Ceratizit USA Inc. has joined forces with several companies to make ventilators. The CERATIZIT Group has extensive experience in the carbide production process, from the powder to the finished cutting tool. Not only does this allow special-purpose tools to be developed for customer-specific applications but it also means that a full range of industry-specific standard tools are held in stock and quickly available. High-precision drilling, reaming, countersinking and boring are specialties of CERATIZIT. Involved in this effort is Staub Precision Machine and the industrial distributor Abrasive Tool.
Staub Precision Machine used CERATIZIT reamers to perform a finishing operation of high-precision holes to size. The reamer was a solid carbide PCD tipped (polycrystalline diamond) with through-tool coolant diameter of .626” +.0005 -.0000. The material cut was aluminum and the production run quantity was 2,500 parts per week. In addition, Staub designed and machined two tombstones as well as collets. There were 33 parts on each of the four sides of the tombstone in the machine and Staub made 132 parts at a time. The machine was running at 4900 RPM (revolutions per minute) and 78 inches per minute feed. The hole was only .250” deep, taking less than a second per hole to ream. In addition, the hole was sized .616” before reaming, leaving .010” of stock allowance. While the hole has a .0005” tolerance, the reamer cuts the same size every time with a high mirrored finish (See photos 1 and 2).
Located in Hamburg, New York, Staub Machine Company was founded in 1975 in Tony Staub’s garage. Over the next 43 years, the company developed into an industry leader in precision machining and the precision industry. In 1995, Staub moved into an old Super Duper grocery store located at 206 Lake St. in Hamburg. Tony Staub decided to sell the assets of Staub Machine Company to Staub Precision Machine, Inc. to keep the company intact, innovating and growing. Today, the company supplies high-volume production to match the needs of customers, producing machine component parts for a number of manufacturers across the country, especially in Western New York.
The close collaboration between Staub and CERATIZIT was achieved thanks to Abrasive Tool. Located in Buffalo, New York, the company is a distributor of high quality tooling solutions. Jay Janca, distributor sales engineer, supplied Staub Precision Machine with the reamers, helped process the part and also coordinated delivery of several other parts. He and Tony Staub started this project on a Thursday evening in his garage with a set of drawings and a part he needed to make for a ventilator client. Through Janca, he reached out to Chuck Somerville, CERATIZIT sales engineer and told him about the project. Quickly, Tony, Jay, Chuck and the staff at CERATIZIT worked on confirming details of the tool. CERATIZIT had an approved drawing at the beginning of the week and the reamers were shipped on Friday of the same week and in production the following Monday. This was just over a week after the initial discussion. Staub machines run unattended for maximum productivity 24/7, so CERATIZT worked to make the process as smooth as possible. Tony was very happy with CERATIZT, saying, “I was amazed at how quickly they responded and the reamers produced a beautiful part. I am sure we will continue working with CERATIZIT in the future.”
Another two companies that joined CERATIZIT in the manufacturing of ventilators were Blackhawk Industrial and another manufacturer of precision metal components. As CERATIZIT products are distributed by Blackhawk, the company helped connect CERATIZIT with their customer. Commenting on why CERATIZIT was chosen, sales engineer Mitch Vraja said, “We were asked to provide reamers because they know our quality and we had a quick delivery.” Blackhawk Industrial is an industrial distributor in Brunswick, Ohio. The machining process performed by their customer company involved machining adapters. In order to ensure that the tool holding device could accommodate various types of cutting tools, CERATIZIT reamers were used to create a hole for better positioning. Different cutting tools in the adapter were used on various machines. The tool involved was number 52M.57.0497, known as Fullmax - DBGU - Ø4,97 +4µ (see photo 3). The material cut was stainless steel. The ventilators had to fit in a precise location, thus dowel pins were used to locate the mounting brackets to the mobile unit. In this process, five reamers were used to provide a true position diameter. The tool diameter of the reamed blind hole in stainless steel was .1958 +/- .0005. There were three holes in each bracket and over 10,000 brackets were made.
Blackhawk’s customer blends old world craftsmanship with cutting- edge technology. Capabilities include precision turning, grinding, milling, automated assembly and inspection, semi-automated assembly, manual assembly and wire EDM. Additional capabilities are CNC machining, Swiss machining, machining ranges between 3mm and 66 mm and material neutral machining. The company serves the automotive, hydraulics, sensor, recreational vehicle, plumbing, application, natural gas, firearms, off-road vehicle and medical equipment markets. Within the medical field, the company specializes in manufacturing small diameter components requiring strict tolerances and superior finish.
As an industrial distributor, Blackhawk specializes in metalworking equipment categories such as carbide cutting tools, abrasive, fabrication and machining equipment. In addition, the company has a wide offering of packaging, MRO products and a proven ability to provide custom industrial vending solutions, as well as creative supply chain solutions.
Related Glossary Terms
- abrasive
abrasive
Substance used for grinding, honing, lapping, superfinishing and polishing. Examples include garnet, emery, corundum, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride and diamond in various grit sizes.
- boring
boring
Enlarging a hole that already has been drilled or cored. Generally, it is an operation of truing the previously drilled hole with a single-point, lathe-type tool. Boring is essentially internal turning, in that usually a single-point cutting tool forms the internal shape. Some tools are available with two cutting edges to balance cutting forces.
- chuck
chuck
Workholding device that affixes to a mill, lathe or drill-press spindle. It holds a tool or workpiece by one end, allowing it to be rotated. May also be fitted to the machine table to hold a workpiece. Two or more adjustable jaws actually hold the tool or part. May be actuated manually, pneumatically, hydraulically or electrically. See collet.
- 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.
- coolant
coolant
Fluid that reduces temperature buildup at the tool/workpiece interface during machining. Normally takes the form of a liquid such as soluble or chemical mixtures (semisynthetic, synthetic) but can be pressurized air or other gas. Because of water’s ability to absorb great quantities of heat, it is widely used as a coolant and vehicle for various cutting compounds, with the water-to-compound ratio varying with the machining task. See cutting fluid; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.
- countersinking
countersinking
Cutting a beveled edge at the entrance of a hole so a screw head sits flush with the workpiece surface.
- electrical-discharge machining ( EDM)
electrical-discharge machining ( EDM)
Process that vaporizes conductive materials by controlled application of pulsed electrical current that flows between a workpiece and electrode (tool) in a dielectric fluid. Permits machining shapes to tight accuracies without the internal stresses conventional machining often generates. Useful in diemaking.
- feed
feed
Rate of change of position of the tool as a whole, relative to the workpiece while cutting.
- 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.
- inches per minute ( ipm)
inches per minute ( ipm)
Value that refers to how far the workpiece or cutter advances linearly in 1 minute, defined as: ipm = ipt 5 number of effective teeth 5 rpm. Also known as the table feed or machine feed.
- lapping compound( powder)
lapping compound( powder)
Light, abrasive material used for finishing a surface.
- metalworking
metalworking
Any manufacturing process in which metal is processed or machined such that the workpiece is given a new shape. Broadly defined, the term includes processes such as design and layout, heat-treating, material handling and inspection.
- 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 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.
- precision machining ( precision measurement)
precision machining ( precision measurement)
Machining and measuring to exacting standards. Four basic considerations are: dimensions, or geometrical characteristics such as lengths, angles and diameters of which the sizes are numerically specified; limits, or the maximum and minimum sizes permissible for a specified dimension; tolerances, or the total permissible variations in size; and allowances, or the prescribed differences in dimensions between mating parts.
- reamer
reamer
Rotating cutting tool used to enlarge a drilled hole to size. Normally removes only a small amount of stock. The workpiece supports the multiple-edge cutting tool. Also for contouring an existing hole.
- tolerance
tolerance
Minimum and maximum amount a workpiece dimension is allowed to vary from a set standard and still be acceptable.
- 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.
- wire EDM
wire EDM
Process similar to ram electrical-discharge machining except a small-diameter copper or brass wire is used as a traveling electrode. Usually used in conjunction with a CNC and only works when a part is to be cut completely through. A common analogy is wire electrical-discharge machining is like an ultraprecise, electrical, contour-sawing operation.
