What is an indexable face mill?

time：

2025-04-30 10:16

source：

Lizhou

I. What is an indexable face mill?

An indexable face mill ( Indexable Face Mill ) is a highly efficient, modular milling cutter widely used in CNC machining, especially suitable for planar milling and step surface machining. Its core feature is that the inserts can be replaced or indexed for repeated use. Through optimized design and material technology, it significantly improves machining efficiency and reduces production costs.

Face milling materials:

Face milling steel parts In steel part processing workshops, efficiency and cost are always the hard indicators.

Our face mills use an integral carbide body design, optimized for the spiral angle parameters for common steel such as S45C、40Cr等常见钢材优化了螺旋角参数。

Measurements show that under Φ100mm cutter configuration, a single pass can achieve 5mm depth stable cutting. Combined with a high-speed milling machine face cutter drive system, the efficiency of large-area planar machining is increased by 30% and above.

Indexable inserts

II. Structural composition of indexable face mills:

An indexable face mill ( Indexable Face Mill ) is a type of highly efficient milling cutter commonly used in CNC machining. Its core feature is that the inserts can be quickly replaced / and flipped for use The main structure is divided into two parts:

Body + Insert combination design:

High-strength alloy steel body: : with precisely designed insert mounting slots (common wedge clamping, screw fixing structures)
Indexable inserts : carbide material, double-sided or multi-sided multi-cutting edge design (e.g., an octagonal insert can provide 16 effective cutting edges)

Advantages of indexable inserts:

Cost-effective : No need to replace the entire tool; only replace or index the inserts.

Flexibility : The same insert can be adapted to different processing needs (e.g., roughing, finishing).

Time saving : Reduces the frequency of machine downtime for tool changes.

III. Key parameter selection guide

1. Insert shape and number of cutting edges

Roughing : Select quadrilateral ( 4 edges) or octagonal inserts ( 8 edges), large cutting depth

Finishing : Select circular ( R type) or triangular inserts ( 3 edges), high surface quality

2. Insert material matching

Processing material	Recommended coating / Material	Applicable scenarios
Carbon steel ( S45C )	CVD coating ( TiCN/Al ₂ O ₃ )	Heavy load roughing
Stainless steel ( 304 )	PVD coating ( AlTiN )	Anti-stick machining
Aluminum alloy	Uncoated carbide	High-speed fine milling

In today's increasingly competitive manufacturing industry, cost control and processing efficiency have become key factors in enterprise development.

A certain auto parts factory in Zhejiang, China, faced the challenge of reducing costs and improving efficiency during production.

In the processing of Q345 steel plate, a key link, the factory selected Φ125mm indexable face mills.

Lizhou's face mills demonstrated excellent performance. In actual operation, after each face mill completes 120 processing, it can continue to be used by indexing.

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