b'Speed takes time out of a cut, so you can make more parts in a day.Ceramic Surprises aerospace engines, Howard said.bring in this new product that can But he added that some shops finddo 1,600 sfm, its kind of like taking the performance boost offered bysomebody from a horse to a rocket some years. the material a bit unsettling. ship, he said. So sometimes the A relatively new entry in the ce- If somebody is cutting heat-re- (reaction) is, Theres no way Im ramic tool market from Greenleaf issistant alloy at 125 sfm, and youdoing that.CTEits Xsytin-360 line of solid-ceramic endmills. Launched last year, Xsy-tin-360 endmills come in standard diameters down to 3/8", so they can cut much smaller features than indexable tooling.Dillaman said these endmills are made from the companys Xsytin-1 material, which features a whis- Micro-precision drills VAker, or reinforcing material, thats grown internally via processingSignicantly higher tool life across a rather than laid in. This makes thewide range of operating parametersceramic material much harder to break apart, he said. He addedReduced cycle times due to the that Xsytin-1 has shown itself to beincreased speeds & feedscapable of handling challenging roughing applications and turning interruptions.Another invention of late thatCarbide grade developed may interest shops that haventspecifically for micro drillstried ceramic tools in a long time is Reduced grain size increases a patented material called Bidem- hardness while higher cobalt ics. Howard describes Bidemics ascontent improves toughnessan advanced ceramic designed to conduct more heat away from theSpecialized geometry for cutting edge. long-chipping and tough We found a way to fuse carbide and ceramic together without a co- materials such as stainless balt binder, Howard explained.and Ti/Ni alloysThe carbide is introduced into the Concave, radiused cutting edge ceramic in kind of a spiderweb fash- resulting in a stable drilling process ion. When heat hits the cutting edge,with low cutting forcesit runs down those little carbide trails and disperses more efficiently. Perrox coatingBecause they do a better job Tougher, harder and smoother coating of transferring heat away from thethan traditional PVDcutting edge, Bidemics inserts can run even faster than typical ceramic cuttersclose to 1,600 sfm, How-ard said. He added that efficient heat transfer also lengthens the life of cutting edges. WWW.GUHRING.COM(800) 776-6170In recent years, Bidemics has be-come popular with makers of larger ctemag.com/cteguide.com43Ceramics.indd 43 8/17/22 10:59 AM'