b'become standard geometries duebeen the case. Also, we are seeing aprocesses, facemilling has become to successful applications. greater variation in material compo- more challenging over time. OEMs Pollock anticipates a general in- sition, where formerly conventionaland shops seek increased productiv-crease in high-feed machining. materials possessed a greater de- ity with more precision and simplifi-Its all about getting the jobgree of uniformity. To remedy this,cation. The shortage of highly skilled done faster, he said. Even in ourwe have worked to develop in-be- labor and the proliferation of exotic own operation, we formerly hadtween grades that possess a greatermaterials have resulted in a challenge two high-feed mills, and now wereindividuality and sensitivity to thethat can be met only by increased co-increasing that to five or six. Mod- material being machined. operation between tooling manufac-ern machines have become incred- Aswithothermetalworkingturers and customers.CTEibly agile, and theres a demand for greater speed and versatility in the generation of both more conven-tional and complex parts.The focus on higher-production operations is exceptionally positive for ceramic tooling.Even though ceramic tooling is more expensiveon average 40% more than carbideit is ca-pable of machining at eight to 10 times faster than carbide, Howard said. Also, cutting tool material ad-vancements like Bidemics extend machining capabilities to 16 times faster than carbide while ensuring stability and productivity.Andersson stresses the need for customer sensitivity in terms of ma-terials and machines.Too often, he said, the cus-tomer does not have all the details as to what is needed to accomplish the machining challenge. Therefore, we are more involved with com-bined processes, such as roughing and finishing in the same operation, but to a higher standard and closer tolerances than has traditionally contributorsNTK Cutting Tools USA248-668-0100www.ntkcuttingtools.comWalter USA LLC800-945-5554www.walter-tools.comYG-1 Tool (USA) Co.800-765-8665www.yg1usa.comctemag.com/cteguide.com33Facemilling.indd 33 7/19/21 11:13 AM'