Page 384 - Gear Technology Solutions

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27.5 The Pentac Ecoblade-RT Cutter System

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The design considerations for the Pentac Ecoblade-RT cutter system began
with the range of radii which has to be covered by the slot depth and the varie-
ty of spacer blocks. The investigations covered the systems Hardac , RSR as
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well as Pentac nominal and completing. Each Pentac Ecoblade-RT cutter
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size is therefore capable to cover the range of possible designs, even if they
deviate from the common standards. Because of the resulting large slot depth,
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each Pentac Ecoblade cutter head received a reduced number of blade
groups compared to its standard Pentac counterpart. Depending on the cutter
size, the number of blade groups is reduced by one or two. The result is a very
stiff cutter system which is equally productive as the standard Pentac system.
High stiffness and the avoidance of chip packing results in a performance
which was never seen in the past when cutter heads with spacer blocks were
used. Often, chip packing as shown in Figure 9 required a reduction of the
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feed rates in connection with back face grinding. Pentac Ecoblade-RT cutter
heads may sometimes benefit from back face grinding, however the reduction
of feed rates due to chip packing is no longer necessary.

Figure 9: Chip packing as result of narrow blade spacing

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A photo of a 7.5-inch Pentac Ecoblade-RT cutter head is shown in Figure 10.
The outstanding design and the high precision manufacturing can be noticed
when observing the details in the photograph. The thick cutter body and outer
ring with a row of clamping screws and a second row of adjustment screws
with its solid angular spacer blocks cannot be compared with the old and ra-
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ther compliant RSR design. The precision grinding of each slot to single mi-
cron accuracy guarantees a superior performance compared to, for example,
cutter heads where the slots are roughed and finished only with the wire EDM
process. In addition to the grinding of the functional surfaces, the cutter face is
also ground and is labeled with a permanent engraving which all together

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