Roughing
Roughing operations are responsible for most of the chip removal capacity. Special milling strategies such as high-feed machining or trochoidal milling can reduce machining time and thus increase profitability. In addition to tools with indexable inserts and solid carbide milling cutters, high-performance milling cutters with special roughing geometry are used.
Residual material roughing
After roughing, in a second machining step, users machine the residual material, especially in corners and cavities, removing material as constantly as possible. Usually tools with corner radius or high-feed milling cutters are used. In some cases a ball cutter can be used to remove the residual material in corners.
半精加工
对尺寸精度和表面质量要求较高时，建议在精加工前进行半精加工。通过半精加工，加工接近最终的形状轮廓。目的是获得尽可能恒定的残余材料，以实现对表面质量要求高的快速精加工。粗加工后的加工余量对于淬硬材料约为 0.5-1 mm，对于软质材料约为 0.03-0.5 mm。在半精加工后，淬硬材料的恒定加工余量为 0.05-0.1 mm，软质材料为 0.1-0.3 mm。
精加工
精加工去除剩余的加工余量以达到最终形状。在半精加工后，淬硬材料的加工余量为 0.05-0.1 mm，软质材料的加工余量为 0.1-0.3 mm。球形和/或圆角铣刀是首选刀具，具体取决于工件的最终轮廓。
剩余材料精加工
要制造的形状的特性愈来愈复杂，需要在精加工后铣削剩余的材料，主要是在圆角处。对此通常使用由整体硬质合金制成的球形铣刀。
