Get With The Program: Barrel-cutter CAM strategies

Barrel cutters are applied for specialized milling applications, and recent advancements in CAM software expand the use of these tools.

Geometrically, a barrel cutter has a large cutting radius on its side that closely matches the curvature of a part’s surface and allows a large step-over between passes. The result is cycle-time reductions of up to 90 percent when finishing while imparting fine surface finishes.

A segment of a structural part is cut with a conical barrel cutter using hyperMILL’s tangent-plane-machining strategy. The conical barrel cutter’s 500mm (19.68″) radius is significantly larger than an equivalent ball endmill, as defined by the cutter shank size.

Open Mind Technologies AG in Germany has developed new programming strategies with its MAXX Machining performance package, which utilizes novel geometry adaptations to barrel cutters. The CAD/CAM software developer innovated the conical barrel cutter, and the tool is now a catalog item from Emuge Corp., West Boylston, Mass. In addition, the tool can be readily ground to order by other toolmakers.

The conical barrel cutter follows the general design of a barrel cutter, with a small arc segment of a large radius on its profile. However, the adaptation positions the arc segment at an angle to the axis of the cutter. This opens the conical barrel cutter to a broader set of applications while delivering the same beneficial results.

The conical barrel cutter also has a radius ground into its bottom. This allows the same cutter to be used for blending, creating fillets and detailing organic shapes.