It all starts with the blanks. They are created by mixing metal powder into a duogh, which is formed two long rods and sintered in an oven with temperatures up to 1500 degrees. During this process, they shrink in size by 40%, but still keep its exact shape and form. Quality checks are made and they are then slit into blanks. The blanks are picked up from the storage room and brought to the grinding area. Depending on the requirements, some blanks need to be reduced in diameter using an outer diameter grinding machine. The diameter is inspected and measured to ensure that the requirements are met. The next step is flute grinding. This process is what gives the tool its basic shape and form to grind the hard blanks. Wheels made of more than 150 million synthetic diamonds are used. Each wheel has a specific grain and bond to guarantee a required finish on the tool. The wheels are balanced and shaped in a dedicated area of the factory. Up to six different wheels are used during the production of each tool. The flutes are grown to an exact pitch and shape for optimal chip evacuation and cutting performance. It's a highly automated process with grinding machines that are equipped with robots for loading and unloading. They can also measure and fine tune the operations, allowing for production to run completely unmanned for hours Every year these machines produce hundreds of thousands of tools. High consideration is given to sustainability by recycling the vegetable oil used for cooling in the manufacturing process. We inspect and measure different parameters, such as diameter, radius and helix angles to confirm that the tool still meets the desired specifications. After the grinding process, the cutting edge is extremely sharp, which is not often optimal for the cutting process. A slightly rounded edge can offer improved performance based on the material and cutting conditions. A slightly rounded edge with a radius of two microns can improve the tool life by up to ten times based on the material and cutting conditions. This is achieved by dipping the tool into a rotating drum filled with fine grained sand With this process we use a special sand, which is based on aluminium oxide The value of roundness that you need to achieve could be four, five or eight microns and the quality of the edges we use different medias. So from roughing to really thin finishing media. To ensure proper coating adhesion, the tool is cleaned using an ultrasonic washing machine which removes any residual material. Following cleaning, the tool is dried using a vacuum cycle. Now the tool is ready to be coated. We place it in a vacuum chamber where a mix of gas is injected as the temperature increases, a thin layer of metal carbon nitride coating is applied to the tool. It enhances resistance to both heat and wear. This process takes between 4 to 5 hours, and the chamber reaches up to more than 500 degrees Celsius. High pressure air is then used to remove dust and debris to ensure optimal machining results. After coating we have a final inspection on all the tools we have produced. In the production we do random checks on each batch to see if there are any defects before marking. So after months of research and development and days of manufacturing, the tool is finally ready to be laser marked and shipped to customers all over the world. They all get a quality tool that can perform to the highest demands of the manufacturing industry