Milling
Solid Round Tools - session 9
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Hello and welcome to this Solid Round Tools knowledge session. During this series we will cover features, strategies and products relating to Solid Round Tools. As always we start with safety. Safety is our top priority at Sandvik Coromant. Please ensure you are watching this in a safe environment, beware of the safety procedures, exits and assembly points of the building that you are watching this. My name is Ben Lodge and I'm the Solid Round Tools product specialist. I'm joined today by Dan Smythe. Hi I'm Dan Smythe and I'm the Solid Round Tools driver for the UK. And today we're going to be looking at optimised and customised solutions for auto aluminium applications. So Dan why don't you tell us a little bit about the different components that we see within the automotive industry. So automotive can be broken down into three groups which is engine, components and transmission. And they all have their own unique problems and challenges that you have to face. And I'm guessing there's a number of components that we see within those different areas as well. And certainly new ones that we see within auto aluminium. Yeah definitely you've got obviously the main one that everyone would be aware of I suppose is the engine which is the heart of the vehicle. And the transmission again a real key component that's a challenge for lots of manufacturers. But as we see the rise in electric vehicles, components around the battery to consider, motor housings to consider. And the list will keep growing I'm sure as new vehicles come in line in the future. Absolutely. So now we'll want to have a look at the products we have available. And we can see here that we've got a number of tooling solutions that match the specific applications that we see within the different components we spoke about. So although this is a solid round tool session, we can then now look at some of the products that we see within that area. Yep. So as we start off we're looking at the milling cutters and we can see here quite a wide range of milling cutters that we have available when it comes to automotive aluminium. And as well as the cylinder boring tools that we see, you know, both roughing, semi finishing and finishing. But we're going to talk today a little bit about the solid round tools products that we see within the automotive. So as we see there we've got our standard offer as well as our customised solution as well when it comes to 860NM as well as our Corridor 400 and 430 that we're going to talk about a little bit more. So we can see there with the taps we've got a number of different products available to us. So do you want to tell us a little bit how we categorise those within our product range? Yeah, sure. So the way we break down our tapping range is quite clear. So we start with a number system. So the first group is Corotap 100 which is what are traditionally straight flute taps which most people will have come across from, you know, traditional methods from hand tapping. They tend to always be straight flutes, but these are tailored towards materials like cast irons or aluminiums. The second group that we have is the Corotap 200 and the 200 is a spiral point tap. Then we progress to the Corotap 300 which is a spiral flute tap. And then finally we've got the Corotap 400 which is forming taps or cold forming rolling taps, whatever people call them, lots of names for them. But again, it's a different process, but it's for certain materials and certain components of the aluminium industry. It's a real great tool to use. We've got some different considerations when it comes to roll tapping than we have from cut tapping, haven't we? Yes. So with cut tapping you're actually cutting the part and you're cutting the boundaries in the material itself. So this has some downsides where sometimes you can have a weakness left behind because it's been cut. Where when you're roll tapping you're not actually cutting the material or its boundaries, you're forging them and forcing the material to flow and move. So it's more like a forging process rather than a cutting process. This can give you benefits with strength, but again, sometimes because it does leave around a remnant in the sort of material which we commonly call the fish mouth effect. That can for fluid applications or oil or anything where you've got a liquid or a medium travelling through something, it can create a bit of a problem. Okay. So we do have to think a little bit more about whether we're able to do that. Yes. But again, we'll probably cover this in the next couple of slides, but I think when it comes to it, there's also material limitations about what you can use a foaming tap for as opposed to a cutting tap. Absolutely. So now we're going to look into our standard offer when it comes to drilling. So we start off with our 860NM. So this is our material specific product for aluminium machining. And we can see there, you know, we've got this 130 degree four facet split point and we see those spurs on the outside as well. And as we look in the bottom right hand corner, you know, we can see the difference when it comes to exit burrs. And it gives a really good advantage, certainly on through holes when we're looking at utilising this product. And as we look at it also, we've got our customised solution within 860NM. So, you know, we are able through our tailor made process to add some features into there. But if a customer is wanting a certain type of drill that doesn't fit within this area, then we probably look into a more customised solution that we see when it comes to the 400 and 430. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the 400 and 430? So the 400 and 430 drills are different to the NM that we just spoke about because these are tailored towards the application that you're going to be using this drill on. So, for example, we have a free flute geometry as opposed to two, which gives a nice help when you're drilling cast holes where it's not a perfectly round hole that's already drilled or a pile that you need the third flute to actually add a little bit of stability. And it's a cross between a reamer and a drilling application when you're in this, hence the reason we use free flute drills for these. And also you can change the cutting material from being a carbide drill to a PCD product. OK. So that will give us a really good advantage when it comes to, I'm guessing, tool life. Yeah. So PCD allows you to run at increased speeds again because you can take a lot more resistance and abrasion resistance with these materials. But on the second side of it, PCD also gives it much longer life because it's so much harder than the material that it's cutting. Where carbide is hard, PCD is a whole other jump in hardness over standard solid carbide. So if we're looking at the portfolio between the two and the differences, the 400, we're looking at kind of machining from a solid. And then the 430 if we've got a precast hole is probably the easiest way of doing it. Yeah. So now we're going to have a look at how we actually make our PCD tools. So we can see here we've got the carbide blank in which we grind the slots. The powder is then added and it's put into a sleeve to be then compressed. So it's compressed at high pressures but also high temperatures as well. And this is called the HP HD sintering process. Once that's done, it's braised onto a shank. Then we see the outside diameter ground. And then afterwards we have the finished geometry put onto the drills. So when you've got PCD products and you've got solid carbide products, how do we differentiate between when we would use a PCD product and when we would use a solid carbide product? I mean, it's dependent on the application and a little bit like what you spoke about. We want to see much higher productivity, less downtime when it comes to the changing of tools. You know, so we want to see these, you know, longer run times. But there's also different considerations when it comes to the material. So if we're talking about aluminium, we might be looking at high silicon content to take into account and whether we, you know, see a benefit of applying these products with a PCD form rather than the standard solid carbide. So now we're going to have a look at a success case that we've got within the PCD area. So as you look at this, we've got our steering knuckle. We can see here that it's got a silicon content between six and eight percent. So a little bit like what we spoke about, you know, a little bit higher silicon content. And we can see a little bit of information there when it comes to the product itself. So through our tailor-made process, you know, we've been able to design a tool. Now we can see there that the TM400 in the N1D use, that's the veined PCD grade that we have within our range. And we look at the challenges that we have. So inconsistence tool life. We need to see a low spindle load and a reduction in the cost per hole. You know, so because we're seeing this increased tool life, although the cost of a PCD tool may be higher than a standard solid carbide, you know, you're going to see the benefits when it comes to both the tool life and the productivity. And we can see that from this slide here. So as we see in the customer case, we saw a 43 percent reduction in the cycle time and a 21 percent reduction in the cost per component. You know, so that's a fantastic result when it comes to, you know, the productivity and the cost per component that we see, you know, a high influence on when it comes to the automotive industry. And automotive is definitely an industry I'm assuming that is driven by cost. Absolutely. You know, we see a lot of the time that it's a really important factor of, you know, getting the cost per component down wherever they possibly can. And secondly, we've got a success case when it comes to the Corridul 430. So we spoke about it before, you know, this is opening up precast holes. And, you know, with this product, we've seen a 263 percent tool life increase, which is, again, a fantastic result with that product. And, you know, the customer's certainly seen the benefits when it comes to utilising the 430. Why is it that the extra tooth on the drill gives it such an increase in tool life over a two flute drill? Stability, really. I mean, we're seeing a more balanced cut within the hole. You know, if we were to use a two flute drill in a precast hole, obviously, we're not going to see the same entry every time it is a casting. There will be some deviation between the casting that's been done. And with a two flute, we may see, you know, it bouncing around within the hole, losing the edges and obviously having a detrimental effect on tool life. Because we've got that extra tooth, that third tooth, you know, that stabilises the process. Make sure that we don't see any vibration within the drill that we want. And then we can, you know, have a much better process, a much more stable process when it comes to opening the precast hole out. OK. So there's another consideration. We've also got a look at, you know, back-end tooling as well. So do you want to tell us a little bit about the back-end tooling that we should consider? Yeah, well, one of the key things with everything when it comes down to machining is you have a good tool, but if you don't hold it correctly, then you're still going to have problems and not get the benefit of that tool. So how you hold the tool is just as important as what tool that you're actually using. And when it comes down to the systems that we have in our range, the Coral Chuck 930, which is our hydraulic system, meaning that the force is applied by a membrane with oil in it. And as you tighten up the screw, this will push pressure on a piston and grip the shank of the tool really to some pretty high extreme forces. And this means that you've got really good run out and you're not going to have the tool pull out during a process or during cut. But the second side of it is you've got really consistent run out as well. So the tool can run at high RPMs and not have problems with run out or causing excessive wear on the tool. But when you get to ER collet systems, they can really struggle at elevated cutting data where high RPM can give excessive run out. And also they don't have the same grip force as something like a hydraulic holder or a steering fit holder. Okay. And we have quite a wide range of Coral Chuck 930s available as well. So there's a lot of choice, isn't there, when it comes to, you know, what back ends we've got, whether that be Coral McCaptor or integrated straight into the customer spindle. And again, we have this one problem that you come across in the automotive industry quite frequently is getting access to certain holes or to certain features that you need to machine. And with the Coral Chuck 930, we have long slender necks. We have different type neck designs that allow you to get the reach that you actually require and need while maintaining a good process with run out and grip. Sounds like a fantastic solution, you know, coupled with both the drill and the back end, you know, for the customers then. With everything, it's always about having a good work holding a good setup and a good tool for a good process. Excellent. So we've talked about drills. So now we're going to go on to our tapping solutions when it comes to aluminum machining. And we spoke a little bit already about our tapping range. You know, we've got specific grades available both as standard and as specials. And we also see uncoated tools as well within the aluminum area. And as we look at the product range, you know, we spoke about before, we can see that our optimized options available to us. And when it comes to, you know, extended tool life and the benefits that we see from aluminum machining. As we spoke about before, we see the categorization between the four different areas. So you spoke about before about the material considerations. So what is it we need to consider when it comes to materials, when it comes to things like roll tapping then? So roll tapping relies on the material being able to flow. So like any forging process, if a material can't flow because its ductility or its elongation values don't allow it to, and it has a tendency to crack, like certain cast irons and certain cast aluminum, then roll tapping wouldn't be viable because as you apply the force into the material, it won't flow out of the way and form the profile you require. It will just crack and cause the component to break down. So in them situations, it's not a valid option and you would have to cut that thread in. But if you have got elongation or ductility on your side, then you can roll tap or form the thread and you'll get a really good, safe process. And one thing to always consider with a forming tap as opposed to a cutting tap is you will get elevated tool life because it's not cutting and it's not creating chips. And we all know that chips are the main reason that a tool will get damaged or break prematurely. Forming takes away a big portion of the pain and problems that you get in a threading application. So you will see a bigger increase in tool life. And when you form in the actual thread, I'm right in thinking we see an increase as well in the, say, the torque that the machine will be under. So we have to take some certain machine considerations into account as well. Yeah, you're right. When you form the profile, it's because it's not cutting and it's pushing. There's an awful lot more of the material squeezing the tap. So you do see the elevated torque levels. And another thing to bear in mind when it comes to forming is if you take a forming tap and you've never used one before, you will have to have a different pre-haul drill size. You can't just use your standard drill size for a metric, say, M6 using a five millimeter drill. You have to change that to suit a roll tap because you've got to leave enough material in the hole for it to form properly. Okay. And there's a different equation for that, isn't it? I'm right. It's half the pitch that we normally take away as a kind of rule of thumb to get us the drill size we want. So we've talked about roll tapping. We're going to have a look at a success in roll tapping here. So we can see here we're looking at a high silicon content aluminum. And we're seeing a 10% increase in the tool life over our competitors. So although it may only be a small amount of increase that we're seeing, you know, from some of the information that we've got, we know that this is a difficult application. We're looking at a large machine with a very small thread. We're machining an M8 in this example. So, you know, it was certainly a challenging application as we looked at this. And when we talk about challenging applications, you know, we spoke when it comes to drilling with the back end. But I'm also right in thinking that we need to consider, certainly with tapping as well, different holders that we can have. Definitely. I think one of the real biggest eye openers for a lot of customers is where you've reached the point where the gains in your productivity are no longer, you can't jump 50, 60% as easy as what you could maybe 10 years ago when you first started optimizing your processes. Where you come along with something like the Coral Truck 970, this can really be an eye opener of how much benefit you can get in tool life to what this gives by just changing the holder. And I think the main reason is, as modern machines have come along and we see rigid tapping coming in and the benefits of what rigid tapping gives all the tension and compression holders is not every tap is 100% identical. We're talking microns difference in certain areas and a machine can't be 100% accurate all the time. So you have very, very small, minute differences. And this tap chuck acts as a buffer between these minute differences and just allows the tap to have a small, a minute amount of play, which takes up a little bit of the friction, a little bit of the wear, and you'll see flank wear with this is reduced massively. And again, when the tap reverses at the bottom of the hole, you see a large spike in force because this is where you're changing from a positive direction to a negative direction. And this causes real forces and stress across the cutting tool. But when you use a Coral Truck 970, these are reduced significantly again because it allows it to have a tiny little bit of play that just takes the edge off it. And you would tend to see normally around 25, 30% increase in tool life right off the bat by using something like this. And that's a great result because that's not changing anything to do with the tools, you know, or the process. All we're doing is changing the chuck and seeing the benefits of that synchronized chuck then. Yep. Fantastic. So now we're going to look at our reaming portfolio. We look at it with our standard products when it comes to ISO end machining. You know, we can see our 435XF is our first choice when it comes to these kind of reaming applications. You know, it's a solid carbide, uncoated reamer that we see available. And we also see that within tailor-made. But if we're looking at something a little bit different, you know, a little bit more special to the automotive industry, we have other options available as well, don't we? Yes, we do. So like everything with automotive, depending on the amount of parts you've got to produce, so the speed, cycle times that you need to hit, then you can always make these products from PCD rather than just solid carbide, whether it's thin PCD or you're brazening it in. But also we have different solutions for when the different coolant systems that people are using, whether it's an MQL system or a standard emulsion system, or even if it's dry, we have different ways that we can tailor tools to suit them applications. So a lot of options available to our customers when it comes to making or reaming holes. Yes. Excellent. So thank you very much for joining us today. Should you like more information, then please follow the QR code on the screen or the website link. Thank you. Thank you.