Applying and Producing Indexable End Mills: A Comparative Market Study in Context of Resource Efficiency

In manufacturing processes, aspects like applied tools and milling strategies significantly determine milling operation results and their resource efficiency. Due to the widespread application of Indexable End Mills in high-volume machining processes, considering the impact of these tools on resource efficiency becomes increasingly important. This paper presents novel insights into different aspects of Indexable End Mills (e.g. produced geometries, applied technologies, operation purposes and machined materials), derived from a study with enterprises applying or producing these tools. The results are discussed in order to identify future research needs to improve resource efficiency in manufacturing enterprises. One of the main results is that 84 % of the surveyed manufacturers and 65 % of the surveyed users of Indexable End Mills evaluate the application of vibration-damped tools as a considerable need for improvement.