Covers Protect Tooling, Provide Safety For Operators

GWS Tool Group has acquired Monster Tool Company. This is the fourth acquisition in 2021 for GWS Tool Group, and the second West Coast acquisition by the U.S.-based manufacturer.

Monster Tool manufactures and distributes solid round cutting tools for aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, heavy equipment and die-mold. Second-generation and family owned, Monster operates out of an approximately 40,000 square feet facility with additional real estate secured for future expansion.

“Monster Tool is a best-in-class cutting tool company with a reputation for producing quality performance cutting tools and delivering them to their customers with the utmost speed and ease,” said Rick McIntyre, GWS’ Cemented Carbide Inserts CEO. “Their added logistics and service expertise are additional areas we will look to integrate into the GWS model to further enhance our service and delivery methods to the betterment of all our customers and partners in distribution.”

Josh Lynberg, owner of Monster Tool, says, “From products and services to customer end markets and culture, there are just so many ways in which our companies align and complement tungsten carbide inserts each other. This merger will undoubtedly be for the betterment of our company, employees and customers.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Tungsten Carbide Inserts

GWS Tool Group has acquired Monster Tool Company. This is the fourth acquisition in 2021 for GWS Tool Group, and the second West Coast acquisition by the U.S.-based manufacturer.

Monster Tool manufactures and distributes solid round cutting tools for aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, heavy equipment and die-mold. Second-generation and family owned, Monster operates out of an approximately 40,000 square feet facility with additional real estate secured for future expansion.

“Monster Tool is a best-in-class cutting tool company with a reputation for producing quality performance cutting tools and delivering them to their customers with the utmost speed and ease,” said Rick McIntyre, GWS’ Cemented Carbide Inserts CEO. “Their added logistics and service expertise are additional areas we will look to integrate into the GWS model to further enhance our service and delivery methods to the betterment of all our customers and partners in distribution.”

Josh Lynberg, owner of Monster Tool, says, “From products and services to customer end markets and culture, there are just so many ways in which our companies align and complement tungsten carbide inserts each other. This merger will undoubtedly be for the betterment of our company, employees and customers.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Tungsten Carbide Inserts

GWS Tool Group has acquired Monster Tool Company. This is the fourth acquisition in 2021 for GWS Tool Group, and the second West Coast acquisition by the U.S.-based manufacturer.

Monster Tool manufactures and distributes solid round cutting tools for aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, heavy equipment and die-mold. Second-generation and family owned, Monster operates out of an approximately 40,000 square feet facility with additional real estate secured for future expansion.

“Monster Tool is a best-in-class cutting tool company with a reputation for producing quality performance cutting tools and delivering them to their customers with the utmost speed and ease,” said Rick McIntyre, GWS’ Cemented Carbide Inserts CEO. “Their added logistics and service expertise are additional areas we will look to integrate into the GWS model to further enhance our service and delivery methods to the betterment of all our customers and partners in distribution.”

Josh Lynberg, owner of Monster Tool, says, “From products and services to customer end markets and culture, there are just so many ways in which our companies align and complement tungsten carbide inserts each other. This merger will undoubtedly be for the betterment of our company, employees and customers.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Tungsten Carbide Inserts

Shop Adds CNC Grinding To Its Mix

Imagine a single cutting toolholder that can be used to perform 12 distinct metalcutting operations without a tool change. That's the concept behind a new cutting tool innovation designed and built by Mazak (Florence, Kentucky).

It's called Flash Tool holder, and it is designed to complement the capabilities of the company's multitasking Integrex series of machine tools. Integrex is a turning center-based machine that uses a swivel milling head to perform fixed tool operations while rotating the workpiece or rotary tool operations with the workpiece stationary. It can also do C-axis contouring by rotating the part and milling cutter simultaneously.

The process RCMX Insert advantage of the Integrex machine is its ability to completely machine complex workpieces in a single handling. It uses a synchronized main spindle and subspindle to present all workpiece features for first and second operations to the swivel milling head.

Like any tool changing machine, such as a machining center or turning center, reducing tool changes is an efficient method of optimizing cycle times. An example on machining centers is using combination tools that perform drilling and tapping in one cutter to help increase spindle utilization. Rather than change tools, one cutter does two or more operations. Over a medium part run, the time savings from reduced tool changes can be significant.

Likewise, reducing the number of turret indexes on a turning center ups the time in the cut. If the same cutting tool can be used to rough face and rough turn, the time savings from reducing turret indexes add up over the run of parts.

Mazak designed the Flash Tool holder to combine up to 12 cutting operations in a single holder. It's important to note that this tool will not work without the rotary and swivel positioning capabilities of the Integrex milling head. They are a system.

The standard Flash Tool holder uses a four-flute shank. The key to this cutter is that each insert in each flute is different. Each insert is clamped in a pre-milled pocket in the toolholder. For rotary operations including milling, chamfering and drilling, the outside inserts do the cutting. They are located on the nominal or major OD. Other inserts with different nominal OD are used to perform rough and finish turning, threading and ID work.

It's the milling head that is able to bring these inserts accurately to bear on the workpiece by changing the effective geometry of the insert. On turning operations, changing the angle of inclination of a given insert by swiveling the B-axis allows more or less of the insert edge to be engaged in the cut. A wide edge can be used for roughing, or a single point can be used for threading. The milling head indexes and locks in 24 positions in 15-degree increments.

Depending on the application, and its tooling requirements, the Flash Tool concept can be used to carry a large variety of inserts. Besides the standard four, tool holders can be used that have two, three or six different inserts.

Flash Tool holding is an interesting innovation that makes an individual multi-flute cutter into a SNMG Insert veritable tool storage unit. It represents a tooling strategy that would be impossible without the advances in multitasking machine tools.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: cast iron Inserts

Imagine a single cutting toolholder that can be used to perform 12 distinct metalcutting operations without a tool change. That's the concept behind a new cutting tool innovation designed and built by Mazak (Florence, Kentucky).

It's called Flash Tool holder, and it is designed to complement the capabilities of the company's multitasking Integrex series of machine tools. Integrex is a turning center-based machine that uses a swivel milling head to perform fixed tool operations while rotating the workpiece or rotary tool operations with the workpiece stationary. It can also do C-axis contouring by rotating the part and milling cutter simultaneously.

The process RCMX Insert advantage of the Integrex machine is its ability to completely machine complex workpieces in a single handling. It uses a synchronized main spindle and subspindle to present all workpiece features for first and second operations to the swivel milling head.

Like any tool changing machine, such as a machining center or turning center, reducing tool changes is an efficient method of optimizing cycle times. An example on machining centers is using combination tools that perform drilling and tapping in one cutter to help increase spindle utilization. Rather than change tools, one cutter does two or more operations. Over a medium part run, the time savings from reduced tool changes can be significant.

Likewise, reducing the number of turret indexes on a turning center ups the time in the cut. If the same cutting tool can be used to rough face and rough turn, the time savings from reducing turret indexes add up over the run of parts.

Mazak designed the Flash Tool holder to combine up to 12 cutting operations in a single holder. It's important to note that this tool will not work without the rotary and swivel positioning capabilities of the Integrex milling head. They are a system.

The standard Flash Tool holder uses a four-flute shank. The key to this cutter is that each insert in each flute is different. Each insert is clamped in a pre-milled pocket in the toolholder. For rotary operations including milling, chamfering and drilling, the outside inserts do the cutting. They are located on the nominal or major OD. Other inserts with different nominal OD are used to perform rough and finish turning, threading and ID work.

It's the milling head that is able to bring these inserts accurately to bear on the workpiece by changing the effective geometry of the insert. On turning operations, changing the angle of inclination of a given insert by swiveling the B-axis allows more or less of the insert edge to be engaged in the cut. A wide edge can be used for roughing, or a single point can be used for threading. The milling head indexes and locks in 24 positions in 15-degree increments.

Depending on the application, and its tooling requirements, the Flash Tool concept can be used to carry a large variety of inserts. Besides the standard four, tool holders can be used that have two, three or six different inserts.

Flash Tool holding is an interesting innovation that makes an individual multi-flute cutter into a SNMG Insert veritable tool storage unit. It represents a tooling strategy that would be impossible without the advances in multitasking machine tools.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: cast iron Inserts

Imagine a single cutting toolholder that can be used to perform 12 distinct metalcutting operations without a tool change. That's the concept behind a new cutting tool innovation designed and built by Mazak (Florence, Kentucky).

It's called Flash Tool holder, and it is designed to complement the capabilities of the company's multitasking Integrex series of machine tools. Integrex is a turning center-based machine that uses a swivel milling head to perform fixed tool operations while rotating the workpiece or rotary tool operations with the workpiece stationary. It can also do C-axis contouring by rotating the part and milling cutter simultaneously.

The process RCMX Insert advantage of the Integrex machine is its ability to completely machine complex workpieces in a single handling. It uses a synchronized main spindle and subspindle to present all workpiece features for first and second operations to the swivel milling head.

Like any tool changing machine, such as a machining center or turning center, reducing tool changes is an efficient method of optimizing cycle times. An example on machining centers is using combination tools that perform drilling and tapping in one cutter to help increase spindle utilization. Rather than change tools, one cutter does two or more operations. Over a medium part run, the time savings from reduced tool changes can be significant.

Likewise, reducing the number of turret indexes on a turning center ups the time in the cut. If the same cutting tool can be used to rough face and rough turn, the time savings from reducing turret indexes add up over the run of parts.

Mazak designed the Flash Tool holder to combine up to 12 cutting operations in a single holder. It's important to note that this tool will not work without the rotary and swivel positioning capabilities of the Integrex milling head. They are a system.

The standard Flash Tool holder uses a four-flute shank. The key to this cutter is that each insert in each flute is different. Each insert is clamped in a pre-milled pocket in the toolholder. For rotary operations including milling, chamfering and drilling, the outside inserts do the cutting. They are located on the nominal or major OD. Other inserts with different nominal OD are used to perform rough and finish turning, threading and ID work.

It's the milling head that is able to bring these inserts accurately to bear on the workpiece by changing the effective geometry of the insert. On turning operations, changing the angle of inclination of a given insert by swiveling the B-axis allows more or less of the insert edge to be engaged in the cut. A wide edge can be used for roughing, or a single point can be used for threading. The milling head indexes and locks in 24 positions in 15-degree increments.

Depending on the application, and its tooling requirements, the Flash Tool concept can be used to carry a large variety of inserts. Besides the standard four, tool holders can be used that have two, three or six different inserts.

Flash Tool holding is an interesting innovation that makes an individual multi-flute cutter into a SNMG Insert veritable tool storage unit. It represents a tooling strategy that would be impossible without the advances in multitasking machine tools.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: cast iron Inserts

Cutting Tool for Grooving, Threading of Small Parts

An increasing number of shops are performing machine RCGT Insert tool monitoring in some way. In fact, I’m more frequently encountering large, flat-screen monitors in shops I visit that display machines’ operational status in the form of bar graphs containing areas of green, yellow, red and black. In general, the more uninterrupted green, the better, because green time is chip-making time. (You’ll understand why I say “in general” in a bit.) 

Such a monitor is found in J&R Machine’s facility in Shawano, Wisconsin, enabling everyone on the shop floor to see, at a glance, the shop’s performance in real time. Plus, that information is accessible to managers via their computers, smartphones or tablet devices through the machine-monitoring software the shop uses. That way, they can remotely check in on a machine’s status at any given Shoulder Milling Inserts moment and receive alerts when a machine shuts down or an alarm is triggered.

While there certainly is value in collecting and displaying this data, identifying and tracking green time is only part of the continuous improvement initiative for J&R Machine. “We didn’t add machine-monitoring capability simply to see how much our machines are running or when they’re up or down,” explains Parker Tumanic, the contract shop’s vice president. “Rather than looking at this data only from an operational standpoint, we look at it from a financial perspective.”

J&R Machine uses the machine data it collects to develop a monthly productivity index: a ratio of machine green hours to the payroll hours of the person tending the machine. In essence, this metric demonstrates how well the shop uses its payroll hours compared to its machine hours.

This helps shape a number of key business decisions, such as what type of equipment the shop should buy (or sell), what job might be better suited for a machine with more automated capabilities, what job seems to require too much operator intervention, what type of work the shop should go after, what type of work it should avoid, if its effective billing rate is appropriate, if it needs to pursue additional business and so on.

Ultimately, it reveals true shop costs and profit.

This metric is also shared with all employees, but it’s not done with the intent to browbeat them when the index for their machine(s) isn’t optimal, Mr. Tumanic says. In fact, the transparency of sharing this with employees serves to motivate them to look for ways to boost the throughput of jobs (thereby reducing the green time for those jobs) so other jobs in queue can be processed sooner.

Why do they do that? It’s because they know that higher company profits mean the chance for higher take-home pay, thanks to the shop’s quarterly employee gainsharing bonus.

Founded in 1992, J&R Machine is an ISO 9001:2015-certified shop with a range of capabilities in addition to CNC machining, such as prototyping, engineering, fabrication and assembly. Its customers include some of the largest names in the defense, medical, machinery, hydraulics, oil and gas, and auto racing fields, although it is always on the lookout for opportunities in new, emerging markets.

The 34-person shop looks and operates much differently than it did years ago. Previously, it used a variety of machine types and went after different types of work. Today, it has settled on two machining platforms it will purchase moving forward: live-tool CNC turning centers and horizontal machining centers (HMCs). It has also settled not only on the machine builder, DMG MORI, but the machine models it will purchase: NLX 2500 turning centers and NHX 4000 HMCs. Not all the shop’s 20 CNC machines are these models, but they soon will be. As part of the shop’s business plan, machines must be replaced when they reach 10 years old. Currently, its oldest machine is a still-youthful 2012 model.

J&R Machine has identified precision turning with live tooling capability as its core competency. In fact, the work envelope it has identified for all jobs that the shop will take on ranges from 1 to 10 inches in diameter and as much as 20 inches long to match the capacity of the turning centers. However, machining on its two current HMCs (one an NHX 4000, the other an NH 4000) still represents approximately 20 percent of its business. It uses these machines because either there are some features that can’t be milled on the lathes or a part requires so much milling work that it becomes a bottleneck to mill them on the lathes.

The HMCs enable jobs to be set up on one pallet outside the workzone while the machine is milling on a part loaded in the machine, maximizing spindle uptime. J&R Machine still has one vertical machining center (VMC), but given the HMC’s dual-pallet design, it won’t purchase another VMC moving forward, and the lone remaining VMC will soon be sold to make room for another HMC. However, to maximize unattended run time for that VMC, the shop has developed custom, high-density workholding fixtures that can accommodate a number of parts. The pallets quickly and repeatedly mount in the machine via zero-point, ball-lock systems.

Tim Tumanic, company president and Parker’s father, says the move to standardization is valuable in a number of ways. It’s easier to redeploy people to different machines because the machines and workcenters are pretty much the same. It’s easier to get newly purchased machines online quickly, because they are tooled just like the others. It provides an easily scalable format for either adding capacity or replacing old equipment. It makes scheduling easier, because jobs can run on virtually any machine. It enables continuous improvement initiatives to be easier to roll out throughout the shop because the shop only has to focus on one machine platform. Also, by standardizing the workpiece-size envelope, it directs the shop’s sales team to look for work best suited to the shop’s capabilities and core competency, which means machines won’t be down because the work is not there for them and, ultimately, the company will realize higher profit margins.

Parker Tumanic says the shop also values the data-collection software compatible with its common machine tool platforms, which facilitates calculating its productivity index, something it began tracking in 2015.

This starts with determining how much the machines are running over a given period, when they’re not producing because of part loading, when they are down for maintenance and so on. This data is automatically collected via DMG MORI Messenger data-collection software.

The collected machine data then is imported into a spreadsheet Mr. Tumanic developed to calculate the monthly productivity index. This index is simply a ratio of a machine’s run hours to its operator’s payroll hours. “We never had an effective way to measure how many payroll hours were tied to machine hours,” he says. “Our productivity index enables us to easily see the connection.”

The table in the slideshow at the top of the article shows an example of this monthly report from 2015. At that time, the ratio of machine hours to payroll hours was low, with a four-month span ranging from 0.57 to 0.88. This spurred the shop to review the daily performance of individual machines to see why some had more green time than others. This in turn enabled J&R Machine to direct low-hanging-fruit-type improvement efforts.

In some cases, large gaps between green time were due to manual machine loading. This is one reason why the shop purchased its first two subspindle lathes with bar feeders and parts conveyors to enable long stretches of unattended operation. Integrating these machines had an immediate impact for certain higher-volume jobs that could be processed from 3-inch-diameter barstock or less, which is the capacity of the machines’ subspindles. In one case, a job ran over an entire weekend, only requiring an operator to come in two hours each day to check on the two machines, resulting in a productivity index of approximately 10.

“Adding an automated process such as this to gain uninterrupted green time sounds like common sense, but when you’re encountering a flat-screen monitor each day that shows all this data, you become more apt to do something about the yellow interruptions,” Mr. Tumanic says. “It spurs you to make changes to minimize the gaps in machine uptime.”

Examining the index also served to balance cells. The turning centers in the shop are located in one aisle with identical machines facing each other, so one operator can more easily tend both machines. In fact, each time the shop purchases new turning centers, it purchases two at a time for that reason. For the cells with chucker turning centers running one part number, one turning center performs machining on side A of the part, and the other machines side B. By closely looking at the amount of interrupted production for each side due to part loading, the shop was able to better balance the cells. For example, if the cycle time for side A is 10 minutes and side B is 5 minutes, the shop might work to improve the performance of machine A; take features produced on machine A and have machine B produce them; set up both machines to run side A and then once completed, set up both to run side B; or, if the volume was sufficiently high, set up four machines with one pair machining side A and the other pair machining side B (each cell would start and end at a different time).

The productivity index also helps determine what equipment to jettison. The indices for two of the shop’s current turning centers have been low. The problem isn’t that there are issues with programming, tooling or the machining process in general. Instead, it was determined that they aren’t capable of machining the type of complex parts the shop was and is pursuing. There simply hasn’t been enough work to feed them. As a result, these machines will soon be sold and replaced with better-suited equipment.

In reviewing the productivity index for specific machines, the shop asks itself a few questions when that value is low. Is there a process or programming issue? Were there machine alarms, and, if so, why? Are there enough sales for this machine, and does the machine match our core competency? Do the employees have all the hand tools, gages and related equipment they need to effectively run that particular job?

Typically, the result of identifying solutions to those types of issues shrinks the gaps in green time. However, the shop also looks to shrink the overall amount of green time for a job by spurring its machinists to try different cutting tools and/or make tweaks to part programs to reduce cycle times and, in turn, increase the effective billing rate for that machine and profit for those jobs because the machine is being utilized more effectively. This also enables jobs in queue to be completed sooner and/or spurs the shop’s sales department to pursue additional work.

Reducing overall green time is an ongoing effort at J&R Machine. It was especially important in 2017, because the company’s backlog forced it to run 24/7 with two 12-hour shifts. In an effort to get away from that, the shop challenged its employees to reduce green time by 4,000 hours that year (which effectively equates to the cost to purchase one new machine). As of last December, it had shaved 3,628 hours with changes such as reduced setup time, as well as part program adjustments and new tooling to increase feed rates and reduce cycle times.

“With our company’s previous culture, employees spurred to help save 4,000 hours of green time might have led them to believe they were essentially working themselves out of a job,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “Now, employees know that saving 4,000 hours so we can complete more jobs in the same time frame means they’ll be paid a higher quarterly bonus.”

Today, J&R Machine’s productivity index typically ranges from 1.2 to 1.4. Mr. Tumanic says this speaks to the value of having data that accurately depicts the rate of production on the shop floor in order to make sound, overall business decisions for the company.

Plus, the shop will continue to add and replace machines. Mr. Tumanic says not all the DMG MORI machines have the Celos control, which functions much like a smartphone or tablet and has a variety of helpful apps, but he’d like all machines to have that control. Another advantage is that manuals for ancillary machine equipment, such as the bar feeder and parts conveyor, can be easily accessed via this control, so machinists can order replacement parts on their own when necessary.

J&R Machine is also considering adding machine-loading robots between pairs of turning centers. In theory, this might make it possible for one machinist to tend four machines, resulting in four machine hours per one payroll hour. The operators are on board, because this, too, would result in higher quarterly bonuses.

“We’re a private company that’s profitable,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “We could easily shut down our improvement efforts based on tracking our productivity index and ride it out. However, it has become fun tracking the index and identifying ways to improve those ratios and grow the business at the same time. We see the real numbers and where even small process improvements can be impactful.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Milling Inserts

An increasing number of shops are performing machine RCGT Insert tool monitoring in some way. In fact, I’m more frequently encountering large, flat-screen monitors in shops I visit that display machines’ operational status in the form of bar graphs containing areas of green, yellow, red and black. In general, the more uninterrupted green, the better, because green time is chip-making time. (You’ll understand why I say “in general” in a bit.) 

Such a monitor is found in J&R Machine’s facility in Shawano, Wisconsin, enabling everyone on the shop floor to see, at a glance, the shop’s performance in real time. Plus, that information is accessible to managers via their computers, smartphones or tablet devices through the machine-monitoring software the shop uses. That way, they can remotely check in on a machine’s status at any given Shoulder Milling Inserts moment and receive alerts when a machine shuts down or an alarm is triggered.

While there certainly is value in collecting and displaying this data, identifying and tracking green time is only part of the continuous improvement initiative for J&R Machine. “We didn’t add machine-monitoring capability simply to see how much our machines are running or when they’re up or down,” explains Parker Tumanic, the contract shop’s vice president. “Rather than looking at this data only from an operational standpoint, we look at it from a financial perspective.”

J&R Machine uses the machine data it collects to develop a monthly productivity index: a ratio of machine green hours to the payroll hours of the person tending the machine. In essence, this metric demonstrates how well the shop uses its payroll hours compared to its machine hours.

This helps shape a number of key business decisions, such as what type of equipment the shop should buy (or sell), what job might be better suited for a machine with more automated capabilities, what job seems to require too much operator intervention, what type of work the shop should go after, what type of work it should avoid, if its effective billing rate is appropriate, if it needs to pursue additional business and so on.

Ultimately, it reveals true shop costs and profit.

This metric is also shared with all employees, but it’s not done with the intent to browbeat them when the index for their machine(s) isn’t optimal, Mr. Tumanic says. In fact, the transparency of sharing this with employees serves to motivate them to look for ways to boost the throughput of jobs (thereby reducing the green time for those jobs) so other jobs in queue can be processed sooner.

Why do they do that? It’s because they know that higher company profits mean the chance for higher take-home pay, thanks to the shop’s quarterly employee gainsharing bonus.

Founded in 1992, J&R Machine is an ISO 9001:2015-certified shop with a range of capabilities in addition to CNC machining, such as prototyping, engineering, fabrication and assembly. Its customers include some of the largest names in the defense, medical, machinery, hydraulics, oil and gas, and auto racing fields, although it is always on the lookout for opportunities in new, emerging markets.

The 34-person shop looks and operates much differently than it did years ago. Previously, it used a variety of machine types and went after different types of work. Today, it has settled on two machining platforms it will purchase moving forward: live-tool CNC turning centers and horizontal machining centers (HMCs). It has also settled not only on the machine builder, DMG MORI, but the machine models it will purchase: NLX 2500 turning centers and NHX 4000 HMCs. Not all the shop’s 20 CNC machines are these models, but they soon will be. As part of the shop’s business plan, machines must be replaced when they reach 10 years old. Currently, its oldest machine is a still-youthful 2012 model.

J&R Machine has identified precision turning with live tooling capability as its core competency. In fact, the work envelope it has identified for all jobs that the shop will take on ranges from 1 to 10 inches in diameter and as much as 20 inches long to match the capacity of the turning centers. However, machining on its two current HMCs (one an NHX 4000, the other an NH 4000) still represents approximately 20 percent of its business. It uses these machines because either there are some features that can’t be milled on the lathes or a part requires so much milling work that it becomes a bottleneck to mill them on the lathes.

The HMCs enable jobs to be set up on one pallet outside the workzone while the machine is milling on a part loaded in the machine, maximizing spindle uptime. J&R Machine still has one vertical machining center (VMC), but given the HMC’s dual-pallet design, it won’t purchase another VMC moving forward, and the lone remaining VMC will soon be sold to make room for another HMC. However, to maximize unattended run time for that VMC, the shop has developed custom, high-density workholding fixtures that can accommodate a number of parts. The pallets quickly and repeatedly mount in the machine via zero-point, ball-lock systems.

Tim Tumanic, company president and Parker’s father, says the move to standardization is valuable in a number of ways. It’s easier to redeploy people to different machines because the machines and workcenters are pretty much the same. It’s easier to get newly purchased machines online quickly, because they are tooled just like the others. It provides an easily scalable format for either adding capacity or replacing old equipment. It makes scheduling easier, because jobs can run on virtually any machine. It enables continuous improvement initiatives to be easier to roll out throughout the shop because the shop only has to focus on one machine platform. Also, by standardizing the workpiece-size envelope, it directs the shop’s sales team to look for work best suited to the shop’s capabilities and core competency, which means machines won’t be down because the work is not there for them and, ultimately, the company will realize higher profit margins.

Parker Tumanic says the shop also values the data-collection software compatible with its common machine tool platforms, which facilitates calculating its productivity index, something it began tracking in 2015.

This starts with determining how much the machines are running over a given period, when they’re not producing because of part loading, when they are down for maintenance and so on. This data is automatically collected via DMG MORI Messenger data-collection software.

The collected machine data then is imported into a spreadsheet Mr. Tumanic developed to calculate the monthly productivity index. This index is simply a ratio of a machine’s run hours to its operator’s payroll hours. “We never had an effective way to measure how many payroll hours were tied to machine hours,” he says. “Our productivity index enables us to easily see the connection.”

The table in the slideshow at the top of the article shows an example of this monthly report from 2015. At that time, the ratio of machine hours to payroll hours was low, with a four-month span ranging from 0.57 to 0.88. This spurred the shop to review the daily performance of individual machines to see why some had more green time than others. This in turn enabled J&R Machine to direct low-hanging-fruit-type improvement efforts.

In some cases, large gaps between green time were due to manual machine loading. This is one reason why the shop purchased its first two subspindle lathes with bar feeders and parts conveyors to enable long stretches of unattended operation. Integrating these machines had an immediate impact for certain higher-volume jobs that could be processed from 3-inch-diameter barstock or less, which is the capacity of the machines’ subspindles. In one case, a job ran over an entire weekend, only requiring an operator to come in two hours each day to check on the two machines, resulting in a productivity index of approximately 10.

“Adding an automated process such as this to gain uninterrupted green time sounds like common sense, but when you’re encountering a flat-screen monitor each day that shows all this data, you become more apt to do something about the yellow interruptions,” Mr. Tumanic says. “It spurs you to make changes to minimize the gaps in machine uptime.”

Examining the index also served to balance cells. The turning centers in the shop are located in one aisle with identical machines facing each other, so one operator can more easily tend both machines. In fact, each time the shop purchases new turning centers, it purchases two at a time for that reason. For the cells with chucker turning centers running one part number, one turning center performs machining on side A of the part, and the other machines side B. By closely looking at the amount of interrupted production for each side due to part loading, the shop was able to better balance the cells. For example, if the cycle time for side A is 10 minutes and side B is 5 minutes, the shop might work to improve the performance of machine A; take features produced on machine A and have machine B produce them; set up both machines to run side A and then once completed, set up both to run side B; or, if the volume was sufficiently high, set up four machines with one pair machining side A and the other pair machining side B (each cell would start and end at a different time).

The productivity index also helps determine what equipment to jettison. The indices for two of the shop’s current turning centers have been low. The problem isn’t that there are issues with programming, tooling or the machining process in general. Instead, it was determined that they aren’t capable of machining the type of complex parts the shop was and is pursuing. There simply hasn’t been enough work to feed them. As a result, these machines will soon be sold and replaced with better-suited equipment.

In reviewing the productivity index for specific machines, the shop asks itself a few questions when that value is low. Is there a process or programming issue? Were there machine alarms, and, if so, why? Are there enough sales for this machine, and does the machine match our core competency? Do the employees have all the hand tools, gages and related equipment they need to effectively run that particular job?

Typically, the result of identifying solutions to those types of issues shrinks the gaps in green time. However, the shop also looks to shrink the overall amount of green time for a job by spurring its machinists to try different cutting tools and/or make tweaks to part programs to reduce cycle times and, in turn, increase the effective billing rate for that machine and profit for those jobs because the machine is being utilized more effectively. This also enables jobs in queue to be completed sooner and/or spurs the shop’s sales department to pursue additional work.

Reducing overall green time is an ongoing effort at J&R Machine. It was especially important in 2017, because the company’s backlog forced it to run 24/7 with two 12-hour shifts. In an effort to get away from that, the shop challenged its employees to reduce green time by 4,000 hours that year (which effectively equates to the cost to purchase one new machine). As of last December, it had shaved 3,628 hours with changes such as reduced setup time, as well as part program adjustments and new tooling to increase feed rates and reduce cycle times.

“With our company’s previous culture, employees spurred to help save 4,000 hours of green time might have led them to believe they were essentially working themselves out of a job,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “Now, employees know that saving 4,000 hours so we can complete more jobs in the same time frame means they’ll be paid a higher quarterly bonus.”

Today, J&R Machine’s productivity index typically ranges from 1.2 to 1.4. Mr. Tumanic says this speaks to the value of having data that accurately depicts the rate of production on the shop floor in order to make sound, overall business decisions for the company.

Plus, the shop will continue to add and replace machines. Mr. Tumanic says not all the DMG MORI machines have the Celos control, which functions much like a smartphone or tablet and has a variety of helpful apps, but he’d like all machines to have that control. Another advantage is that manuals for ancillary machine equipment, such as the bar feeder and parts conveyor, can be easily accessed via this control, so machinists can order replacement parts on their own when necessary.

J&R Machine is also considering adding machine-loading robots between pairs of turning centers. In theory, this might make it possible for one machinist to tend four machines, resulting in four machine hours per one payroll hour. The operators are on board, because this, too, would result in higher quarterly bonuses.

“We’re a private company that’s profitable,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “We could easily shut down our improvement efforts based on tracking our productivity index and ride it out. However, it has become fun tracking the index and identifying ways to improve those ratios and grow the business at the same time. We see the real numbers and where even small process improvements can be impactful.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Milling Inserts

An increasing number of shops are performing machine RCGT Insert tool monitoring in some way. In fact, I’m more frequently encountering large, flat-screen monitors in shops I visit that display machines’ operational status in the form of bar graphs containing areas of green, yellow, red and black. In general, the more uninterrupted green, the better, because green time is chip-making time. (You’ll understand why I say “in general” in a bit.) 

Such a monitor is found in J&R Machine’s facility in Shawano, Wisconsin, enabling everyone on the shop floor to see, at a glance, the shop’s performance in real time. Plus, that information is accessible to managers via their computers, smartphones or tablet devices through the machine-monitoring software the shop uses. That way, they can remotely check in on a machine’s status at any given Shoulder Milling Inserts moment and receive alerts when a machine shuts down or an alarm is triggered.

While there certainly is value in collecting and displaying this data, identifying and tracking green time is only part of the continuous improvement initiative for J&R Machine. “We didn’t add machine-monitoring capability simply to see how much our machines are running or when they’re up or down,” explains Parker Tumanic, the contract shop’s vice president. “Rather than looking at this data only from an operational standpoint, we look at it from a financial perspective.”

J&R Machine uses the machine data it collects to develop a monthly productivity index: a ratio of machine green hours to the payroll hours of the person tending the machine. In essence, this metric demonstrates how well the shop uses its payroll hours compared to its machine hours.

This helps shape a number of key business decisions, such as what type of equipment the shop should buy (or sell), what job might be better suited for a machine with more automated capabilities, what job seems to require too much operator intervention, what type of work the shop should go after, what type of work it should avoid, if its effective billing rate is appropriate, if it needs to pursue additional business and so on.

Ultimately, it reveals true shop costs and profit.

This metric is also shared with all employees, but it’s not done with the intent to browbeat them when the index for their machine(s) isn’t optimal, Mr. Tumanic says. In fact, the transparency of sharing this with employees serves to motivate them to look for ways to boost the throughput of jobs (thereby reducing the green time for those jobs) so other jobs in queue can be processed sooner.

Why do they do that? It’s because they know that higher company profits mean the chance for higher take-home pay, thanks to the shop’s quarterly employee gainsharing bonus.

Founded in 1992, J&R Machine is an ISO 9001:2015-certified shop with a range of capabilities in addition to CNC machining, such as prototyping, engineering, fabrication and assembly. Its customers include some of the largest names in the defense, medical, machinery, hydraulics, oil and gas, and auto racing fields, although it is always on the lookout for opportunities in new, emerging markets.

The 34-person shop looks and operates much differently than it did years ago. Previously, it used a variety of machine types and went after different types of work. Today, it has settled on two machining platforms it will purchase moving forward: live-tool CNC turning centers and horizontal machining centers (HMCs). It has also settled not only on the machine builder, DMG MORI, but the machine models it will purchase: NLX 2500 turning centers and NHX 4000 HMCs. Not all the shop’s 20 CNC machines are these models, but they soon will be. As part of the shop’s business plan, machines must be replaced when they reach 10 years old. Currently, its oldest machine is a still-youthful 2012 model.

J&R Machine has identified precision turning with live tooling capability as its core competency. In fact, the work envelope it has identified for all jobs that the shop will take on ranges from 1 to 10 inches in diameter and as much as 20 inches long to match the capacity of the turning centers. However, machining on its two current HMCs (one an NHX 4000, the other an NH 4000) still represents approximately 20 percent of its business. It uses these machines because either there are some features that can’t be milled on the lathes or a part requires so much milling work that it becomes a bottleneck to mill them on the lathes.

The HMCs enable jobs to be set up on one pallet outside the workzone while the machine is milling on a part loaded in the machine, maximizing spindle uptime. J&R Machine still has one vertical machining center (VMC), but given the HMC’s dual-pallet design, it won’t purchase another VMC moving forward, and the lone remaining VMC will soon be sold to make room for another HMC. However, to maximize unattended run time for that VMC, the shop has developed custom, high-density workholding fixtures that can accommodate a number of parts. The pallets quickly and repeatedly mount in the machine via zero-point, ball-lock systems.

Tim Tumanic, company president and Parker’s father, says the move to standardization is valuable in a number of ways. It’s easier to redeploy people to different machines because the machines and workcenters are pretty much the same. It’s easier to get newly purchased machines online quickly, because they are tooled just like the others. It provides an easily scalable format for either adding capacity or replacing old equipment. It makes scheduling easier, because jobs can run on virtually any machine. It enables continuous improvement initiatives to be easier to roll out throughout the shop because the shop only has to focus on one machine platform. Also, by standardizing the workpiece-size envelope, it directs the shop’s sales team to look for work best suited to the shop’s capabilities and core competency, which means machines won’t be down because the work is not there for them and, ultimately, the company will realize higher profit margins.

Parker Tumanic says the shop also values the data-collection software compatible with its common machine tool platforms, which facilitates calculating its productivity index, something it began tracking in 2015.

This starts with determining how much the machines are running over a given period, when they’re not producing because of part loading, when they are down for maintenance and so on. This data is automatically collected via DMG MORI Messenger data-collection software.

The collected machine data then is imported into a spreadsheet Mr. Tumanic developed to calculate the monthly productivity index. This index is simply a ratio of a machine’s run hours to its operator’s payroll hours. “We never had an effective way to measure how many payroll hours were tied to machine hours,” he says. “Our productivity index enables us to easily see the connection.”

The table in the slideshow at the top of the article shows an example of this monthly report from 2015. At that time, the ratio of machine hours to payroll hours was low, with a four-month span ranging from 0.57 to 0.88. This spurred the shop to review the daily performance of individual machines to see why some had more green time than others. This in turn enabled J&R Machine to direct low-hanging-fruit-type improvement efforts.

In some cases, large gaps between green time were due to manual machine loading. This is one reason why the shop purchased its first two subspindle lathes with bar feeders and parts conveyors to enable long stretches of unattended operation. Integrating these machines had an immediate impact for certain higher-volume jobs that could be processed from 3-inch-diameter barstock or less, which is the capacity of the machines’ subspindles. In one case, a job ran over an entire weekend, only requiring an operator to come in two hours each day to check on the two machines, resulting in a productivity index of approximately 10.

“Adding an automated process such as this to gain uninterrupted green time sounds like common sense, but when you’re encountering a flat-screen monitor each day that shows all this data, you become more apt to do something about the yellow interruptions,” Mr. Tumanic says. “It spurs you to make changes to minimize the gaps in machine uptime.”

Examining the index also served to balance cells. The turning centers in the shop are located in one aisle with identical machines facing each other, so one operator can more easily tend both machines. In fact, each time the shop purchases new turning centers, it purchases two at a time for that reason. For the cells with chucker turning centers running one part number, one turning center performs machining on side A of the part, and the other machines side B. By closely looking at the amount of interrupted production for each side due to part loading, the shop was able to better balance the cells. For example, if the cycle time for side A is 10 minutes and side B is 5 minutes, the shop might work to improve the performance of machine A; take features produced on machine A and have machine B produce them; set up both machines to run side A and then once completed, set up both to run side B; or, if the volume was sufficiently high, set up four machines with one pair machining side A and the other pair machining side B (each cell would start and end at a different time).

The productivity index also helps determine what equipment to jettison. The indices for two of the shop’s current turning centers have been low. The problem isn’t that there are issues with programming, tooling or the machining process in general. Instead, it was determined that they aren’t capable of machining the type of complex parts the shop was and is pursuing. There simply hasn’t been enough work to feed them. As a result, these machines will soon be sold and replaced with better-suited equipment.

In reviewing the productivity index for specific machines, the shop asks itself a few questions when that value is low. Is there a process or programming issue? Were there machine alarms, and, if so, why? Are there enough sales for this machine, and does the machine match our core competency? Do the employees have all the hand tools, gages and related equipment they need to effectively run that particular job?

Typically, the result of identifying solutions to those types of issues shrinks the gaps in green time. However, the shop also looks to shrink the overall amount of green time for a job by spurring its machinists to try different cutting tools and/or make tweaks to part programs to reduce cycle times and, in turn, increase the effective billing rate for that machine and profit for those jobs because the machine is being utilized more effectively. This also enables jobs in queue to be completed sooner and/or spurs the shop’s sales department to pursue additional work.

Reducing overall green time is an ongoing effort at J&R Machine. It was especially important in 2017, because the company’s backlog forced it to run 24/7 with two 12-hour shifts. In an effort to get away from that, the shop challenged its employees to reduce green time by 4,000 hours that year (which effectively equates to the cost to purchase one new machine). As of last December, it had shaved 3,628 hours with changes such as reduced setup time, as well as part program adjustments and new tooling to increase feed rates and reduce cycle times.

“With our company’s previous culture, employees spurred to help save 4,000 hours of green time might have led them to believe they were essentially working themselves out of a job,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “Now, employees know that saving 4,000 hours so we can complete more jobs in the same time frame means they’ll be paid a higher quarterly bonus.”

Today, J&R Machine’s productivity index typically ranges from 1.2 to 1.4. Mr. Tumanic says this speaks to the value of having data that accurately depicts the rate of production on the shop floor in order to make sound, overall business decisions for the company.

Plus, the shop will continue to add and replace machines. Mr. Tumanic says not all the DMG MORI machines have the Celos control, which functions much like a smartphone or tablet and has a variety of helpful apps, but he’d like all machines to have that control. Another advantage is that manuals for ancillary machine equipment, such as the bar feeder and parts conveyor, can be easily accessed via this control, so machinists can order replacement parts on their own when necessary.

J&R Machine is also considering adding machine-loading robots between pairs of turning centers. In theory, this might make it possible for one machinist to tend four machines, resulting in four machine hours per one payroll hour. The operators are on board, because this, too, would result in higher quarterly bonuses.

“We’re a private company that’s profitable,” Mr. Tumanic notes. “We could easily shut down our improvement efforts based on tracking our productivity index and ride it out. However, it has become fun tracking the index and identifying ways to improve those ratios and grow the business at the same time. We see the real numbers and where even small process improvements can be impactful.”

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Milling Inserts

Carbide Scarfing Inserts： Materials, Applications, and Benefits

There have 2 types of coating in Carbide insert ,PVD and CVD coating .PVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining stainless steel and High-temperature alloy,CVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining all kinds of steel and cast iron . if you know the difference of this 2 coatings ? here ,let me share more details about it .PVD and CVD are coating techniques. PVD stands for physical vapour deposition , CVD stands for chemical vapour deposition. The key difference between PVD and CVD is that the coating material in PVD is in solid form , in CVD it is in gaseous form. another important difference we can say that in PVD technique atoms are moving and depositing on the VNMG Insert substrate while in CVD technique the gaseous molecules will react with the substrate.Besides, the deposition temperatures between PVD and CVD also different , for PVD, it deposits at a relatively low temperature (around 250°C~450°C) whereas, for CVD, it deposits at relatively high temperatures in the range of 450°C to 1050°C.We,Zhuzhou Estool tools co.,ltd is a professional manufacture for carbide cutting tools ,carbide insert is our hot selling products ,Any interesting ,welcome to contact us for more details ,thanks!Related search keywords:Coating, tungsten carbide, tungsten carbide ring, tungsten carbide burr, tungsten carbide rod, tungsten carbide nozzle, tungsten carbide tools, tungsten carbide wear parts, tungsten carbide blade, tungsten carbide alloy, tungsten carbide balls,tungsten carbide bars, tungsten carbide coating, tungsten Cutting Carbide Inserts carbide cutting tools, tungsten carbide cutting, tungsten carbide cutters, tungsten carbide cost, tungsten carbide cvd, tungsten carbide drill bits, tungsten carbide drawing dies, tungsten carbide dies, tungsten carbide draw plates
The Cemented Carbide Blog: carbide insert stock There have 2 types of coating in Carbide insert ,PVD and CVD coating .PVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining stainless steel and High-temperature alloy,CVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining all kinds of steel and cast iron . if you know the difference of this 2 coatings ? here ,let me share more details about it .PVD and CVD are coating techniques. PVD stands for physical vapour deposition , CVD stands for chemical vapour deposition. The key difference between PVD and CVD is that the coating material in PVD is in solid form , in CVD it is in gaseous form. another important difference we can say that in PVD technique atoms are moving and depositing on the VNMG Insert substrate while in CVD technique the gaseous molecules will react with the substrate.Besides, the deposition temperatures between PVD and CVD also different , for PVD, it deposits at a relatively low temperature (around 250°C~450°C) whereas, for CVD, it deposits at relatively high temperatures in the range of 450°C to 1050°C.We,Zhuzhou Estool tools co.,ltd is a professional manufacture for carbide cutting tools ,carbide insert is our hot selling products ,Any interesting ,welcome to contact us for more details ,thanks!Related search keywords:Coating, tungsten carbide, tungsten carbide ring, tungsten carbide burr, tungsten carbide rod, tungsten carbide nozzle, tungsten carbide tools, tungsten carbide wear parts, tungsten carbide blade, tungsten carbide alloy, tungsten carbide balls,tungsten carbide bars, tungsten carbide coating, tungsten Cutting Carbide Inserts carbide cutting tools, tungsten carbide cutting, tungsten carbide cutters, tungsten carbide cost, tungsten carbide cvd, tungsten carbide drill bits, tungsten carbide drawing dies, tungsten carbide dies, tungsten carbide draw plates
The Cemented Carbide Blog: carbide insert stock There have 2 types of coating in Carbide insert ,PVD and CVD coating .PVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining stainless steel and High-temperature alloy,CVD coating carbide insert mainly used for machining all kinds of steel and cast iron . if you know the difference of this 2 coatings ? here ,let me share more details about it .PVD and CVD are coating techniques. PVD stands for physical vapour deposition , CVD stands for chemical vapour deposition. The key difference between PVD and CVD is that the coating material in PVD is in solid form , in CVD it is in gaseous form. another important difference we can say that in PVD technique atoms are moving and depositing on the VNMG Insert substrate while in CVD technique the gaseous molecules will react with the substrate.Besides, the deposition temperatures between PVD and CVD also different , for PVD, it deposits at a relatively low temperature (around 250°C~450°C) whereas, for CVD, it deposits at relatively high temperatures in the range of 450°C to 1050°C.We,Zhuzhou Estool tools co.,ltd is a professional manufacture for carbide cutting tools ,carbide insert is our hot selling products ,Any interesting ,welcome to contact us for more details ,thanks!Related search keywords:Coating, tungsten carbide, tungsten carbide ring, tungsten carbide burr, tungsten carbide rod, tungsten carbide nozzle, tungsten carbide tools, tungsten carbide wear parts, tungsten carbide blade, tungsten carbide alloy, tungsten carbide balls,tungsten carbide bars, tungsten carbide coating, tungsten Cutting Carbide Inserts carbide cutting tools, tungsten carbide cutting, tungsten carbide cutters, tungsten carbide cost, tungsten carbide cvd, tungsten carbide drill bits, tungsten carbide drawing dies, tungsten carbide dies, tungsten carbide draw plates
The Cemented Carbide Blog: carbide insert stock

3D Printer Enables Toolmaker to Produce Fixturing, End Use Parts

?The Kennametal Narrow Slotting (KNS) cutter enables the separation of cast exhaust manifolds and steering components; the milling of clamping slots on shaft supports and stock collars; and the machining of keyways, heat-sink grooves, yokes and O-ring grooves. Customers can mount a series of KNS cutters on an arbor either to machine multiple grooves at once or to conduct multiple cutoff operations. The tool can also be used to remove five-axis machined or 3D printed parts from base material.

As a narrow slotting cutter, it reduces waste by machining away very little material. A combination of radial and axial Carbide Drilling Inserts positioning improves tool life and part accuracy. It has inserts for deep slots with flat or radiused bottoms, in addition to double-ended inserts. A double-V design secures insert retention. The tool accommodates slot widths ranging from 1.6 to 6.4 mm (0.063" to 0.250"). Inserts are available with single- or double-ended cutting edges providing either a flat or full-radius cutting edge. The cutter diameters range from 63 to 250 mm (2.5" to 10"), with arbor or shell mounting options.

The company offers three insert grades for the cutter. KCU25 and KCPM40 are multi-phase PVD grades that provide good edge stability and wear characteristics in steels, stainless steels and high-temperature alloys. KCPK30 is a CVD-coated grade suitable for rough milling and general machining of steels and cast iron.

Due to rake geometry and edge VNMG Insert preparation, the inserts freely cut but also maintain edge toughness. The geometry also promotes chip flow, curling stringy materials into tight curls.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: DCMT Insert

?The Kennametal Narrow Slotting (KNS) cutter enables the separation of cast exhaust manifolds and steering components; the milling of clamping slots on shaft supports and stock collars; and the machining of keyways, heat-sink grooves, yokes and O-ring grooves. Customers can mount a series of KNS cutters on an arbor either to machine multiple grooves at once or to conduct multiple cutoff operations. The tool can also be used to remove five-axis machined or 3D printed parts from base material.

As a narrow slotting cutter, it reduces waste by machining away very little material. A combination of radial and axial Carbide Drilling Inserts positioning improves tool life and part accuracy. It has inserts for deep slots with flat or radiused bottoms, in addition to double-ended inserts. A double-V design secures insert retention. The tool accommodates slot widths ranging from 1.6 to 6.4 mm (0.063" to 0.250"). Inserts are available with single- or double-ended cutting edges providing either a flat or full-radius cutting edge. The cutter diameters range from 63 to 250 mm (2.5" to 10"), with arbor or shell mounting options.

The company offers three insert grades for the cutter. KCU25 and KCPM40 are multi-phase PVD grades that provide good edge stability and wear characteristics in steels, stainless steels and high-temperature alloys. KCPK30 is a CVD-coated grade suitable for rough milling and general machining of steels and cast iron.

Due to rake geometry and edge VNMG Insert preparation, the inserts freely cut but also maintain edge toughness. The geometry also promotes chip flow, curling stringy materials into tight curls.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: DCMT Insert

?The Kennametal Narrow Slotting (KNS) cutter enables the separation of cast exhaust manifolds and steering components; the milling of clamping slots on shaft supports and stock collars; and the machining of keyways, heat-sink grooves, yokes and O-ring grooves. Customers can mount a series of KNS cutters on an arbor either to machine multiple grooves at once or to conduct multiple cutoff operations. The tool can also be used to remove five-axis machined or 3D printed parts from base material.

As a narrow slotting cutter, it reduces waste by machining away very little material. A combination of radial and axial Carbide Drilling Inserts positioning improves tool life and part accuracy. It has inserts for deep slots with flat or radiused bottoms, in addition to double-ended inserts. A double-V design secures insert retention. The tool accommodates slot widths ranging from 1.6 to 6.4 mm (0.063" to 0.250"). Inserts are available with single- or double-ended cutting edges providing either a flat or full-radius cutting edge. The cutter diameters range from 63 to 250 mm (2.5" to 10"), with arbor or shell mounting options.

The company offers three insert grades for the cutter. KCU25 and KCPM40 are multi-phase PVD grades that provide good edge stability and wear characteristics in steels, stainless steels and high-temperature alloys. KCPK30 is a CVD-coated grade suitable for rough milling and general machining of steels and cast iron.

Due to rake geometry and edge VNMG Insert preparation, the inserts freely cut but also maintain edge toughness. The geometry also promotes chip flow, curling stringy materials into tight curls.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: DCMT Insert

Carbide Threading Inserts： Enhancing Precision and Efficiency in Thread Creation

Mill 1-14 helical cutters from Kennametal are designed for greater axial depth of cut than a standard end mill, the company says. The flexible cutter range features inserts stacked two, three and four high.

The helical cutters can be used for medium to heavy roughing and Carbide Milling Insert semi-finishing in applications such as contour profiling, slotting, CCMT Insert ramping, helical ramping from solid and plunge milling. Load-optimized insert spacing (LOIS) technology can further improve cutter performance by finding the “sweet spot” of insert spacing relative to the torque and horsepower of the machine tool, the company says. This minimizes vibrations and reduces uneven power requirements.

Axial support pins on the helical cutters give additional insert stability when ramping or plunging for improved surface finishes. As many as nine different coolant nozzle sizes are available for consistent, focused coolant flow.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: threading Insert

Mill 1-14 helical cutters from Kennametal are designed for greater axial depth of cut than a standard end mill, the company says. The flexible cutter range features inserts stacked two, three and four high.

The helical cutters can be used for medium to heavy roughing and Carbide Milling Insert semi-finishing in applications such as contour profiling, slotting, CCMT Insert ramping, helical ramping from solid and plunge milling. Load-optimized insert spacing (LOIS) technology can further improve cutter performance by finding the “sweet spot” of insert spacing relative to the torque and horsepower of the machine tool, the company says. This minimizes vibrations and reduces uneven power requirements.

Axial support pins on the helical cutters give additional insert stability when ramping or plunging for improved surface finishes. As many as nine different coolant nozzle sizes are available for consistent, focused coolant flow.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: threading Insert

Mill 1-14 helical cutters from Kennametal are designed for greater axial depth of cut than a standard end mill, the company says. The flexible cutter range features inserts stacked two, three and four high.

The helical cutters can be used for medium to heavy roughing and Carbide Milling Insert semi-finishing in applications such as contour profiling, slotting, CCMT Insert ramping, helical ramping from solid and plunge milling. Load-optimized insert spacing (LOIS) technology can further improve cutter performance by finding the “sweet spot” of insert spacing relative to the torque and horsepower of the machine tool, the company says. This minimizes vibrations and reduces uneven power requirements.

Axial support pins on the helical cutters give additional insert stability when ramping or plunging for improved surface finishes. As many as nine different coolant nozzle sizes are available for consistent, focused coolant flow.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: threading Insert

CAM Software Delivers New Toolpath Strategies

Selecting the right carbide threading insert for a specific threading operation is crucial to achieving high-quality and efficient results. Several factors should be considered when making this decision:Material to be threaded:Consider the type of material you will be threading, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron, or exotic alloys. Different materials have varying levels of hardness and abrasiveness, which can impact insert selection.Thread profile:Determine the thread profile (e.g., internal or external, thread pitch, thread depth, and thread form) required for your application. Ensure that the selected insert is compatible with the desired thread specifications.Cutting conditions:Analyze the cutting conditions, including cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Different inserts may have specific recommendations for optimal cutting parameters.Workpiece size and geometry:Consider the size and geometry of the workpiece, including its diameter and length. The size and shape of the workpiece can affect insert selection and toolholder choice.Machine setup:Ensure that your machine tool is equipped with the appropriate toolholder and threading insert mounting system, such as square shank, round shank, or indexable toolholders.Cutting forces and stability:Evaluate the expected cutting forces during threading. Choose an insert that provides stability and minimizes vibration to prevent tool chatter and achieve better surface finish.Chip control:Look for inserts that offer effective chip control mechanisms, such as chip breakers or chip grooves, to ensure efficient chip evacuation and prevent chip buildup in the threading operation.Coating and grade:Consider the coating type and insert grade. Coatings like TiN, TiCN, and TiAlN can improve tool life and performance. Select the appropriate insert grade based on the material being threaded and the Carbide Milling Inserts cutting conditions.Tool life and cost:Balance tool life with cost-effectiveness. While high-performance inserts may have longer tool life, they can also be more expensive. Choose an insert that matches your production volume and budget.Application requirements:Take into account any specific requirements for your threading operation, such as tolerance, surface finish, and production volume. Different inserts may excel in certain aspects, so prioritize what's most important for your application.Testing and experimentation:If possible, conduct test cuts or experiments with different inserts to assess their performance and suitability for your specific threading operation.Remember that the choice of threading insert can significantly impact the quality and efficiency of your machining process. It's essential to consider all Cemented Carbide Inserts these factors carefully to make an informed decision and achieve the desired results.Related search keywords:Carbide threading inserts, carbide threading inserts manufacturers in china, carbide inserts, carbide cutter, carbide inserts for threading, threading insert, carbide insert, carbide milling cutter, threading with carbide inserts, thread cutting, carbide parts, tungsten carbide tools, carbide inserts manufacturers, carbide inserts for wood
The Cemented Carbide Blog: http://philiposbo.mee.nu/ Selecting the right carbide threading insert for a specific threading operation is crucial to achieving high-quality and efficient results. Several factors should be considered when making this decision:Material to be threaded:Consider the type of material you will be threading, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron, or exotic alloys. Different materials have varying levels of hardness and abrasiveness, which can impact insert selection.Thread profile:Determine the thread profile (e.g., internal or external, thread pitch, thread depth, and thread form) required for your application. Ensure that the selected insert is compatible with the desired thread specifications.Cutting conditions:Analyze the cutting conditions, including cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Different inserts may have specific recommendations for optimal cutting parameters.Workpiece size and geometry:Consider the size and geometry of the workpiece, including its diameter and length. The size and shape of the workpiece can affect insert selection and toolholder choice.Machine setup:Ensure that your machine tool is equipped with the appropriate toolholder and threading insert mounting system, such as square shank, round shank, or indexable toolholders.Cutting forces and stability:Evaluate the expected cutting forces during threading. Choose an insert that provides stability and minimizes vibration to prevent tool chatter and achieve better surface finish.Chip control:Look for inserts that offer effective chip control mechanisms, such as chip breakers or chip grooves, to ensure efficient chip evacuation and prevent chip buildup in the threading operation.Coating and grade:Consider the coating type and insert grade. Coatings like TiN, TiCN, and TiAlN can improve tool life and performance. Select the appropriate insert grade based on the material being threaded and the Carbide Milling Inserts cutting conditions.Tool life and cost:Balance tool life with cost-effectiveness. While high-performance inserts may have longer tool life, they can also be more expensive. Choose an insert that matches your production volume and budget.Application requirements:Take into account any specific requirements for your threading operation, such as tolerance, surface finish, and production volume. Different inserts may excel in certain aspects, so prioritize what's most important for your application.Testing and experimentation:If possible, conduct test cuts or experiments with different inserts to assess their performance and suitability for your specific threading operation.Remember that the choice of threading insert can significantly impact the quality and efficiency of your machining process. It's essential to consider all Cemented Carbide Inserts these factors carefully to make an informed decision and achieve the desired results.Related search keywords:Carbide threading inserts, carbide threading inserts manufacturers in china, carbide inserts, carbide cutter, carbide inserts for threading, threading insert, carbide insert, carbide milling cutter, threading with carbide inserts, thread cutting, carbide parts, tungsten carbide tools, carbide inserts manufacturers, carbide inserts for wood
The Cemented Carbide Blog: http://philiposbo.mee.nu/ Selecting the right carbide threading insert for a specific threading operation is crucial to achieving high-quality and efficient results. Several factors should be considered when making this decision:Material to be threaded:Consider the type of material you will be threading, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron, or exotic alloys. Different materials have varying levels of hardness and abrasiveness, which can impact insert selection.Thread profile:Determine the thread profile (e.g., internal or external, thread pitch, thread depth, and thread form) required for your application. Ensure that the selected insert is compatible with the desired thread specifications.Cutting conditions:Analyze the cutting conditions, including cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Different inserts may have specific recommendations for optimal cutting parameters.Workpiece size and geometry:Consider the size and geometry of the workpiece, including its diameter and length. The size and shape of the workpiece can affect insert selection and toolholder choice.Machine setup:Ensure that your machine tool is equipped with the appropriate toolholder and threading insert mounting system, such as square shank, round shank, or indexable toolholders.Cutting forces and stability:Evaluate the expected cutting forces during threading. Choose an insert that provides stability and minimizes vibration to prevent tool chatter and achieve better surface finish.Chip control:Look for inserts that offer effective chip control mechanisms, such as chip breakers or chip grooves, to ensure efficient chip evacuation and prevent chip buildup in the threading operation.Coating and grade:Consider the coating type and insert grade. Coatings like TiN, TiCN, and TiAlN can improve tool life and performance. Select the appropriate insert grade based on the material being threaded and the Carbide Milling Inserts cutting conditions.Tool life and cost:Balance tool life with cost-effectiveness. While high-performance inserts may have longer tool life, they can also be more expensive. Choose an insert that matches your production volume and budget.Application requirements:Take into account any specific requirements for your threading operation, such as tolerance, surface finish, and production volume. Different inserts may excel in certain aspects, so prioritize what's most important for your application.Testing and experimentation:If possible, conduct test cuts or experiments with different inserts to assess their performance and suitability for your specific threading operation.Remember that the choice of threading insert can significantly impact the quality and efficiency of your machining process. It's essential to consider all Cemented Carbide Inserts these factors carefully to make an informed decision and achieve the desired results.Related search keywords:Carbide threading inserts, carbide threading inserts manufacturers in china, carbide inserts, carbide cutter, carbide inserts for threading, threading insert, carbide insert, carbide milling cutter, threading with carbide inserts, thread cutting, carbide parts, tungsten carbide tools, carbide inserts manufacturers, carbide inserts for wood
The Cemented Carbide Blog: http://philiposbo.mee.nu/