Hufschmied highlights PCD tools for ceramic machining
Posted on 03 Apr 2026. Edited by: Jackie Seddon. Read 172 times.
At the recent
Ceramitec 2026 held last month,
Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme presented a newly developed class of tools — PCD torus milling cutters for machining monolithic ceramics and carbide. The first model, with the project name P150M, has 25 cutting edges and a diameter of 3mm. The number of cutting edges and their special geometry enable milling of materials that are so hard and brittle that they can normally only be machined by grinding.
Manufacturing complex shapes from solid polycrystalline diamond (PCD) is difficult, but Hufschmied has expanded its manufacturing capabilities in this area as well, opening a new chapter. As a technology leader in the field of material- and process-specific machining solutions, Hufschmied is now optimising the machining of the hardest ceramic materials such as zirconium oxide or silicon nitride.
The newly developed geometry of the ‘P150M’ has two main objectives — to minimise the load on the individual tooth while maintaining a high feed rate of the tool. Even with a feed rate per tooth in the range of 1µm, the many teeth of the new tool enable effective and reliable machining.
Christel Hufschmied, Hufschmied’s managing director, said: “This is one of the most specialised solutions in our portfolio. It enables industries such as aerospace, where hard and brittle ceramics must be reworked, to significantly optimise their processes with our new tools.”
The current PCD tool is the latest development in a whole series of solutions for ceramic machining, such as the Zirkonator for the manufacture of dental prostheses from zirconium oxide or the newly developed tools in the ‘CMC-3D’ research project for the manufacture of turbine blades from ceramic matrix composites.
The new class of PCD tools will also be one of the topics of the ceramics workshop at Rego-Fix AG in Tenniken, Switzerland, on 27 August, which Hufschmied is organising together with DOCERAM GmbH, Röders GmbH, and MHT Mold and Hotrunner Technology AG.