FEATURE ON TOOLING

Addmore boosts tool life and cuts cycle time

Addmore Engineering, based in Bedford, is a CNC machining company that supplies high-precision parts to the automotive, medical, and oil and gas industries. What started from a barn in Watford is now a large operation which spans several buildings, employs 48 skilled machinists and runs 24 hours a day.

Specialising in highly precise and intricately machined parts, Addmore turned to Ceratizit over 20 years ago to help with its complex component and tooling needs. Regularly visited by an applications sales engineer and a technical sales engineer from Ceratizit, the two companies enjoy a strong working relationship that positively impacts business growth.

While manyCeratizit inserts are in use at Addmore, a recent switch made was to Ceratizit’s Pentron drill with the ambition of increasing tool life and saving money on tool replacement costs. The tool Addmore was using previously was the 2xD 46 mm diameter C900 from Ceratizit. Although successfully completing the job, the inserts were getting pick-up and sticking to chips.

Addmore saw immediate benefits from using Ceratizit’s 2xD 46mm KUB Pentron drill. Whereas the previous drill had an insert life of between 55-75 parts per edge, the Pentron drill increased this to 120+ parts per edge, delivering an improvement of well over 50%.

Shaun Thornton, technical manager for Ceratizit UK, says that this improvement is “down to Ceratizit’s SOGX 03 geometry and BK8430 coating in combination with the Pentron drill. This specialist coating minimises chip-sticking and increases swarf evacuation due to its optimised flutes.”

As well as the cost-saving benefits which come from the extended insert life of the Pentron drill, switching to this insert also meant that machine cycle time was reduced by 10%.
For further information www.ceratizit.com

Guhring mould and die range hits the spot

Guhring is releasing a range of tools especially for companies working in the mould and die industry. Among the stand-out performers is the G-Mold milling line, which allows manufacturers to benefit from longtool life and optimal component surfaces.

According to Guhring, the G-Mold milling series maximises tool life when machining materials up to 65HRc. With the new Guhring Signum and Perrox coating technologies, alongside an ultra-hard carbide substrate, G-Mold demonstrates extended tool life and high levels of machining performance. Indeed,further gains are available thanks to the Guhrojet peripheral cooling system that delivers through-tool coolant or compressed air to remove swarf.

G-Mold milling cutters are available in ball-nose, torus, finishing, radius finishing, universal and high-feed variants, all of which incorporate micron-precision radius accuracy. Three prominent arrivals among the range include the new 55 and 65 G-Mold Series ball-nose tools, and the high-feed range.

The new G-Mold 65B series of high-precision two- and four-flute ball-nose cutters for machining materials up to 65HRc incorporate a radius contour tolerance of ±0.005mm to ensure component contour accuracy and repeatability. The cuttersfeature centre-cutting geometry, and 25° flute and neck clearance for extended reach applications.

Alongside the G-Mold 65B, is the new G-Mold 55B series. More of an all-rounder, the G-Mold 55B is suitable for machining steel, stainless steel, cast iron, super alloys and hard materials up to 55HRc.

For mould tool companies that demand the epitome of high-performance cutting, the G-Mold 65 HF series is for high-feed roughing with low depths of cut and maximum feed rates to optimise metal removal rate. The G-Mold 65 HF high-feed series incorporates Guhring’s Guhrojet peripheral cooling from 1 to 3mm diameter with central through-coolant for 4mm diameter and above.
For further information www.guhring.co.uk

Solid-carbide drills offer better performance

Dormer Pramet recently introduced a generation of multi-purpose solid-carbide drills with proprietary capabilities that it says elevates economical hole-making to new heights.The high performance of Dormer Pramet’s Force X and Force M products lies in its novel flute construction with continuously thinned web and rolled heel design, which enables better chip removal and easier re-sharpening.

The new drills feature a micro-grain carbide substrate and TiAlN coating. Thiscombinationprovides high wear resistance and prolongs tool life, making the drills suitable for a wide range of machines and materials, such as stainless steel, alloyed steel and cast iron.

Dormer R100/R120 bright-finish, solid-carbide, entry-level self-centring drills feature a 120° point angle. The most typical industry user of this range is general engineering, where the drills can satisfy multiple applications and materials.

Spotting drills R122, R123 and R125 provide an accurate hole location, helping to avoid drill deflection. Recommended prior to deep-hole drilling, spot drills typically have a tight tolerance point geometry with very short flute length.

David Risk, global product manager at Dormer Pramet,says: “The R100/R120 are entry-level general-purpose solid-carbide drills offering excellent tool life with consistently reliable performance. They’re ideal for both bench drilling and CNC machine applications, mainly for general engineering and maintenance, and are the logical choice for small batch production in all industry segments.

“The Force X and Force M series on the other hand, are high-performance coated solid-carbide drills, with or without internal coolant, which offer very low cycle times,” he continues. “They’re the perfect choice for large batch, high-volume production in CNC applications, mainly for the general engineering, airframe assembly and die and mould industries.”
For further information www.dormerpramet.com

Seco R&D delivers success for Scania

A challenging project with Swedish truck manufacturer Scania brought out the best in Seco’s R&D team, which found a way to extend the life of one tool by a factor of 20 when using it to cut a new type of cast iron for engines.

“The background was this new form of cast iron, which offers many advantages: it’s more environmentally friendly and stronger, which means Scania can make the engine walls thinner and lighter,” explains Stefan Frejd, R&D specialist – drilling at Seco says. “The problem that Scania wanted to explore was the fact that this material increased wear on the production tools, shortening their life.”

A project group took shape, the work of which paid off almost immediately.

“We got together with Scania’s engineers and discussed some of the problems and applications, and came back with new tools ready for testing,” saysFrejd. “The first drilling tool we tested turned out to have a tool life of more than 20 times the existing one, so that was a huge improvement.”

Other test tools managed to outlast their predecessors by a factor of seven, which represented a huge breakthrough.

For Frejdand his team, the learnings and discoveries came about due to the close working relationship with the customer and a strong desire to understand and find a solution to issues.

“The most important thing for us in R&D is the ability to co-operate with production engineers in different companies.As with Scania there are always problems that require solving, but when we come together, we often find we can do so quite quickly.”
For further information www.secotools.com

Aluminium machining in new dimensions

Machine tool manufacturer Bavius Technologie GmbH was able to achieve impressive material removal rates of over 20 l/min on its new high-end HBZ AeroCell 160 model with a new generation of high-volume milling cutters from Mapal. The result of this successful collaboration comes at the right time for the aerospace industry, which is taking off again following the downturn caused by Covid-19.

In order to test new machines and at the same time provide customers with references, Bavius carries out milling tests that push them to their limits and beyond. Here, the OptiMill-Alu-Wave, new and improved version of the solid-carbide roughing cutter from Mapal, was selected to showcase the HBZ AeroCell 160. For the tests on aluminium workpiece, the milling cutter with the largest available diameter of 25 mm ran with a spindle power of up to 175 kW, a torque of 66 Nm and a material removal rate of 30 mm.

At a spindle speed of 25,465 rpm and a cutting speed of 2000 m/min, the spindle power was gradually increased. Slot number 6 delivered the best material removal rate with a record-breaking 20 l/min.

“With the 25 mm OptiMill-Alu-Wave, we have achieved a new dimension in aluminium machining,” states Stefan Diem, application engineer at Bavius. “The milling cutter is definitely better than anything we have used previously.”

Bavius used the Safe-Lock system as pull-out protection.

“In this speed range, symmetrical pull-out protection is very important in order not to create imbalance,” explains Tim Rohmer, product manager – solid-carbide milling tools at Mapal. “A Weldon flat, which is often attached to such tools as pull-out protection, is the wrong solution here. To guarantee the smooth running of the machine, there’s no way around careful balancing, even with symmetrical tools.”
For further information www.mapal.com