Global leader discusses the future and fate of metalworking

After being at AB Sandvik Coromant, Sandviken, Sweden, for 17 years, Nadine Crauwels was appointed global president of the cutting tool manufacturer in May 2017. She has had roles in sales, product management, product introduction, custom tools and strategic relations.

In an interview with CTE Editor Alan Richter at IMTS 2018, Crauwels discussed the advancements being made in cutting tool technology, manufacturing digitization, the global market for cutting tools, employee diversification and the opportunities in the manufacturing industry for everyone interested in pursuing them.

Cutting Tool Engineering: How is Sandvik Coromant pushing itself out of its comfort zone?

Nadine Crauwels: If you look back X number of years ago, Sandvik Coromant was really a company that had a lot of inserts and tools and know-how and knowledge. Now, with our CoroPlus platform, you have extra efficiencies and
productivity. It’s another leap, because you get the digitization and the data that comes out. It makes the industry much more attractive in one way, but you also enable customers to significantly reduce the waste that they have: waste of time, waste of energy, waste of material. That’s where we push the boundaries so that we can say we don’t want to stay only in the machining area. We want to do the pre-machining and reduce the waste during the design and the planning.

Image courtesy of Sandvik Coromant

CTE: Does Sandvik Coromant have a contingency plan if or when cutting tools are no longer needed to produce parts?

Crauwels: I don’t think it’ll happen soon where there is no need for cutting tools. You’ll see shifts happening as to what is really important, such as round tools becoming more important, but cutting tools will not disappear so fast. There will be new technologies and new techniques, but material cutting capabilities and processes won’t disappear.

CTE: Is the market for cutting tool manufacturers growing?