Toolholder cures runout woes
Variety may be the spice of life but not when it comes to machining tolerances, where tool runout is the enemy of precision, including when processing plastic parts. Just ask Eric Broderson, president of Bennington, Vermont-based K&E Plastics Inc., which began machining plastics in 1966.
Variety may be the spice of life but not when it comes to machining tolerances, where tool runout is the enemy of precision, including when processing plastic parts. Just ask Eric Broderson, president of Bennington, Vermont-based K&E Plastics Inc., which began machining plastics in 1966. For him, runout means increased setup time, compromised part quality, poor tool life and troublesome burrs.
Burrs pose more threats when machining plastics than when machining metal. Most of the techniques typically used to remove burrs from metal materials damage plastic workpieces.
“Deburring plastics can be a nightmare,” Broderson said. “We have a machine out on the shop floor that uses dry ice and compressed air. It freezes the little fibers and then blows them off.” Along with cryogenics, his shop relies on abrasive pads and toolholder-mounted wire brushes.
The powRgrip toolholding system enables K&E Plastics to drastically minimize tool runout when machining plastics. Image courtesy of Rego-Fix Tool
K&E Plastics’ traditional tooling, including standard CAT 40 toolholders with TG 100, yielded runout of about 0.002″ to 0.003″, which in turn produced burrs. Tool life also suffered, especially on highly abrasive plastics that contained glass fiber. “I could have a 3-flute endmill, but I might only be cutting with one flute because of the runout from the way the tool ran,” Broderson said.
His quest for runout reduction led him to question how his shop held its cutting tools. When Broderson investigated alternatives, he found that many toolholders weren’t a good fit for his company’s workflow.
Meanwhile, K&E was working on a project with another Bennington company. Broderson learned that it had swapped its former toolholder system for one that virtually eliminated runout. Intrigued, he obtained a few of the tools to test on K&E’s equipment and materials, liked what he saw and scheduled a full
demonstration. Instead of 0.002″ to 0.003″ runout, K&E slashed it to 0.0002″ to 0.0003″ with the powRgrip System from Rego-Fix Tool Corp., Whitestown, Indiana.
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