and copper mesh in aircraft construction. The DIP-coated end mills combine the advantages of a router geometry with the delamination-free trimming quality of a compression tool. Hexa Cut-Eco is a high-speed milling cutter with a new, patented diamond coating and chip-breaking cutting edge geometry, which achieves a reduction in production times with improved surface quality. According to the company, up to 40 percent of process costs were saved in the customer project.

Breakthrough in ultrasonic cutting

The ECO-LT-2012 CNC system from Reichenbacher Hamuel will demonstrate, among other things, the 5-axis ultrasonic cutting of honeycomb material for aircraft construction. The new monoblock blades from Hufschmied glide through the sensitive material with up to ten times higher vibration amplitudes and up to 100 percent more cutting performance than previous blades. The solid carbide blades, available in lengths between 7 and 125 mm, and the SonoTrans system from Weber Ultrasonics were developed in parallel and coordinated so that they always work in their optimum vibration range. Unlike conventional steel blades with solid carbide inserts, the monoblock blades protect against losses between the SonoTrans system and the blade, so that, according to the company, peak values in quality, cutting performance and feed rates are possible over larger amplitudes.

Composites Europe, Hall 9, Stand E32; Stand E28 (Reichenbacher Hamuel)