New aerospace turning grade

For the finish-turning of HRSA materials, NTK Cutting Tools has introduced its JP0 Bidemics range of inserts. Suitable for machining HRSA materials at speeds up to 480 m/min, the JP0 is the latest addition to the NTK range of Bidemics, a material that the company says can greatly improve productivity for aerospace manufacturers which are regularly cutting challenging materials.

Capable of machining at cutting speeds up to 15 times faster than carbide and CBN alternatives, the NTK JP0 demonstrates high wear resistance and consistency. The new JP0 insert grade is suitable for running at cutting speeds from 180 to 500 m/min, with a feed rate of 0.05 to 0.2 mm/rev, and a depth of cut from 0.1 to 0.7 mm.

Currently, NTK has introduced the new high-performance finish turning grade in three different designations: the CNGA, DNGA and VNGA geometries. The 4.76 mm thick CNGA and DNGA inserts are available with a 0.4, 0.8 or 1.2 mm corner radius, and an IC of 12.7 mm. NTK’s VNGA insert designation is available with a 0.4 or 0.8 mm corner radius, and a 9.525 mm IC. The company says that all three designations demonstrate outstanding quality with the 0.04 mm honed edge preparation.

NTK recommends that when turning HRSAs and other extremely challenging material types, manufacturers should utilise button inserts from the Bidemics, Whisker and SiAlON series for heavy-duty roughing, followed by the NTK SiAlON range for semi-finish passes and the new JP0 for finishing with a constant depth of cut.

For further information
www.ntkcuttingtools.co.uk

Plan for growth at MACH 2022

With less than 200 days to go until the opening of MACH 2022, the first national gathering of the UK engineering community post-COVID-19, manufacturers are being urged to use the exhibition to plan their growth strategies and take advantage of booming market conditions.

Show organiser, the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), says positive economic forecasts suggest there is a strong appetite among manufacturers to do business and, with investment incentives in place, there has never been a better time to acquire machinery that can facilitate growth.

The showpiece exhibition takes place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on 4-8 April 2022. Even with almost seven months until the doors open, the event is already three quarters sold, with more firms are signing up all the time. Recent MACH editions have seen over 20,000 visitors attend.

For further information www.machexhibition.com

Coborn relies on Kaydon bearings

Coborn Engineering, which designs and manufactures specialised CNC grinding, polishing and lapping machines for the diamond tooling and gemstone industries, is taking advantage of Kaydon bearings from RA Rodriguez to help boost the performance of its Planetary Grinding (PG) series machines. In this extremely high-precision application, Kaydon bearings are an essential element of the machine, allowing users to process diamond cutting tools to radius form waviness levels of 50 nm (0.00005 mm).

The latest version of the PG series, the PG6, is an automatic, ultra-high precision grinding machine for processing natural or synthetic SCD tools. Coborn’s PG6 is a world-first engineering solution that relies on high-quality bearings for the precision manufacture of controlled waviness and complex geometry tools.

To verify the performance of its PG6 machines, Coborn performs a TRC [tool radius check], which is essentially a microscope with image analysis software to measure tool radius and radius waviness.

“The system generates custom-designed QC graphical data sheets that we can then supply with the associated tool,” explains Bullman. “Our PG Series machines generate waviness values of sub 50 nm, which is market leading. The bearings are a key part of the machine, allowing users to process diamond tooling to these accuracies.”

RA Rodriguez supplies Coborn with Kaydon KD series high-precision, angular contact, preloaded bearings in duplex (back-to-back) configuration. Each Coborn PG machine requires a pair of these 7-inch diameter bearings. The company has been a customer of RA Rodriguez for the past 22 years and has been using Kaydon KD series bearings since 2013.

Concludes Bullman: “We are a very well established customer of RA Rodriguez and appreciate their high-quality products and the support offered over the years, which continues to this day.”

For further information
www.rarodriguez.co.uk

NMIS and Boeing open R&D facility

The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) and the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, have officially opened a new research and development (R&D) facility in Westway Park, Renfrewshire. At over 60,000 sq ft, the new NMIS facility incorporates the Metallics Research Centre with Boeing, which will see the delivery of the aerospace giant’s £11.8m R&D programme in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), part of the NMIS Group.

Aiming to reduce materials waste and identify opportunities that improve safety, productivity and the environmental impact of its aircraft, technical teams from Boeing and NMIS are exploring novel manufacturing technologies for metallic components, building on over a decade’s worth of R&D with the University of Strathclyde and the AFRC, where Boeing is a founding partner. The new R&D facility will house cutting-edge manufacturing equipment for use across NMIS projects.

For further information www.nmis.scot

Successful EMO exhibition

EMO Milano 2021 drew to a close on 9 October with organisers, exhibitors and visitors all agreeing that the show was a resounding success. Over 700 exhibitors from 34 countries participated, around 60% from outside Italy. Six halls covering 100,000 sq m hosted over 3500 machines, representing a value exceeding half a billion euros.

Among the exhibitors was MTI magazine, which handed out print copies of its MTI show issue to EMO visitors. Heading up the MTI team at EMO was sales director Giovanni Cerrinaferoni, a native Italian speaker who welcomed a continuous stream of interested visitors to the stand, all looking to discover more about the industry’s most effective way of buying and selling machine tools. A big thank you to everyone who called by the MTI stand for a chat. The photo shows Gio with Laurent Müller, an MTI client based in Switzerland.

For further information www.mtimagazine.com