Discontinuous cutting operations, such as milling, are usually unsuitable for brittle and notch-sensitive materials like tungsten. When milling is required, the peripheral cutting operated on an end mill has proven to be the most efficient milling process for these materials compared to end mill slotting and other methods.
When milling issues such as cracking and layered edges occur, machinists are often short of suitable remediations to consider. This is because the most often recommended remedial technique has to be operated along with a special heating treatment. However, the elevated temperature machining technique has not yet been popularized among machinists and the special heating treatment is not yet available in all the machining shops.
Comparatively speaking, the other three main refractory metals are more ductile. The pre-sintered ingot of molybdenum, tantalum and niobium can be milled by cutting tools inlayed with YG8 carbide tungsten tips. The carbide tungsten cutting blade with other models and the high-speed steel blades are capable of dealing with the semi-finished and finished machining works.
CHEMETAL USA is a leading tungsten product supplier and manufacturer. To learn more information about tungsten machining services, please check our machining service page.