More and more forming and punching tools as well as wear parts are made from cemented carbide. The large variety and the geometry of these components are often reasons for finish machining by milling, but the tool wear is very high. For the investigations, end mills with different diamond material tips or coatings are used. The cemented carbide specimens exhibit an average tungsten carbide particle size of 2.5 μm and the binder material is cobalt with a proportion of 20 %. The cutting parameters are kept constant. For all tools a surface roughness depth Rz smaller than 1 μm is achieved. The detailed analysis of the tool wear behaviour and the surfaces allows for an appropriate selection of the cutting material and contributes to an increase of the performance of machining cemented carbides by milling.
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