On its 580 m² stand at last month’s EMO exhibition in Hanover, cutting tool manufacturer Horn showed live machining on four different machine tools. There were a pair of lathes, an Index G220 fixed-head model and a Citizen L12 sliding-head turning centre, while DMG Mori and Grob five-axis machining centres put Horn’s prismatic machining tools through their paces. 

Markus Horn, managing director, said: “We presented machining at the highest level. Demonstrations included high surface finish machining, machining of lead-free materials, aluminium machining with rotating PCD tools, and high technology component production requiring numerous sequential turning operations. In my opinion, the best results are achieved through dialogue and EMO offered the ideal platform for this.”

In addition to live machining, Horn presented numerous tooling innovations. Among them was the Mini system with sintered chip-breaker geometry, which was unveiled for the first time at the Horn Technology Days in May 2025. The sintered I-geometry is aimed at machining materials with poor chip-formation properties. It is suitable for copy turning, longitudinal turning, back turning and facing. 

Especially when taking a shallow depth of during the machining of steels and stainless steels, Horn says the tool system with this geometry demonstrates superior chip control, leading to high process reliability and long tool life. When developing the I-geometry, the company also took into account the machining of lead-free materials, which are being phased out owing to their toxicity. As their replacements pose a challenge due to their inferior chip formation properties, the tool manufacturer offers inserts with small corner radii starting from 0.05 mm for small lateral in-feeds. Corner radii from 0.05 to 0.2 mm are available from stock.More information www.horn-group.com