As part of its efforts to support manufacturing education, OSG USA Inc. (Glendale Heights, Illinois) recently announced its sponsorship of two student engineering groups: the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini-Baja Racing Team at Purdue University, and the University of Michigan’s Human-Powered Submarine Team. OSG donated over $30,000 in new tooling to the teams to support their manufacturing activities.  

RCGT Insert

“Through our tooling donations to the Purdue University’s Mini-Baja Racing Team and the University of Michigan’s Human-Powered Submarine Team, we hope to help these engineers better understand metalcutting through the use and applications of OSG’s advanced and innovative cutting tools,” says Mike Cotton, OSG marketing manager.

“These end mills are very high quality, and we are excited to put them to good use,” says Tasha Gillum, a University of Michigan student from the submarine team.

The SAE Mini-Baja Racing Team at Purdue University designs, manufactures and races a one-person off-road vehicle and participates in three regional competitions annually. The Human-Powered Submarine Team at the University of Michigan designs and fabricates its own one-person submarines. That team Tungsten Carbide Inserts will be competing this July in the European International Submarine Races in the United Kingdom.

In a recent blog post, OSG reported: “We were glad to see the students open the boxes of new tooling with big smiles on their faces. Seeing them excited to use our tools made us realize how important it is for us to be a part of educating manufacturing students. We continue to actively work with technical colleges and universities to demonstrate our commitment to inspire the next generation of manufacturers.”

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/cnc-inserts/ccmt-insert/

Walter USA’s wear optimization app, which works on all VCMT Insert current mobile devices and operating systems, enables users to identify specific forms of wear on indexable-insert and round-tool solid carbide applications, from milling, drilling and threading to turning, grooving and parting. Each form of wear is shown with a zoom function, both graphically and with high-quality photos.

For each wear template, the user is provided with a description of the conditions under which the relevant wear type occurs and how it can be prevented or reduced. The app provides practical recommendations such as “Use a more wear-resistant cutting tool material,” “Reduce the feed,” “Reduce the cutting speed,” “Increase the coolant pressure,” or “Check the orientation,” and so on. These recommendations are intended to help operators increase the Shoulder Milling Inserts service life of their tools and reduce costs associated with tool wear.

The app works on all current mobile devices, such as smartphones, notebooks and tablets, with iOS or the Android operating system, as well as on Windows PCs operating Windows 7 or newer. The app is also available for use in a Web browser on the company’s website.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.cuttinginsert.com/product/wcmt-insert/

Kyocera SGS Precision Tools (Munroe Falls, Ohio) has announced a brand-new website. Designed from the ground up as a modern and easy-to-use resource, kyocera-sgstool.com is said to reflect the company’s continuous improvement principles and an emphasis on simplicity over complexity.

The website works on any internet-enabled device. It connects directly with ToolWizard for accurate and controlled tool data. ToolWizard 2.1 can be CCGT Insert accessed and launched from the homepage.

The Deep Hole Drilling Inserts company says that any bookmarks to the old website will no longer function. Additionally, stock check, distributor search and order search systems for members have not migrated to the new site. There is a link to access them on the homepage of kyocera-sgstool.com, and members’ usernames and passwords have not changed.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.cuttinginsert.com/pro_cat/drilling-inserts/index.html

Desenco Inc. (Akron, Ohio) has been producing high-quality rubber molds for injection and transfer molding of precision parts for more than 20 years. Until recently, most of these molds were manufactured using CNC vertical machining centers. When a new horizontal machining center did not yield the expected results, Desenco installed a laser toolsetter from Marposs (Auburn Hills, Michigan) to optimize performance.

Prior to toolsetter installation, Desenco personnel report that it was "almost impossible" to Cermet Inserts attain accurate Z depths and repeatability in the Z axis. Setting tool Deep Hole Drilling Inserts lengths was extremely difficult, and the machine did not cut to required depths, with shallow or deep variances as high as 0.0025 inch.

According to Craig Jorstad, CNC coordinator at Desenco, these problems were caused by the machining center’s high speed (15,000 rpm) spindle and Cat shank. When the machine was run at high speeds, centrifugal force opened the spindle and the tool physically drew back into the taper, resulting in unpredictable variations in depth-of-cut.

Despite the machine builder’s involvement, there were no easy solutions. Desenco employees made attempts to manage the problem by measuring tools in the static condition with a conventional contact-type toolsetter. But in reality, depth accuracy depended on operator intervention with the tool rotating.

Operators were making shallow trial cuts and then making adjustments to attain required depths. This made setup time-consuming and the results unpredictable. Operators were never certain of the depths they would achieve, nor could they count on a repeatable pattern. Depending on the properties of various tools, variances ranged between +0.0005 inch and -0.0025 inch. "You were never certain of what you were going to get in the trial cut from the first tool to the last," Mr. Jorstad says. "And it takes time to dial those things down and bring yourself to where your depths are all the same."

The resulting step variances were unacceptable, as Desenco adheres to strict tolerances of ±0.0005 inch for most of the features cut for its molds.

For example, accurate core pin orientation is particularly critical to successful mold production. Core pins are used to create holes in parts, and during the machining process, core pin height is maintained by a counterbore. "The core pin comes up from underneath the cavity and its orientation in that cavity in terms of its height is established by a counterbore on the bottom plate," Mr. Jorstad explains. "That counterbore has to be held to a very tight tolerance in terms of its depth if we are going to be able to maintain pin height. We try to hold counterbores at ±0.0005 inch."

The Marposs laser compensates for the dynamic errors of the machine tool, spindle and toolholder, and is said to greatly improve the performance of the machine. Other reported benefits include faster setup, improved part quality and greater consistency between operators. These advantages also apply when using a broad range of tool sizes, from 0.024 inch to1 inch in diameter.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.cuttinginsert.com/product/lnmu-insert/

Pinpoint Laser Systems offers a 2D laser microgage for precision measuring, machine alignment, calibration and other industrial applications. Roll and web lines; CNC cutting and milling equipment; lathes; stamping presses; injection molding machines; extrusion systems; and other production equipment can be checked and aligned for improved TCMT Insert operating efficiency and reduced downtime. The gage is compact, easy to set up and use right on the factory floor, the company says.

The gage combines a compact laser transmitter with a receiver and digital display. As the laser beam moves across the receiver in a vertical or horizontal path, the display provides a reading of the motion, accurate to 0.0001". This product will operated over a distance of 180 ft. with a bright, red beam that is quickly adaptable to many industrial applications. Instructions on the display guide the operator through the alignment project. Several accessories allow for alignment of straightness, runout, parallelism, squareness, roll and web alignment, shaft and bore alignment, flatness measuring and more.

The two-axis laser microgage operates on batteries, and all components are machines TNGG Insert of solid aluminum with a hard anodized coating for wear resistance. A sealed push-button keypad and large LCD display make the gage easy and convenient to use in demanding industrial environments, the company says.?

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.cuttinginsert.com/product/tngg-insert/