With carbide prices climbing and uncertainty over where they will settle, tooling specialist Guhring is urging manufacturers to take a closer look at regrinding. Guhring UK’s national sales manager Chris Bush explains how the company restores worn tools to new-tool performance at its UK facility.
“It’s something people need to focus on a bit more given the current carbide crisis. We do it all in our UK facility, including in-house coating and de-coating. We regrind tools on the same machines used to manufacture new tools.”
Guhring’s Birmingham facility houses 20 CNC cutter grinders and can regrind both Guhring and third-party tools, from gun drills, twist drills and thread mills to end mills and PCD tools. Small mixed batches are also accommodated, with a minimum order of three identical tools to justify machine set-up.
The service includes stripping the original coating before regrinding and applying an application-specific replacement from a choice of 10 coatings.
“Depending on what was on the new tool, we mirror that on the regrind. Crucially, the team strips the old coating before regrinding rather than simply layering over it. An excess build-up of layers becomes unstable and gives a difference in performance that will prevent the tool from performing ‘as-new’.”
Re-ground tools undergo the same manufacturing and inspection processes as new tools, maintaining quality, performance and repeatability. The financial benefit is particularly significant at a time of rising carbide prices.
“Once you’ve bought the new tool and paid for the carbide, the regrinding cost is independent of whether the carbide cost goes up or down,” says Chris. “So you can extend your tool lifecycle and use it two, three or more times.”
More information www.guhring.co.uk
