I recently attended cutting tool seminars provided by Sumitomo Electric Carbide Manufacturing Inc., New Berlin, Wis., which is within an hour’s drive from my home.
The toolmaker offers three levels of training. The first level is a 1-day seminar provided twice a year, usually in the spring and the fall. This is purely an introduction to cutting tools for newbies to the industry, such as apprentice machinists and new sales and service staffers. The seminar includes a plant tour so attendees can see various manufacturing processes, such as tool grinding, brazing and coating.
Sumitomo also shows how it repairs and regrinds cutting tools. I never knew how labor-intensive some of this work is and was amazed at how many automated CNC tool grinders are on the plant floor.
The second level is a 2-day seminar provided five times a year that introduces attendees to the company’s product groups and grades and covers troubleshooting for tool failures. The product categories covered are milling, turning, drilling and reaming and include PCD and PCBN inserts and specials. This class, which also features a plant tour, is designed for up to 40 attendees.
I jumped right into the second level class. My class had 14 attendees, a mix of customers, distributors and new company employees. It was a good blend of classroom time and machining demos on a late-model turning center and a 40-hp vertical machining center. The demos reinforced what was presented in the classroom, and the three trainers, who alternated product lines, did an excellent job of conducting the seminar.
I also attended the level three event, a 1-day seminar that delves deeply into one of the product groups. It is an equal mix of classroom instruction and machine demos. Sumitomo limits the class size to 10, which helps attendees retain what they learn. Each year, the toolmaker conducts three drilling, three milling, two turning and two PCBN seminars. I was fortunate to attend my first level-three seminar within 30 days of attending the level-two training, which helped reinforce what I had already learned.
The advanced session covered drilling, including solid-carbide, replaceable-tip and indexable-insert drills. The presenter showed slow-motion videos of drills as they enter the cut and taught acceptable chip shapes, how to select an edge prep, how to choose the correct grade for an application and how to troubleshoot various failure modes.
What was really great was being divided into groups of three and having each group determine the feeds and speeds for various drills and sizes. Then, the parameters were plugged into the machining center and run. The resulting chips were compiled and compared between the groups, providing a little competitive fun to see which group had the best parameters. The session also used a Kistler force sensor and software to measure the Z-axis forces produced by our feeds and speeds.
I went into the seminar with some knowledge, but came away with significantly more. I am scheduled for additional level-three training this year on milling and turning, and I can’t wait for those classes. CTE
About the author: Michael Deren is the manufacturing engineer/project manager and a regular CTE contributor. mderen1@wi.rr.com
Related Glossary Terms
- computer numerical control ( CNC)
computer numerical control ( CNC)
Microprocessor-based controller dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives and controls the various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.
- gang cutting ( milling)
gang cutting ( milling)
Machining with several cutters mounted on a single arbor, generally for simultaneous cutting.
- grinding
grinding
Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool and cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.
- machining center
machining center
CNC machine tool capable of drilling, reaming, tapping, milling and boring. Normally comes with an automatic toolchanger. See automatic toolchanger.
- milling
milling
Machining operation in which metal or other material is removed by applying power to a rotating cutter. In vertical milling, the cutting tool is mounted vertically on the spindle. In horizontal milling, the cutting tool is mounted horizontally, either directly on the spindle or on an arbor. Horizontal milling is further broken down into conventional milling, where the cutter rotates opposite the direction of feed, or “up” into the workpiece; and climb milling, where the cutter rotates in the direction of feed, or “down” into the workpiece. Milling operations include plane or surface milling, endmilling, facemilling, angle milling, form milling and profiling.
- polycrystalline cubic boron nitride ( PCBN)
polycrystalline cubic boron nitride ( PCBN)
Cutting tool material consisting of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride with a metallic or ceramic binder. PCBN is available either as a tip brazed to a carbide insert carrier or as a solid insert. Primarily used for cutting hardened ferrous alloys.
- polycrystalline diamond ( PCD)
polycrystalline diamond ( PCD)
Cutting tool material consisting of natural or synthetic diamond crystals bonded together under high pressure at elevated temperatures. PCD is available as a tip brazed to a carbide insert carrier. Used for machining nonferrous alloys and nonmetallic materials at high cutting speeds.
- turning
turning
Workpiece is held in a chuck, mounted on a face plate or secured between centers and rotated while a cutting tool, normally a single-point tool, is fed into it along its periphery or across its end or face. Takes the form of straight turning (cutting along the periphery of the workpiece); taper turning (creating a taper); step turning (turning different-size diameters on the same work); chamfering (beveling an edge or shoulder); facing (cutting on an end); turning threads (usually external but can be internal); roughing (high-volume metal removal); and finishing (final light cuts). Performed on lathes, turning centers, chucking machines, automatic screw machines and similar machines.
Author
Michael Deren is a manufacturing engineer/project manager and a regular CTE contributor. He can be reached via e-mail at mderen1@wi.rr.com.
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