With the support of Ceratizit UK & Ireland, Techni has dramatically cut the time to market for its compressor mount kits used in van-based refrigeration and compressed air applications.

Typically, Techni machines the kit’s compressor brackets from SG iron castings, as normal batch sizes make this the most cost-effective method. However, driven by a significant increase in home deliveries due to the Covid pandemic, customers have demanded faster turnaround, and volumes in much lower numbers but more diverse configurations.

“In order to compete we needed to review our production methods to reduce lead times by as much as possible, and billet machining was the logical step,” explains Ali Kerr Techni’s manufacturing engineer who worked on the project.

To help with the work holding, tooling and methodology, Techni turned to preferred tooling supplier Ceratizit UK & Ireland.

With the billet gripped, up to 90% of the machining, both roughing and finishing, is carried out using a WNT CircularLine end mill featuring Ceratizit’s extremely wear resistant Dragonskin DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coating. In the case of Techni, these 4 mm diameter five-flute cutters run at a conservative 450 m/min surface speed and 0.2 mm/tooth feed, with a 10-20% step over.

“The help we’ve received from Ceratizit on this project has been invaluable,” says Kerr. “We can now deliver finished machined parts to customers within a week if required, compared to four months for a new cast product. This gives us a valuable competitive edge with new customers. In future, with batch quantities up to 300, billet machining will offer a significant advantage, and we already have more parts lined up for billet machining.”

For further information
www.ceratizit.com

Walter’s Tiger·tec Silver WSM45X indexable insert grade – for cutting ISO S (titanium and heat-resistant alloy) and ISO-M (austenitic stainless steels) materials – is now available for the company’s Xtra·tec XT range of M5130 shoulder milling cutters, M5468 copy milling cutters, M5008 high-feed milling cutters, and BLAXX F5041 and F5141 shoulder milling cutters.

According to Walter, the combination of special substrate, which is wear-resistant yet tough, and aluminium oxide coating is the only one of its kind on the market, ensuring a high level of process reliability. The coating protects the substrate against excessive heat and is extremely smooth, enabling a high level of productivity and superior resistance to the formation of build-up on the cutting edge. Walter says that this capability makes the Tiger·tec Silver WSM45X grade a proven problem-solver, particularly when it comes to roughing titanium alloys in the aerospace industry and when machining stainless steel.

The two-tone Tiger·tec Silver coating is designed to ease the detection of edge wear. Typical components machined using the WSM45X grade include exhaust turbochargers, turbine blades and titanium structural components for the aircraft industry.

In addition to the new programme extension, the Tiger·tec Silver WSM45X range of inserts is already available across the previously launched Xtra·tec XT and M4000 universal milling system platforms, which include face milling cutters, shoulder milling cutters, high-feed milling cutters, octagonal insert and copy milling cutters.

For further information
www.walter-tools.com

Cutting-tool manufacturer Horn has extended its range of products to enable the circular interpolation milling of holes down to 8 mm in diameter. With its triple-edged 304 system, the company is offering a versatile, productive solution for internal groove, thread and profile milling, as well as finish boring and chamfering.

The insert has a diameter of 7.7 mm. In conjunction with various vibration-damping carbide shanks, which feature an internal coolant supply, the tool is more economical and versatile than solid-carbide milling cutters for machining smaller diameters.

In terms of the portfolio, inserts are available in widths of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 mm. For milling circlip grooves, Horn offers the system with cutting widths of 0.8, 0.9, 1.1 and 1.3 mm. In the case of the full radius versions, radii of 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm are available. To enable the milling of chamfers, the system comes with angles of 45°, 30° and 15°. Regarding the substrates, Horn uses coated grade EG55 for general steel machining and IG35 for machining stainless steels and super alloys.

The Horn circular milling system is said to provide users with users many advantages, including a high level of reproducible quality. According to the company, it is fast, reliable and achieves good surface finish. During machining, the tool plunges into the material either at an angle or horizontally and is interpolated either in a circle, or helically to produce a thread.

For further information
www.phorn.co.uk

Family-owned BOGE Kompressoren, with its headquarters in Bielefeld, Germany, is a world-renowned technology specialist in solutions for generating compressed air. Apart from the performance, quality and cost-effectiveness of the products, one of the company’s most important declared goals is the increase in efficiency and safety during manufacturing. When producing screw compressors, Mapal says that its high-performance cutting tools achieve convincing results.

“At BOGE, we are the centre of competence in supplying readily assembled and inspected compressor stages for screw compressors,” explains Mario Birkner, production manager for organisation and projects at the BOGE plant in Großenhain.
At Großenhain, around 40 employees produce very accurately machined cast-iron rotors and housings for screw compressors in highly automated machining centres. Often, it is necessary to meet strict IT6 or IT7 precision requirements, which is where fine-boring tools from Mapal come into play. Not only is maximum precision important here – machining times must also be as short as possible. Well-designed, multi-stage tools often result in low material removal rates that are sufficient to carry out several machining steps. Moreover, the custom tools achieve considerably closer tolerances and better surface qualities while maintaining the same high process reliability. The adoption of new NeoMill face milling cutters from Mapal has paid particular dividends.

“With these new tools, we were able to achieve really impressive success,” says Birkner.

The material removal rate, up from 2 to 4 mm, already made it possible to reduce the machining time by half. Furthermore, the company could double the feed due to the softer cut and thus lower the power consumption of the machine, so that machining time decreased by more than 60%. The tool life per cutting edge of the indexable inserts resulted in further time and cost advantages: 60 minutes instead of the previous 45.

For further information
www.mapal.com

CeramTec‘s new iCT tool system features a completely revised clamping system for optimised performance. At the same time, the number of variants has been reduced to enable easier handling and greater security for customers when assigning spare parts to the tools.

CeramTec’s new iCT (innovative clamping technology) tool system is an update that replaces the S3 series of turning tools and significantly increases process reliability when machining with ceramic cutting materials. The tool system is primarily for use in the automotive and supplier industry for turning mass-produced cast-iron components with high-performance ceramics.
In recent years, cutting speeds have increasingly climbed, placing higher demands on clamping systems.

“In this sector, CeramTec acts as a system supplier, where we supply the turning tool together with the machining technology as an all-in-one solution,” says Johannes Schneider, senior product manager cutting tools, at CeramTec. “Brake discs are one of the core components for which we offer cutting solutions, an area where we have a high level of expertise. With the new iCT system, we provide turning tools with significantly increased performance, as well as a reduced inventory of spare parts, which makes it easier to handle for our customers.”

There is only one clamping screw type (high-strength class 12.9) for all iCT clamping fingers, as well as only one screw size for all different shims. Clamps are also available in different material versions up to a fully hardened metal variant, and can thus be adapted depending on the use case.

The different sizes come in different colours, so that assigning them to the right tool is easy. CeramTec’s iCT clamping system is available for all common insert types and their different applications.

For further information
www.ceramtec-group.com