No penalty for holding: Drilling Performance

—————–

END USER: Bob’s Design Engineering Inc., (503) 648-7418, www.bdeinc.com. CHALLENGE: Increase productivity when drilling holes more than 10 diameters deep. SOLUTION: Toolholding system that permits use of aggressive drilling parameters with through-coolant drills. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: Advanced Tooling Co. Inc., (360) 450-9237; A&I Marketing Inc., (206) 972-5260, www.aim4u2.com; Rego-Fix Tool Corp., (800) 734-6349, www.rego-fix.com. :Walter USA LLC (800) 945-5554 www.walter-tools.com

———————-

Bob’s Design Engineering Inc., Hillsboro, Ore., provides engineering and prototyping services for large electronics manufacturers and their smaller offshoots in the Portland area, as well as other customers.

After one prototyping job, BDE was asked to bid on the large-volume production. “We typically can submit a bid and beat Asia as well as producers in other low-cost-labor countries around the world,” said Jim O’Leary, tool engineer for BDE.

Courtesy of A&I Marketing

Applying Rego-Fix powRgrip toolholders and Titex AlCrN-coated drills from Walter USA, Bob ‘s Design Engineering was able to reduce machining time for holes more than 10 diameters deep from about 18 minutes to 85 seconds.

The transition from prototype to production did not present any machine tool problems. “We’ve always aggressively added appropriate technology,” O’Leary said, noting that, with its CNC mills and turning centers, wire EDM and direct numerical control, server-networked CAD/CAM system, the shop has the capabilities it needs to compete.

Prototype tools, however, are typically different than production ones. “When we prototype, we might apply a $30 tool. But if a $100 tool gives us two to three times the productivity and lasts two to three times longer, that helps us reduce cycle time,” O’Leary said.

A prime target for cycle time reduction in the project was machining a fluid manifold. The 6.3 “-long, 1¼-sq.-in. part was made from round 316 stainless steel bar. The bar was clamped vertically in vises for facing and axial holemaking, then mounted in a fourth-axis indexer to mill the bar sides square. A series of radial holes that met the axial bore were then drilled.