Drilling more for less

————–

END USER: Western Forge & Flange Co., (800) 352-6433, www.western-forge.com. CHALLENGE: Reduce tooling costs when drilling forged materials. SOLUTION: TiAlN-coated drills with two square indexable inserts. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Komet of America Inc., (847) 923-8400, www.komet.com

————–

Western Forge & Flange Co. is an integrated supplier of flanges and forged materials for manufacturers of oil field and nuclear equipment as well as defense and semiconductor components. WFF, Cleveland, Texas, produces various flanges from ½ ” to 30 ” in diameter, including weld neck, slip-ons, reducers and specials in common materials as well as exotics and superalloys. The company also supplies unmachined forgings on request.

WFF manufactures the flanges to order, so fulfilling customer demand requires it to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing costs. According to CNC Manager Will Lunceford, one effort in that area focused on drilling holes for the bolts that connect the flanges in the field. The through-holes range from 5⁄8 ” to 1½ ” in diameter. When Lunceford joined WFF, he found the shop was using drills that accepted two indexable trigon inserts. The shop was spending at least $2,000 a month on a large variety of insert grades and sizes, Lunceford noted.

Courtesy of Komet