High Speed Machining & Trochoidal Strategies: Keeping You Competitive

Today's manufacturers are faster than ever, and to keep up that pace it's been necessary to develop new toolpaths that can remove more material, while keeping tooling costs down.

If you aren't using high-speed machining strategies, you aren't staying competitive. 

At the heart of this new-found speed are trochoidal toolpaths. 

Trochoidal milling is a high-speed milling technique that can be used in both roughing and finishing operations in CNC machining. In the context of roughing, trochoidal milling involves generating a circular tool path along the contour of a part to remove large amounts of material quickly and efficiently.

The circular tool path in trochoidal milling reduces cutting forces compared to conventional milling toolpaths, which allows for high-speed machining and improved productivity. The smaller radial depth of cut also results in reduced tool deflection, increased accuracy, and improved surface finish quality.

You may be asking “Why would I reduce the step-over? Doesn't that slow me down?”. While traditionally this would be true, due to the reduced deflection, and better tool engagement, feeds and speeds can potentially be increased drastically. According to a study published in Science Direct, high speed machining can increase cutting efficiency by up to 50%. In addition, a review on high speed machining of hard materials found that this process can reduce cutting time by up to 70%. On the other hand, trochoidal milling has been shown to reduce cutting forces by up to 90% compared to conventional milling techniques, according to a study published in PubMed.

But it's not just the toolpaths that are improving feed, combining high speed toolpaths with end mills specifically designed for high speed machining, allow you maximize your productivity. Typically these endmills have geometry designed to reduce vibration, such as staggered spacing, variable helix angles, chipbreakers, and specially designed coatings.

If all of this seems intimidating, we can help you make the right decisions to take advantage of high-speed milling.