MTD Audiobook

With the Coronavirus pandemic having such a significant impact on everyday life, the risk of cross-contamination is an issue where laser technology can offer some assurance and support in the battle against infections.

Offering a range of laser marking systems, Laser Lines Ltd in Banbury has ...

Only founded two years ago, Nerc Precision Engineering Ltd (NPE) was set-up by Konrad Nerc to ‘follow his dreams’. The Bristol-based business owner was working a full-time job whilst setting up NPE. Now, the dreams are becoming a reality as the company has just installed its first turning ce...

When Cutting Edge Precision Engineering was asked to support the Ventilator Challenge by one existing and one new customer, it was faced with the challenge of sourcing tooling. To meet that demand, the Huntingdon-based company turned to Ceratizit UK & Ireland who could guarantee delivery, t...

“When machining cobalt-chromium alloys, we demand very high performance from the tool due to the high material costs,” explains Tibor Veres, the Managing Director of Hymec Fertigungstechnik GmbH from Norderstedt near Hamburg. This company relies on tools from Paul Horn GmbH to machine its supera...

Unprecedented circumstances such as the current Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic can often amplify our focus on what is important, from a personal and business perspective. With so much of the manufacturing supply chain now involved in the production of PPE and the Ventilator Challenge UK, the indust...

The development of innovative parts in the miniature dental and medical industry presents a formidable and equally dynamic challenge.

The fast-growing field is driven by orthopaedic surgeons and dental professionals together with screw and implant companies transforming inventions into parts. Eac...

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary suppliers and for manufacturers like Birmingham based CNC Routing Ltd and Welsh company The Valley Group, a long-standing relationship with Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) Ltd has benefitted hugely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

CNC Routing Ltd serve...

Having been entrenched in 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) for over 26 years, Dr Phil Reeves has wide-ranging expertise and experience of the industry. Tanya Weaver sits down with him to explore various themes and topics around AM. These will be covered over a series of articles in MTD ma...

Any world leader in its industrial field has a modus operandi and for one fluid, pneumatic and motion control company with facilities around the world, its mantra is to remove ‘dirty, dull and dangerous’ processes from the workplace. So, when a Barnstaple business realised the deburring of hydra...

How do we improve tool life?

It’s a time old question that we all want to know the answer to.

In the incomprehensibly competitive cutting tool market, sales engineers will all tell you to invest in the latest high-tech cutting tool solution with a new grade, coating, geometry or edge prep.

There may even be some conscientious engineers that will take a closer look at your set-up, machine tool, machining strategy and then try to enhance tool life and machining parameters from a ‘different angle’.

But who can tell us when it’s time to change a tool? 

It’s a question that is raised in factories every day, and we get many different answers. Why do we need to know?

Well, the answer to that one is apparent for any engineer worth his or her salt.

For businesses running series or batch production, the benefits of reduced downtime, consistent production quality and gaining an element of certainty on machine up-time can be the difference between whether you just paid your staff a Christmas bonus or not.

We are always looking at cutting edges to provide us with an indication on tool life and no doubt there are some Scrooges out there looking at the cutting edges with the meticulous detail of a seasoned crime scene investigator.

For a for a few years micromachining specialist KERN has offered its U-view tool measurement system for in-process inspection of the cutting edges of endmills and drills with inspection capabilities up to 540 times magnification.

In universities and research laboratories, the main way of testing tools has been by using workpieces on fixed dynamometers and extracting force and torque measurements to determine tool fatigue and failure.

For manufacturing companies, this has not been an option.

The academic world doesn’t have the time and cost pressures of industry, so the use of cumbersome systems that make tool changeovers difficult and time consuming, have not been on the radar for manufacturers.
Today, there are new capabilities and technologies on the market that enable the accurate measurement of tool life.

The next generation technologies no longer need to be fastened to a dynamometer – making the new systems more appealing to industry.

Critically, the answer lies in the tool holder and more importantly the new innovations are not just for machining centres.

At the EMO 2019 exhibition in Hannover, two companies were displaying tool force measurement systems that can be applied to all manufacturing sites without too much need for scientific support.
KISTLER, a name that has been well known in academic circles for a long time demonstrated a number of solutions for both machining centres and lathes.

Their solution, a Piezo tool system, has been made in conjunction with PH HORN which has added RFID chips to their lathe tool holders.

These are then connected to a PC to continuously provide feedback on the forces being experienced at the tool edge.

This development while initially having an additional cost, will be paid back as soon as the user attains enough accurate information regarding what is happening at the cutting tool edge.

The forward-thinking users that implement such a system will rapidly yield a return by controlling cutting tool costs more accurately.

In KISTLER’s own workshops, screen displays have been changed from technical information to simple ‘traffic light’ displays.

By showing green, amber and red lights to indicate the cutting tool edge condition, KISTLER has implemented an element of complete simplicity that will no-doubt be more effective, as the operator doesn’t need to be highly computer conversant.
Moving on to machining centres, KISTLER is also paying its due diligence to rotary tool holders – achieving similar measurement capabilities.

This needs to be thought out a little more than on turning centres, as there are multiple cutting edges on an endmill compared to a turning tool.

The tool information displayed for milling applications is applicable for each individual tooth of the endmill, so the operator can clearly see if there is a problem with one tooth,

However, any issues will ultimately be shown up in either size or surface finish deviations.

Importantly, KISTLER say that all tools do not require monitoring.

This approach will not only limit implementation costs, but it will also prevent the unnecessary monitoring of non-critical tools in the process.
Another company investigating how tool wear can be displayed is PRO-MICRON GmbH who offer individual tool holders for use on a machining centre.

The information is initially for a very skilled operator or technician, but I am sure given time, the shop floor information can and will be simplified.

The expense of employing individual tool holders could prove problematic and restrictive to wide-scale roll-out, but PRO-MICRON has a solution.

The solution is to integrate the system into the spindle bearings.

This development can, over the next few years change how we look at cutting tools and give the users a better insight into what they are asking their cutting tools to do.

With this technology, tool life will gradually improve as users will be better informed on the value for money that they achieve with their cutting tools.