Investing £350,000 in technology of the future

Precision sheet metal manufacturer KMF Group has expanded its manufacturing capabilities by investing £350,000 in a Salvagnini panel folding machine to boost productivity and accommodate its growing customer base.

Moving forward, the automated Salvagnini P1 panel bender will streamline business operations at this progressive manufacturing business. According to KMF, the machine will give the company’s metal folding process improved programming efficiency to support the prototyping of large batch production and add rapid capacity for volume manufacturing. The newly installed P1 product will also act as an energy saver, with KMF expecting to see energy consumption decrease in comparison with previous machinery.

KMF commercial director Keith Nicholl says: “Engineering is one of the fastest developing industries in the world. It’s important that we move with the times by investing and creating new ways of working to stay ahead of the competition. Our customers will quickly see a benefit from this investment, with the equipment improving efficiencies and processes.”

The company has also invested £75,000 in a bead-blast system, effectively doubling KMF’s finishing process capacity. The design of the blast system offers improved infrastructure, enabling the company to increase the variety of products it manufactures.

There will be a multitude of business benefits from the bead-blast system investment. For instance, KMF will be able to increase extraction capacity, clean down faster and add semi-automation to recycling capabilities, as well as improve the working environment for process operators.

For further information www.kmf.co.uk

Extremely hard grade for brake disc machining

Cutting tool manufacturer Horn is launching a new product range for the economic machining of brake discs. The range includes solid CBN ISO inserts, mainly for cast iron machining, and CBN-tipped full-radius and shaped inserts. The grade has no metallic bonding phase and therefore offers the highest hot hardness of all cutting materials. Stable tool carriers also feature in the offering.

For machining applications on a brake disc, Horn provides a solid CBN ISO S insert with eight cutting edges. In conjunction with the tool holder, the system is suitable for roughing and finishing. The neutral design of the inserts fully utilises the number of cutting edges. It means that eight cutting edges per ISO insert are available for most turning operations.

Cutting speeds of well over 1000 m/min, depths of cut of several millimetres and feed rates up to 0.7 mm/rev are typical when machining cast iron brake discs using a solid CBN insert. The tool system must be able to maintain high cutting performance and, above all, exhibit long tool life due to the cost per cutting edge of CBN. Depending on the operation and metal removal rate, it is possible to machine well over 1000 cast iron brake discs per insert corner.

Horn offers two different tool solutions for machining the heat dissipation grooves in the disc. The CBN-tipped S117 profile grooving insert is suitable for large batch production in terms of speed and tool longevity. During the process, each groove is produced in just under two seconds in a single operation. For greater flexibility, Horn’s S229 tipped, full-radius inserts offer the option of copy turning the grooves in around four seconds. Regrinding and re-tipping are possible with both types.For further information www.horn-group.com/uk

New Seco tools help optimise part processing

To overcome various machining challenges and boost productivity, Seco has introduced new extra-long solid-carbide drills,PCBN inserts, round carbide inserts and tool holders. These products are aimed at applications ranging from general ISO turning to high-volume hard turning and deep-hole drilling.

Manufacturers that drill holes at depths from 40xD to 60xD want to lengthen tool life and reduce tooling costs. Here, Seco says that its new X-tra Long solid-carbide drills provide more than 15% more tool life than other available solutions. Innovative tool geometry and coating technology eliminate chipping and sudden breakage, while minimising flank and centre wear.

According to Seco, the company’s two new PCBN insert grades offer optimal performance in the high-volume production of automotive and other industry components. With a substrate grade and proprietary Seco nano-laminate PVD coating,CH1050meets high surface quality requirements, while CH2581 achieves greater process stability and reduced tool breakage with a versatile, forgiving grade for semi-interrupted cuts.

Many round turning inserts suffer from poor chip control, but Seco’s MF2 chipbreaker on RCGT/RCMT inserts maintains favourable chip control at higher speeds and feeds, especially with dynamic turning. One series of stable, durable carbide round insert grades handles a wide range of turning operations from roughing to finish turning.

Seco has also utilised its proprietary 3D-printed coolant clamp to deliver Jetstream Tooling high-pressure cutting fluid directly to the cutting edge. With a range of single-screw coolant clamp options for specific applications and depths of cut, Seco-Capto MTM JETI toolholders for general ISO turningprovide fast set-up and indexing, making chip control less of a challenge on 45° B-axis multi-tasking machines. 
For further information www.secotools.com



Toolmaker dives into cost savings with Guhring

As a family-run business, Canterbury Tools has been involved in the design and manufacture of press tools since it was established almost 50 years ago. To optimise the production of specialist press tools, the Walsall-based subcontract manufacturer utilises cutting tools supplied by Guhring. 

The company specialises in the production of single operation tools, progression tools, transfer tools, as well as components and assemblies for automated and robotic processes in sectors as diverse as agriculture and construction, through to medical, IT, aerospace and automotive.

Canterbury Tools is always looking for opportunities to accelerate performance and productivity. Josh Bennett, operations team leader, says: “When you are cutting materials like D2 tool steel and running intricate forms with a high material removal rate, you can burn through tools quite quickly.”

Based on an ethos of continuous improvement and progressive strategies, the company took notable steps forward after it was introduced to cutting tool manufacturerGuhring at the MACH 2022 exhibition.

“Our first Guhring tool was the Diver series of end mills,” says Bennett.“We trialled the tools and to our surprise they delivered three times the performance of the apparently high-end tooling we were using at the time. From this point onwards, we took Guhring seriously. We found we could increase our cutting depths and stepovers by 1 to 1.5 times and increase our speeds and feeds while achieving a much higher tool life.”

He adds: “With a much higher material removal rate, jobs are on machines for less time, which is massive in the world of CNC machining.Additionally,not having to change the cutters as often reduces the downtime incurred by tool changeovers.”

For further information www.guhring.co.uk

Strong end to 2023 at UR

Universal Robots, the Danish collaborative robot (cobot) company, has reported Q4 revenue of $103m, up 21% on Q4 2022. The quarter was the company’s largest revenue quarter to date.In 2023, Universal Robots experienced strong demand for the first of its heavypayload cobots, the UR20, particularly for palletising and welding applications. In November, the business launched the second model in its new series of cobots, the UR30, which will make new automation possibilities available to customers. The UR20 and UR30 together represented 30% of Q4 revenue.

For further information www.universal-robots.com