Choose the right endmill to optimise your milling process

Solid carbide endmills are the most commonly used tools in almost every machine shop. Process engineers are always concerned with productivity gains by reducing the tooling cost, machining time and bring down the cost per part to increase the margins. The selection of the machining conditions either rely on the experience of the operator or the recommendations from the tool manufacturer. In spite of all efforts, hitting the sweet spot or getting the part first-time-right is still challenging. Though complete mastery of the dynamics of milling process is difficult, some insights on tool geometry would definitely help.

Let's talk about some geometric features of an endmill. The three main geometric parameters are the helix angle, number of flutes and the pitch.