Step 3:
Milling the rough shape
Machining the tool is something that takes time and patience. It is mostly done in two steps. First the rough shape and afterwards the exact shape. Milling the rough shape of the die can be done either by machine or by hand. It is done 'roughly' to leave extra material on critical places.
As soon as the disc is finished from turning the detailing starts. The next step is to mill the rough shape of the die in the disc. This can be done by a 3-, 4- of 5-axis milling operation or by hand. The choice of this depends on the shape of the die. This ‘rough’ machining is done so that critical dimensions will remain with a certain extra material left on it. The reason for this is that during heat treatment dimensions could change. If the tool is machined to the exact shape it could result in a faulty dimension in the finished tool. Milling in soft condition is better for the tools and the processing speed of the operation.
At Adex there are a lot of different machines that can do this milling operation. The reason for this is the fact that we can offer tools from 70mm to 1100mm. Machining a 70mm precision die requires a different kind of machine than machining a big and heavy 1100mm die.
