The past year was a traumatic one for American manufacturing, driven by the global shutdown that began January, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), looking at 2021 and beyond, there may be more reason for hope in the industry than at any time since the 1990s.1
According to the WSJ, three major themes are gaining traction that will push U.S. manufacturing to new prosperity: a quick recovery from the Covid recession; localization of supply chains (onshoring); and, tech advances that level the playing field between the U.S. and countries with lower labor costs.
That growth in manufacturing is supported by a growth in U.S. cutting tools orders, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), which reported April orders up 26.3 percent, compared to April 2020.2
And, supporting both the growth of U.S. manufacturing, and the growth of the cutting tools market is industry leader ARCH Cutting Tools – with its expanded, all-American Patriot High Performance portfolio. Introduced in 2018, Patriot HP, at that time, was a breakthrough in cutting tool innovation. It is even more so today, and that’s critical in supporting surging American manufacturing.
The Patriot HP portfolio offers more, and more versatile, high-performance tools from solid carbide to indexable milling options in addition to indexable and solid drilling.
Why does ARCH Cutting Tools continue to innovate and constantly reimagine cutting tools solutions? Because of the market demands that today’s manufacturers face: increased productivity, greater performance, and quicker throughput – all imposed under the additional pressure of profitability and sustainability. Within that challenging industry environment, Patriot HP is creating real value for customers and making a real difference in their manufacturing operations.
“The Patriot HP portfolio is the result of our unique development process. Our company’s engineers and craftsmen, using knowledge and proven solutions learned over decades of success, now provide the industry a comprehensive collection of high-performance products,” said Bill Orris, Senior Director of Product Development and Custom Solutions for ARCH Cutting Tools. “Customers in any industry segment now can get high performance tools, general purpose tools, solid carbide tools, and indexable tools – all from a single, American, expert source.”
Orris also emphasized that the Patriot HP portfolio offers 100 percent American-made quality and reliability, increased productivity and operational efficiency, and a potential gain of 20 percent or more in process improvement.
This, from Quality Mill Supply Co., of Muncie, Indiana, illustrates the advantages of the all-American Patriot HP portfolio.
“Quality Mill is supplying an Indiana-based major automotive parts manufacturer with a unique cutting tool challenge,” said Brent Broderick, Regional Sales Manager of ARCH Cutting Tools. “They’re producing a precision drivetrain component used in both an American luxury car and an American sports car but were unsatisfied with their previous tool which yielded only 50 parts per end mill.”
“I introduced them to ARCH Cutting Tool Patriot HP technology, and it not only provided a solution to the initial problem, but it also proved to be an unexpected gem for their production process.”
Not only did performance with the Patriot HP improve the process to 450 parts per end mill, but production was also faster, while maintaining the required precision, and the company realized significant savings – more than $68,000 overall, according to Broderick.
“Its an example of why I say, ‘when a Patriot HP is on the spindle, it’s tough to knock it off’,” he added.
ARCH Cutting Tools tells the manufacturing industry that it is: “Your Complete Tool Making Authority,” the Patriot HP portfolio is an example of how the company delivers on that promise.
1Wall Street Journal, Dec. 15, 2020 – U.S. Manufacturing: Why 2020 was the Bottom of a Long Decline.
2April 2021 US Cutting Tool Orders Up 26.3% from April 2020 – June 10, 2021
Related Glossary Terms
- gang cutting ( milling)
gang cutting ( milling)
Machining with several cutters mounted on a single arbor, generally for simultaneous cutting.
- 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.
- milling machine ( mill)
milling machine ( mill)
Runs endmills and arbor-mounted milling cutters. Features include a head with a spindle that drives the cutters; a column, knee and table that provide motion in the three Cartesian axes; and a base that supports the components and houses the cutting-fluid pump and reservoir. The work is mounted on the table and fed into the rotating cutter or endmill to accomplish the milling steps; vertical milling machines also feed endmills into the work by means of a spindle-mounted quill. Models range from small manual machines to big bed-type and duplex mills. All take one of three basic forms: vertical, horizontal or convertible horizontal/vertical. Vertical machines may be knee-type (the table is mounted on a knee that can be elevated) or bed-type (the table is securely supported and only moves horizontally). In general, horizontal machines are bigger and more powerful, while vertical machines are lighter but more versatile and easier to set up and operate.
- recovery
recovery
Reduction or removal of workhardening effects, without motion of large-angle grain boundaries.
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