Product category:
Drilling, boring and reaming
News Release from: Mike Page - editor's feature articles | Subject: Carbide insert drills
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 August 2007
Insert drills offer holemaking
flexibility
When machining a hole, a carbide insert drill offers flexibility for drilling diifferent materials and can be quickly changed as tool wear increases, reports Mike Page.
How much do you want to spend on tooling for making holes? Solid carbide or carbide insert drills are more expensive than high speed steel (HSS) While a solid carbide drill can offer speed, a carbide insert drill can offer flexibility
Inserts can be changed according to materials to be drilled.
Also as tool wear nears the rejection limit, inserts can be quickly changed on, or off the machine tool.
There are also drills with interchangeable carbide bits to compete with solid carbide drills.
Note that not all machine tools can cope with the higher axial force and highe cutting rates offered by modern tooling.
So check with the tool supplier that the machine tool can offer rigidity and high enough axial feed force.
** Increased feed rates - up to 100% increases in feed rates can be achieved with its CoroDrill 880, claims Sandvik Coromant.
Coromant's Step Technology provides outstanding cutting force balance, significantly improving both productivity and hole quality.
The CoroDrill 880's inserts present four cutting edges and wiper geometry, allowing tight tolerances to be held.
The tool is also claimed to generate a superior surface finish.
A comprehensive choice of insert geometries and grades give flexibility in optimizing performance across a variety of applications and materials.
Versions of the CoroDrill 880 will eventually cover diameters from 0.473in to 2.5in (12-63.5mm) with lengths ranging from 2x to 5x the diameter (D).
** Maximum drilling security in SS - carbide insert drills from Kennametal ensure maximum process safety for drilling austenitic stainless steels (SS) and, at the same time, a low machining noise level.
Tool life and cutting speeds are far in excess of those achievable with high speed steels, said Kennametal.
The drills practically eliminate tool breakage, while the drilling of holes up to 10xD are quite possible.
The patented HPL(M) geometry produces four individual chips, without front-face chip grooves.
This construction avoids chip blockages, said Kennametal, because the four smaller chips are evacuated more quickly and more smoothly through the chip flutes than two big chips.
The indexable insert drills are available in sizes 12.5-40mm diameter.
** Demolish drilling times - Walter reports a major manufacturer of electro-magnet steel cases has slashed drilling cycle times, extended tool life and achieved significant savings.
The company had changed to a Walter Xtra.tec B40 drill with WXP45 PVD carbide coated inserts, The Xtra.tec B40 cut drilling time on one component from 19.6s to 2.7s, and in the production of 120,000 components has achieved annual time savings of 560h.
In another example, the company reduced drilling times from 14.4s to 2.5s and tool life extended to 2,000 components/tool compared with 1,600 before.
Walter's Xtra.tec drill has two cutting edges that are in use simultaneously, thus optimally distributing machining forces and demonstrating high stability compared to conventional HSS and solid carbide drills.
Also, the Walter drill's positive cutting edge geometry results in a 'soft' cutting action and low cutting forces.
Walter also offers its Tiger.tec grade WKP35 inserts for cast iron machining with the addition of Trigon inserts for boring tools and indexable inserts for the Novex Stardrill series.
** Choose insert styles - with Valenite's ValDrill indexable insert range the user can select from two insert styles, depending on the size of holes to be drilled, as follows.
* LCMT - large cross-section insert has two cutting edges for the tougher drilling jobs.
* XPMT - there are three different sizes to lower costs and avoid tool breakages.
There are carbide grades to suit cast irons, steels and stainless steels and one for interrupted cutting in steels and stainless steels.
Diameter range is 12-30mm (0.500-1.187in).
Variations cover from 2xD-4xD.
** Drills for extreme conditions - a straight-fluted indexable drill is said by Big Kaiser of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, USA, to suit introducing a drill at an inclined angle to a surface - and exiting at an inclined angle - as well as interrupted cutting in the hole (such as an existing cross-drilled hole).
The drills are made in diameters of 16-30mm and lengths of 3xD and 4xD.
The straight-flute design provides a short distance for chip clearance and high radial and torsional rigidity.
** Spot drills - a drill body accepts one carbide insert presenting two cutting edges.
DatumPoint Tool of Troy, Michigan, USA, offers its Radstar spot drill.
It is a standard tool body that accepts five different, indexable, 1in spotting inserts: 90, 118, 120, 135 and 140 deg drill points.
** Change carbide drill heads - an alternative to inserts - to consider for high speed drilling - is Iscar's Chamdrill Jet range.
A standard, fluted drill body - 30 deg for drilling depths of 3xD and 25 deg for 5xD - accepts different, interchangeable solid carbide drill heads according to the material to be drilled.
Drill heads range in size from 0.394-to 0.0783in (10mm-2mm) in 0.004in (0.1mm) increments.
Each head is designed to optimise chip removal, tool life, surface finish and reliability.
** All the companies mentioned are to be found on Manufacturingtalk, with the exception of the following.
* Big Kaiser Precision Tooling -
* DatumPoint Tool - http://www.radstartool.com>.
* Valenite -
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