Allied Machine Donates Tools and Time to LA NTMA Training Center

With the recent increase in manufacturing in the United States, many companies are finding it difficult to find and hire qualified CNC people. It should come as no surprise that skilled people who were laid off during the recent economic downturn have moved on to other careers—and probably wouldn’t come back to manufacturing on a bet. So we’re left with an entirely new employment pool that is made up primarily of people with little or no previous manufacturing experience. And companies are scrambling to get them trained. One source for trained people is your local community college or technical school, many of which have recently brought back or upgraded their manufacturing programs. If you haven’t already, you should definitely get to know what they have to offer. Indeed, you should do whatever you can to support the CNC-teaching schools in your area. Ideally, you should be hiring graduates and sending new hires to the school for training. And you should be bringing in instructors from local schools to augment your own in-plant training by having them teach classes in your facility. Your willingness to hire a school’s graduates assumes, of course, that you know, understand and agree with the materials presented by the school. That is, curriculum content must be appropriate to your company’s needs. I’ve been in several companies, for example, where managers are not satisfied with what’s being taught in the local CNC-teaching school, so they don’t support the school or hire graduates. If you fit into this category, don’t just complain, do something about it! Here are a few suggestions for how you can help your local CNC-teaching school improve its manufacturing program. Get in Touch with the Key People Of course, if you don’t know who to talk to, you really can’t do much to support the school. Make a simple phone call or browse the school’s website to find key people in the manufacturing program (commonly named Machine Tool Technology), including the dean of the department as well as instructors. Then contact these people. Offer your assistance, and ask how you can get more involved with the school. You may be surprised at how happy educators are to talk to you. Get Involved with Advisory Committees Almost all CNC-teaching schools have an advisory committee made up of key people from local industry. They help educators determine which specific topics to cover so that when students graduate, their skills match the needs of the companies represented on the advisory committee. Without the support of an advisory committee, educators are left on their own to develop curriculum materials, and what they come up with may not be appropriate for the needs of local industry. Donate Schools are always looking for items that will help maintain or improve their manufacturing classes. Machine tools head the list, as they provide the school with lab equipment to work on, but there are countless other items needed to keep classes going. Measuring devices, cutting tools, workholding devices and raw material for lab activities are always in demand. Most schools will CNMG Insert be happy to accept just about anything you no longer need and will often arrange for the removal of unwanted items from your facility. Provide Plant Tours Be willing to provide plant tours for current students as well as potential students considering a career in manufacturing. One school I know of uses a local company to demonstrate concepts discussed in class. The instructor provides presentations and practice on a given topic, then brings the students to the company to see how things are done in the real world. Volunteer Look for other ways your company can help. When the school holds an open house, be sure you are present and let attendees know about job opportunities at your company. If the school acquires new equipment, offer to help instructors learn how to use it. Let Lathe Carbide Inserts educators know they can call on you when they have a need that you may be able to satisfy. An Added Benefit Getting involved with your local CNC-teaching school will give you a hiring leg-up on other companies in your area. If you’re on the advisory committee, you will have a real say in what the school teaches, and you will know what graduating students can do for your company when you hire them. And if you are interacting at all with students, they will get to know your company. If they’ve toured your facility, they’ll have a good understanding of the working environment and what you expect of your workers.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: TCMT Insert

Exsys Tool Opens New Mexico Sales and Repair Facility

Coolant systems rarely get top billing as the key feature of a machine tool, but that is the case with the lathes and machining centers being introduced to this country by Hakusui USA Inc. (Schaumburg, Illinois). The line of machine tools includes four lathe models and two vertical machining centers. All of the machines have, as a standard feature, a high pressure mist coolant delivery system that creates a mist of ultra-fine water and oil particles. The company claims that this allows for significant increases in surface speed and metal removal rates and longer tool life.

This method of coolant delivery, which the company has dubbed the ECOREG System, mixes a water-based coolant with an oil lubricant in a high pressure air stream, creating extremely small particles. These particles are then injected through high-pressure nozzles designed to be precisely directed to the point of machining.

The coolant is a solution of an anti-corrosive agent and surfactants diluted in water. The ratio of water and solution varies from 20:1 to 30:1. The oil lubricant that the company recommends is a specially formulated vegetable oil but other oils can be used, with those formulated as extreme pressure lubricants being recommended. The advantage of the vegetable oil is that it creates virtually no environmental impact.

One of the main benefits of the system is that is uses very little liquid. The company says that, under typical machining conditions, its lathes consume about one liter of coolant in 55 hours of machining. The VMCs consume approximately the same amount under normal machining conditions. Despite this low usage, the system provides a substantial cooling and lubricating effect.

This effect is apparently due to the almost immediate evaporation of the mist on contact with the workpiece, cutting tool and chip. The misting Carbide Turning Inserts of the liquid increases its surface area, enhancing its capacity to absorb heat. Pinpoint aim of the nozzle is critical however, because the high pressure delivery of the mist blows away chips, which carry off much of the heat generated in machining. High feed rates and spindle speeds, of course, help considerably to keep heat in the chips as they are formed. Because almost all of the mist evaporates so quickly, the chips are dry, aiding their disposal and increasing their value as a recyclable material.

The fine particles in the mist also allow it to penetrate the cutting tool/workpiece interface when injected at high pressure. Apparently, the ECOREG System creates particles that are small enough to enter the gap between tool and workpiece while high pressure overcomes the centrifugal force of the rotating tool or tube process inserts workpiece. Thus, a very small amount of the oil lubricant—0.3 to 0.5 cubic centimeters per minute—can be very effective, the company says.

In addition to the environmental benefits of this system, the company also cites improved machining results. The combination of increased speeds and feeds with the effects of high cooling and excellent lubrication results in better dimensional accuracy of the workpiece, finer surface finish, higher productivity and increased tool life. The company has not published direct comparisons for various applications but is inviting users to submit sample workpieces for testing at the company's technical center in Schaumburg. The company will then report on process improvements to be expected using its machine tools at the recommended settings. An increase in tool life as high as 400 percent is cited in the company's literature as a typical benefit.

Otherwise, the lathes and VMCs to which Hakusui is attaching its ECOREG System are of conventional design. The lathe line includes two 6-inch models, an 8-inch and a 10-inch model. The HL-06 lathe, for example, features 1,181 ipm rapid traverse in X and Z axes, with an optional 6,000 rpm spindle. For this model, the company has published a case history involving a 2.25-inch bar of 303 stainless steel machined with a carbide insert at a depth of cut of 0.04 inch and feed rate of 0.004 inch. With a spindle speed of 2,800 rpm and surface speed 1,680 fpm, resulting surface roughness is given as 0.00006 inch and circularity is given as 0.000031 inch TIR. In another example, the HTL-80, an 8-inch lathe, performed a rough cut on 1046 steel with an 0.08 inch DOC at 1,640 sfm producing a 3.4 micron surface finish. This operation consumed a half ounce of coolant per hour.

The two VMCs in the line are both designated as 40-inch models. The HV-40 is slightly smaller, with 30 by 17.7 by 19.7 inch axis travel and 7.5 hp compared to the HTV-40 with 40 by 20 by 20 inch travel and 10 hp. Both models have optional spindles, with an HTV-1000 model offering 10,000 rpm. All of the Hakusui lathes and VMCs are equipped with Fanuc controls.

The ECOREG System is also available as a stand-alone unit, model MRC21, which can be retrofit to existing machine tools.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: http://jasonagnes.mee.nu/

Event Highlights Growing, Diverse Tool Supplier

Tungaloy has added two BX330 CBN grade inserts to its TungThread thread turning tool series’ 60-degree partial profile threading insert line, the 1QP-16ER60-014-SP and 1QP-16ER60-020-SP, which both feature a brazed CBN tip. 

These inserts are designed to handle hardened parts. They provide a cutting edge with a balanced combination of wear and fracture resistance, making the grade suitable for withstanding continuous and heavy cutting loads inherent in the thread turning method for hardened parts, the company says.

These inserts feature the standard 16ER laydown insert shape and can be used with existing TungThread toolholders. This series is said to address the need for quick and cost-efficient, hard-part threading applications with a range of standard BTA deep hole drilling inserts toolholder sizes available for thread turning. The series is designed to replace slow thread grinding as the preferred method across cemented carbide inserts industries for producing threads of the hardened parts. 

The Cemented Carbide Blog: CNC Carbide Inserts

Richards Micro Tools Rebranded as KEO Micro Tools

The Slip-Fit Qwik Twist adjustable-depth drilling and chamfering combination tools use standard Qwik-Twist replaceable drill points and chamfering inserts for 30-, 45- and 60-degree top hole chamfer angles.

These drills are available in sizes ranging from 0.295" to 0.823", with straight bar peeling inserts shanks. They can be adjusted for variable Carbide Turning Inserts hole depths within the chamfer shank, and drill depth adjustments can be made in the spindle.

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According to the company, with replaceable tips, the Qwik-Twist family of drills virtually eliminates the inventory and trafficking associated with regrinding solid carbide tools. As with indexable milling and turning, the operator can use the carbide point once, then replace it on the same shank.

Other features include opposing chamfer inserts that balance the cut for accurate machining and through-the-tool coolant.

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The Cemented Carbide Blog: konrad carbide insert

Digital Tooling Improves Accuracy, Reduces Scrap

Dynamic International Inc.’s SV Series of vertical machining centers (VMCs) include the SV2, SV3 and SV5. Each of these machining centers features a cast iron, rigid triangular frame design. surface milling cutters This design results in a lower center of gravity, promoting stability while cutting, Dynamic says. The extra wide column base delivers improved stability and cutting force absorption, resulting in better cutting dynamics.

These machines include a high visibility work envelope and wide, easy access front and side doors. Dynamic says these machines are cost effective on top of possessing the type of quality to meet the demanding standards of the North American market. The SV Series is equipped with a high-speed 30-tool arm type automatic tool changing (ATC) system.

There are some differences between each machine in the series. The SV2’s slot milling cutters X-, Y- and Z-axis travel are respectively 31.4", 19.6" and 19.6". The SV3’s X, Y and Z axis travel are respectively 43.31", 23.62" and 23.62". Finally, the SV5’s respective X-, Y- and Z-axis travel are 51.18", 27.56" and 27.56". The table sizes are also vary with each machine. The SV2 is 19.6" × 39.2"; the SV3 is 49.21" × 23.62"; and the SV5 is 57.09" × 25.59". The spindle taper size for the series is CAT40, and the spindle speed is either 10,000 or 12,000 rpm. The spindle motor is 20/25 HP.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Cemented Carbide Inserts

CAM Adapts Feed Rates To Wiper Inserts

Wood drill bits are the main topic of this article. Plus, we will share some useful tips for efficiently drilling out satisfactory holes in wood. Before you put up a cabinet or shelf, we genuinely hope these tooltips herein we share will be a helping, in spite of they are not in-depth.

No matter in common or special carpentry, you will find out wood is quite a whole different story from metal. Say softwood, a sort of timber that consists of cells in which there is a large amount of air making it “soft”, they could get deformed during drilling with ease. Apart from softwood, hard wood’s processing could be a little bit demanding as well. Although without puffs and with dense structure, hardwood is born with cracking. Specific designs and cares are required for wood drilling bits to handle all hindrances.

Suitable Materials according to Wood Types

Generally, for wood hole drilling, we apply drill bit made of carbon steel, high-speed steel(HSS), and carbide. These three types of materials cover nearly all range of processed woods from hickory, beech to cedar, rosewood, and so on.

Carbon steel bits are only capable of dealing with wood in soft and medium hardness at low-speed processing velocity cause there is a clear working temperature limit for it, which is up to 250℃. Once the temperature rises higher than 200℃，carbon steel is tend to lose its ability to drilling. With more flexibility and resistance to brittle, especially, preferable hot-hardness, HSS retains 60HRC during 500℃, which makes it sufficient for drilling medium or even hardwood at medium fast feed milling inserts cutting speed. Topping HSS, Carbide stands up to 800℃ and remain the comparable drilling property. Prices on these three types of materials vary with their performance. Carbide drill bits’?performance is beyond doubt while they are enough costly.

However, if you just preferred a strong performer and expense is not your concern. Carbide and HSS are definitely sound choices to you. Besides they are relatively prevalent among all tool materials is their more superior affinity for chemical or physical coating. Endowed with this affinity, coated carbide and HSS tools are enhanced in aspects of hardness and self-lubricating.

Wisely Pick up Right Type of Drill Bits

You absolutely don’t want to use a traditional twist drill to trepan on a wooden surface cause their cutting edges are just way too wide and blunt, even though deep hole drilling inserts you have ground it. It seems like to slice a cake with a baseball stick. It could be done but the whole result could be in chaos. There are “special troops”?on the market to good purpose for your choice, Be aware of that.

 Brad-point bit

Sharpening – a bit fiddly as it has to be done by hand. Sharpen the point and spurs with a fine file or edge of a fine grindstone; the angle between the point and spurs should be 90° 

As a branch of twist drill bits, brad point bits are ideal for drilling holes mortised with dowels, and they have a structure like a trident in its transverse including a central point and 3 or 4 fringe corners(spurs) standing out the bits’?cutting edge. That’s why they are styled as spur bits and dowelling bits. These raised spurs not only prevent the drill bit sliding but also cut and remove excess wood fiber ahead of planing off the base of the hole by real cutting edges.

There is another kind of drill bits resembling brad point bits, which are called pilot bit. Both of them are able to cut more straight and cleaner hole than ones drilled by normal twist drill.

Spade bit

Spade bit for electric drilling only, the center point is in the position of the bit, and the flat steel on both sides cuts off the wood. These bits are used to drill fairly large holes. They provide a flat bottom hole (with a central point), so it is ideal where the head of the bolt/bolt needs to be embedded in wood – this bit must be used before drilling through the hole of the bolt.

Larger bits require fairly powerful bits to drill deep holes. Drill bits produce a lot of debris when they run out of the back of the workpiece – using sacrificial backplane or tape can reduce debris. Noteworthy spade bits are not suitable for enlarging existing holes.

Hole saw

This is a circular saw for cutting holes of large, fixed, diameter0 in wood. It’s usually cut to a depth of 18 mm or deeper. It is best used on low-speed power drills because the saw blade will cut through the whole board. In addition, there is a combination hole saw. Like the circular saws above, these combined saws can cut large holes, but they consist of many circular saws of different sizes, usually between 25 and 62 mm in diameter. Normally, the blade is fixed by a radial screw in the “head”. Before inserting a screw to fix the required diameter blade, all blades (except the required size) will be removed. It is best used on low-speed power drills cause the drill-through thing.

Auger bit

Auger bit is an ideal tool specialized for drilling large diameter and deep holes in wood or thick wood-based panels. Generally speaking, spiral drills can only be used on hand drills. The drill will cut clean, deep, flat-bottomed holes. A single straight tooth cuts and defines the edge of the hole, while a chisel cuts the edge to remove waste from the previous cutting circle. Hold the wood in the center of the thread and pull the drill into the wood. This “pull” action means that the bit is not suitable for use in electric drills.

Sharpening is also Important

As a skilled woodworker, knowing?how to sharpen drill bits before they get blunt will do yourself a good turn. Cause nearly every drill bit you get it home are not sharpened. Plus keep it in mind that ordinary fixed-handle bit can be reground three times and undercut bit can be reground two times. When the wear diameter is reduced by 2% compared with the original one due to wear, the bit will be discarded.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: CCGT Insert

PcBN Tool Grades for Hard Turning Applications

When it comes to additive manufacturing (AM), the U.S. Marine Corps confronts extreme versions of the opportunity and the dilemmas that many machine shops face.

The opportunity: AM—particularly in metal—offers a promising way to obtain short-run parts in a hurry. For a business, the benefit is merely filling the order rapidly. But for the Marines, the benefit might be winning the battle by replacing a broken component to restore a crippled piece of equipment to use.

But the dilemmas are these: Metal AM systems are generally costly, bulky relative to the size of parts they produce and difficult to use given the safety considerations necessary for handling powder metal. These factors are problematic for a machine shop, and prohibitive when it comes to the hope of letting the Marines use metal 3D printing in the field.

And for the Marines, one more concern is that metal 3D printing ought to operate in conjunction with CNC machining within a single setup, for the sake of truly obtaining the part as fast as possible. That is, the Marines’ interest is in “hybrid” AM combining additive and subtractive operations. For all these reasons, a small CNC milling machine with an add-on metal 3D-printing head comprises the heart of a system the 1st Marine Logistics Group (MLG) at Camp Pendleton, California, is evaluating for making repairs and replacements to hardware items in the field, far from traditional supply chains. The additive/subtractive machine tool, along with two polymer 3D printers, operates within a self-contained hybrid additive manufacturing facility the Marines refer to as the “ExMan” unit, which is short for Expeditionary Manufacturing. The ExMan represents potentially the most effective resource yet for enabling deployed personnel to be self-sufficient in providing for their own critical hardware needs. In addition, the 1st MLG’s experience with it offers a model for how an established manufacturer might proceed with additive, because the Marines are following a learning curve comparable to what a machine shop might expect.

One example of this relates to recognizing the use cases. Gunnery Sgt. Travis Arndt is part of the team developing and evaluating the capabilities of the ExMan. “Having hardware supplies at the point of need is always a problem,” he says. For instance, a broken steering-column pinion gear might render a Humvee inoperative, but obtaining this replacement part far forward in the field fast enough to matter might be close to impossible. To respond to problems like this, Marines have long done manufacturing in the field. Existing portable machine shops offer milling or turning capabilities. Yet a part like a pinion gear is too challenging for systems such as these, for multiple reasons. The part is too complex to make on a lathe or mill in an exigent setting, and carrying enough raw material to be prepared to make a part such as this would represent a problem in itself, since machining a shaft with gear teeth out of solid stock would mean cutting a lot of material away. Now, Gunnery Sgt. Arndt says, the challenge and the opportunity of metal AM lies in the mindset change necessary to reevaluate challenges such as this. Marines—just like shops adopting AM—need to rethink long-standing assumptions about what kinds of parts can now be fabricated quickly.

Another telling discovery the Marines have made relates to personnel. The additive capability advances best through the efforts and imagination of those most interested in exploring it, not necessarily through the application of any preexisting skill. Nine people from the 1st MLG so far have been trained on the ExMan system. Those with the requisite “innovative mindset,” in Gunnery Sgt. Arndt’s words, have tended to self-select, volunteering for this opportunity. The result has been a diverse mix of skill areas, with machinists, auto mechanics, electronics technicians, calibration technicians and welders now all using the system. All are capable of thriving and innovating with it, and, in fact, the diversity has proven valuable for finding applications in which additive can be effective. Is hybrid metal AM a part-making resource, a tool-making resource, a resource for repair? It depends on the need, and it depends on the perspective of the particular user thinking about this capability.

Gunnery Sgt. Arndt’s team began the search for metal 3D-printing capability in response to a Marine Corps initiative to bring additive manufacturing as far forward into battle as possible. The search was stymied at first, because powder-bed selective laser melting systems were seen to be unsuitable for deployment and use in the field, given their cost, size and safety requirements. The Marines instead found the answer they believed they were looking for when they met Karl Hranka, founder of California startup 3D Hybrid Solutions, which supplies add-on heads for metal 3D printing via various methods of metal deposition, including laser melting of powder spray, arc melting of wire feed, and high-velocity cold spray of metal powder. In the ExMan, the wire-fed metal 3D-printing head mounts parallel to the spindle on a milling machine from Tormach, producing a system that can build 3D features and then mill and drill them to precise tolerances within a single setup. The additive capability requires no special personal safety protection because the input material is solid wire instead of powder and because current is used to melt the material rather than a laser. The safety measures needed are eye protection plus fume extraction like that of gas metal arc welding. Mr. Hranka says, “It’s not a normal arc-welding process, which generally includes some level of porosity, but instead a lower-heat approach that enables effective deposition of metals at full density.”

This 3D gravity turning inserts printing by deposition, meaning placing metal along a precise tool path rather than using a powder bed, means a complete 3D part can be built up onto a flat surface. It also means a 3D feature can be built just as easily onto an existing part, with the existing part used as the starting work surface. In short, hybrid manufacturing is a resource for repairing or modifying existing components every bit as much as a resource for making components from scratch.

“The repair opportunity is huge,” Gunnery Sgt. Arndt says. For the Marines, it compels perhaps the most fundamental mindset change. “Our thinking now is, if something is broken, don’t throw it away,” he notes. “Instead, we think about how we might repair it.” Recent experiments have focused on field-repair of vehicle piston cemented carbide inserts heads. Testing the resilience and capability of the additive system is part of the Marines’ experimentation, but an even bigger part is developing practice at spotting opportunities for hybrid AM to keep parts in use longer that might otherwise be discarded. In this way, the ExMan is already aiding and saving cost for the Marines at Camp Pendleton, even though it has yet to be deployed.

In fact, in at least one notable case, the ExMan provides a valuable alternative to existing supply. Gunnery Sgt. Arndt points to unmanned aerial vehicles—drones. These devices are still new, and prone to break frequently. As yet, there is no formal supply chain for needed parts, because there is no understanding yet of what replacement parts are key or how frequently they will be ordered. As a result, some needed parts have a lead time longer than one year. In response, the Marines have been keeping drones flying by making needed parts through 3D printing.

Meanwhile, Gunnery Sgt. Arndt has been exploring the problem of the pinion gear. Is it now possible to solve a problem such as this one in the field? That is, is it possible to return the Humvee with this problem back to use quickly? The component is too difficult to make through machining alone, but perhaps straightforward to make through hybrid AM. For example, what about 3D printing gear teeth onto a piece of metal tubing? The “innovative mindset” he refers to consists simply of this: Recognizing that many formerly prohibitive challenges are no longer prohibitive when additive is added to machining.

The Cemented Carbide Blog: Carbide Inserts