Manufacturing Today

Cutting Tools: Drilling & Boring

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A manufacturer considers the investment in drilling and boring tools and assemblies most carefully, as these are the most critical operations that define the machining output in terms of surface texture or quality as also productivity. Any issues that would cause inferior quality, poor productivity or resultant tool wear would be costly for the manufacturer as these operations happen at an advanced stage of output. It is precisely for these reasons that the cutting tools industry continuously sees technology advances with new solutions coming up on the horizon. Manufacturing companies, as users of these tools, are quickly absorbing these changes to benefit end users, and hence stay competitive. We speak to some industry experts to learn more.

Tech Talk

The cutting tool industry is moving towards machining heat resistant super alloys with greater ease than ever before. The demand for machining of these materials is increasing rapidly and this is where the future is going to be. “3D is already a reality when it comes to manufacturing of some parts. Furthermore the industry is impacted more and more by digital,” says Mirko Merlo, President & CEO – Walter AG. With dedicated sharp geometries with a strong combination of high hot hardness grades is required to machine these. Drilling, Boring and Tapping are done at an advance stage of machining and our customers would definitely like to go for one of the most dependable supplier. “Dormer PFX drills are manufactured from high speed cobalt steel, suitable for use in a variety of materials for drilling depths from 3xD to 25xD. A thick web increases the structural strength of the drill for greater rigidity and minimizes the risk of tool breakage.  In addition, a special point geometry provides additional benefits including excellent centering – eliminating the requirement for a pilot hole and reducing the cycle time of the application. The PFX drills reduce thrust force and power requirements, ensuring accuracy is maintained throughout the depth of the hole. Available in bright finish across the full range, a Smooth-Flow coating option is available on stub, jobber and long series drills. This AlCrN-top coating reduces friction, increases wear resistance and, in combination with the parabolic flute, eliminates chip packing at greater depths,” explained Gautam K. Ahuja, Managing Director, Dormer Tools India Pvt. Ltd. Incidentally, Dormer has launched a comprehensive program of solid carbide taps for machining hardened steels and other difficult to machine materials. To support this, Dormer Pramet has developed five new lines for threading depths up to 3xD under its Dormer brand.  Offering a high level of performance and productivity, the taps are recommended for machining hardened materials up to 63 HRC, providing high wear resistance and long tool life even at high speeds.

Do The New

The latest technology trends that have emerged in the manufacture of cutting tools is extensively focused on bringing down the cost of cutting and drilling while ensuring an increase in the productivity rate. “One such noteworthy technology we adopted was the use of a Belt Furnace to sinter diamond wire saw beads and diamond segments. This technology reduces the cost of manufacturing to a great extent as opposed to the prior use of a hot press to sinter. A hot press involved the use of Graphite and consumed an exorbitant amount of electricity. The belt furnace technology eliminated the use of graphite while cutting down the consumption level of electricity to a great extent. Another technology we introduced is the use of pre-alloyed powders in the manufacturing of our cutting tools. As the cost of Cobalt and Tungsten kept soaring, it was no longer a viable option to use them,” said Anjan Salgame, Managing Director, Sanwa Diamond Tools.

Research Matters

The front runners in this industry are naturally continuously investing in R&D to meet the growing needs of their customers. “We launch new products twice a year, and are focussing on developing products for the future. A lot of work has been done in launching products for the aerospace industry, which is growing at a fast pace, to develop products to machine difficult to machine materials (DTMM). New products have been introduced for many processes like turning, milling, drilling, boring and tapping, focussing on the aerospace industry. The high growth and investment of large business houses in this industry provides motivation to us to invest into R&D for creating new products for the aerospace industry,” said Ahuja.

Facing Challenges

Though the automotive industry is sluggish at the moment it is still growing, though at a low pace. With the introduction of new products, there is a possibility to grow market share, which is the ultimate endeavour for any company. The market is sluggish, however, market leaders can always predict the surge and sip in the industry to a certain extent. “Facilitating our customers with tools that enhance productivity while being technologically advanced and cost effective is made possible by ensuring a level of consistency with the R&D. The sluggish market might axe the level of demand but our in-line investment towards R&D over two decades has helped us invest wisely and not digress from the R&D. It is a result of R&D that has modernized technology in manufacturing to great lengths.  When we started manufacturing cutting tools over two decades ago, the production cost of a diamond segment was Rs.800; The present price of the same diamond segment is Rs.60. Our focus in R&D helped us work towards backwards integration. We are the only company in India to manufacture the raw materials such as metal powders that are the most integral raw material used in the manufacture of our diamond segments. This is how we have stayed at the top of our game,” said Salgame. In today’s scenario the customer throws several challenges to organizations in terms of critical components, close tolerances, competitive cost per components to be achieved and this gives them an inspiration to keep their tool geometries updated. “Our R&D Team located in German plant will be visiting India at regular intervals for technology transfer and also visit end customer. This feedback helps in improving our in-house process as well customer confidence. As we are committed to be ahead in our technology we have invested in new generation machine which gives a higher output and also the required quality. Demand sluggishness is a challenge in automotive sector keeping this in mind our R&D centers located in different parts of the world are connected online implementing all new generation tools in every plants. These tools will be tried and tested in our German plant and technology transfer will be made,” added Kumar.

New Vistas

Newer segments like export to non-BRIC emerging markets, mining, heavy industrial machinery and medical devices are areas that can help the industry as far as future growth is concerned. In fact the advent of technology has spared no industry; it is mandatory to keep yourself abreast of the latest developments, the demands in the market and so on. “In a manufacturing industry such as ours, goods manufactured at competitive prices are what customers demand. While we worked on adopting technology to decrease the manufacturing cost, we could never turn a blind eye to investing a substantial amount of time and resources in our Research and Development department. The current market poses a challenging task of fulfilling the demands to a plethora of customers but such situations have only helped us emerge successful because of our strong R&D team. The R&D team has always helped us find suitable alternatives to cater to the ever growing industry demands,” said Salgame. “We continuously work with customers, machine builders, universities and channel partners to develop the best possible machining technology. This is part of what we at Walter call “Engineering Kompetenz”. We do take our customers’ challenges and together we look for the best solution. On a global base we still win market share in automotive but one of our strategic moves in the last years was to invest a significant part of R&D and  capital spend in other segments where we are indeed very successful,” added Merlo.

Aero Push

Aerospace industry is one of the key markets in which we have introduced High Performance End Mills with differential pitch and helix. The requirement in these industries are very critical in terms of cycle time and quality. “Keeping this in mind our new generation end mills works at a much higher feed rates and depth of cuts. This in turn reduces customer cycle time and having a profitable solution.  Actually it is segment-wise and completely customer centric approach, like in aerospace customers the new trend is of getting more lighter parts, so we have a dedicated team capable of delving into R&D support for the development of tooling products in the aerospace segment where composite materials are used. Composites such as CFRP are 70% lighter than steel  and 40% lighter than aluminium alloy, presently it is enjoying the high market demand due to its reduced weight, which in turn equates to higher fuel efficiency in aerospace applications.  We have special geometries and coating in round tools for effective machining of composite materials perfectly without allowing surface delamination. In turn if we speak of the conventional automotive industry, customers are mostly looking into cycle time reduction. So yes there are latest High performance geometries which can run on higher parameters (greater cutting speed, high feed and depth of cut) applies both for drilling and milling operations,” opined Anil Kumar, Director & COO, Ceratizit India Round Tool Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Looking Ahead

The current situation in the industry shows a ray of hope for India to export to non-BRIC countries. This is purely because the non-BRIC nations are looking beyond China but need the quality to be on par with products manufactured in advanced countries. This is where a country like India holds a competitive advantage because we have an amalgamation of advanced products reasonable pricing. “Our presence in mining industry is from quite long, heavy industrial machinery and medical devices are our new focus and we are working on the direction. This is already contributing to some extent to our business and we are expecting that this segment grows gradually,” opined Kumar. As per a research by technavio.com, the global metal cutting tools market was valued at USD 36.04 billion in 2016. It is projected to grow to USD 54.56 billion during the forecast period. The market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 8.65%. The automotive market dynamics will have a direct impact on the demand for metal cutting tools market, as it is one of the biggest consumers of these tools. So it does seem that the industry is headed to see good days ahead.

“Technology and technological disruption will continuously create opportunities for global companies like Walter that can leverage on a product portfolio that starts with tools of micro diameters and goes up to a maximum diameter as big as the machine can hold,” signs off Merlo.

This story appeared in the March 2017 issue of Manufacturing Today here: MT_March 2017_Cutting Tools

6 thoughts on “Cutting Tools: Drilling & Boring

  1. Yes I agreed with your article, Any issues that would cause inferior quality, poor productivity or resultant tool wear would be costly for the manufacturer. Thanks Bindu for sharing this information.

  2. yes i agree this article it is good article . the requirement in these industries more critical in the cycle time and quality but need quality products thanks Bindu for sharing these article

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