Carbide Cutting Inserts
Carbide cutting inserts provide huge advantages to industrial shops by delivering cleaner finishes on metal parts, and speeding up machining altogether. They're indexable, maximizing flexibility of your tool output, and because they're made of carbide, they can withstand machining steel, iron, and alloys at a higher temperature than common steel tools.
Choosing The Right Carbide Insert
With as many considerations necessary in choosing the right carbide insert for your job, it can be a bit overwhelming. That's exactly where our expertise at Carbide Tooling & Industrial Supply comes into play. Here, we'll go through each step in the process to make sure you land on the right insert for you.
Insert Geometry & Shape
Carbide inserts typically come in three different geometries, or chipbreakers:
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Rough - These are used when your operations requires a higher cutting depth and chip load, where surface finish quality is not a concern.
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Medium - These serve as a middle ground between a rough cut and a finish, with a wide range of cutting depth & feed rate combinations.
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Finish - This insert geometry is ideal for light depths and low feed rates. The surface finish quality is much higher than rough and medium insert geometries.
Insert Grade
A carbide insert's grade refers to the material it's made of, which is designed to be used in a specific machining application. This takes into account the base material as well as the coating of the insert. To find the right carbide grade, you want to ask the following questions:
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What raw material is being cut?
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What is the basic application? (i.e. turning, drilling, milling, threading, etc).
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What is your maximum cutting speed?
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What is the condition of the raw material or piece you are working with?
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Do you have a good amount of stability, or clamping?
Insert Size
When choosing your carbide cutting insert size, the biggest factors are the specific needs of the machining application you're tackling, and how much space is available for your cutting tools. Typically, the larger the insert, the more stability provided to the application.
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Another huge factor in determining the right size of your carbide insert is how deep your cutting needs are at it's largest point. The length of the cut will need to be considered to find the right cut depth and machine specifications. These will help you find the right carbide cutter insert size for your application.
Insert Manufacturer
There are a lot of carbide insert manufacturers in service today, but few match the quality of Tungaloy. At CTIS, we've been working with Tungaloy for years, and they've consistently premium products for our customers with unrivaled performance.
We'll Make It Easy For You!
If you need assistance finding the perfect carbide cutting insert for the job you're doing, give us a shout! Our sales team can walk you through the process and ensure you land on the perfect tool for the job.
