Kennametal Recognized For Ethical Corporate Culture
Cutting tool manufacturer Kennametal has been named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by The Ethisphere Institute. A look at the factors on which this award is based shows that ethics is more than adhering to a strict code of ethics in a corporate handbook.

iPad App Enables Product Comparison
The Kennametal Innovations app for the iPad features interactive animations and real-world demonstrations of the company’s technology in use.

Savings from Sustainability
A project aimed at energy-efficient machining delivered production efficiencies, too.

Mold and Die as Key Indicator Brings Forth New Cutting Tool Technology
As a single industry, mold and die serves multiple industrial segments. And with a global footprint that yields a high-pressure environment demanding the most up-to-date technology, it’s firmly established as a strong indicator of the manufacturing base.

Spindle Connection Delivers Maximum Metal Removal
Kennametal’s next-generation spindle connection, the KM4X, is designed for machining tough materials, such as titanium.

Kennametal, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Renew Partnership
Cutting tool manufacturer Kennametal (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) has announced a multi-year renewal of its machining technology partnership with Chip Ganassi Teams (CGRT). The renewal of the relationship, which began in 1993, occurs in the wake of Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon’s first and second-place finishes at the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

A Systems Approach for Successful Titanium Machining
Coolant delivery, spindle connection and dynamic response all are part of a tooling formula for milling this metal productively.

Matching Manufacturing Perceptions with Realities
A survey suggests the public continues to view manufacturing in a negative light, despite evidence to the contrary.

Poll Reveals Public’s Manufacturing Misconceptions
A recent poll conducted by cutting tool manufacturer Kennametal shows a wide gap between the public’s perception of manufacturing and the facts about the sector’s current strength and future viability.   According to the survey, 65 percent of Americans believe manufacturing jobs are desirable, high-paying and high-tech, and 70 percent believe manufacturing jobs are important for domestic job creation.

Kennametal CEO Speaks at National Press Club
Carlos Cardoso emphasizes manufacturing careers and the need for manufacturers to more-actively educate young people about these opportunities.

Kennametal CEO Tapped for PA Manufacturing Council
Pennsylvania Gov.

Taps Target Wind Energy Applications
Kennametal’s high-performance HSS-E-PM (powder metal) Beyond taps are designed for large-diameter tapping.

Kennametal to Offer imX Presentations
Kennametal has announced that it will present two “learning labs” during the inaugural Interactive Manufacturing Experience (imX) event, which is scheduled for September 12-14 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.   The presentations are titled “Delivering Productivity from Art to Part” and “From Megatrends to Solutions: Turning Change into Opportunity,” respectively.

The Buzz about the B Axis
The rotating milling head is a defining feature on a turn-mill machine designed for efficient production of complex parts in low volumes.

Inserts Accelerate Turning Productivity
Kennametal’s Beyond inserts for its FixPerfect system are designed to improve toughness, wear-resistance and increase turning productivity.

A New Milling 101: What Customers Demand
Part 5. For W Machine Works in San Fernando, a custom variation of the WIDIA-Hanita VariMILL II solid end mill proved especially effective in roughing and semi-finishing applications in stainless steels, high-temp alloys, nickel- and carbon-based alloys, and titanium.

A New Milling 101: Selecting Tool Materials and Coatings
Part 4. The emergence of new workpiece materials is driving the development of new cutting tool materials and tool coatings. These, in turn, are driving the development of new milling processes and techniques.

A New Milling 101: What Milling Is, Then and Now (Plus a Glossary of Milling Terms)
Part 1: Greater understanding of milling tools, what they can accomplish, and the optimum circumstances in which to employ them, is always valuable. The continuing development in milling tools in the face of changing customer requirements, advanced workpiece materials, and the constant need to improve productivity while reducing costs make this even more important today.

A New Milling 101: Milling Forces and Formulas
Part 3. The forces involved in the milling process can be quantified, thus allowing mathematical tools to predict and control these forces. Formulas for calculating these forces accurately make it possible to optimize the quality (and the profitability) of milling operations.

A New Milling 101: Cutter Design and Application Considerations
Part 2: Cutting tool geometry governs almost all design and application considerations related to various milling choices.

Turning Inserts Accelerate Productivity
Kennametal says the Beyond inserts for its FixPerfect system are designed for toughness and wear-resistance to improve turning productivity and safety.

Interactive Catalog App Available on iTunes
Kennametal’s offers an interactive catalog app for the iPad platform.

Try Tweeting for a Tool?
Here is how Twitter will serve the metalworking industry.

Last Glance at IMTS 2010
It would be impossible to cover all of the key exhibitors at IMTS 2010—even if every booth got merely a quick glance. However, the editors of MMS did get glimpses of some interesting technologies exhibited at the show...

Holemaking Inserts Boost Drilling Productivity
Designed for holemaking applications, Kennametal’s Beyond insert line includes three new grades,KCPK10, KCU25 and KCU40.

Coolant-Through Inserts
Beyond Blast is the company’s method to deliver coolant through the insert itself.

Mazak, Kennemetal Host Aerospace Event
Kennametal (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) and Mazak (Florence, Kentucky) will showcase the latest developments in multi-tasking machine tools and cutting tools for aerospace industry manufacturers.

Tooling Improves Productivity In Small-Diameter Face Grooving Applications
 The Beyond carbide grade of face grooving inserts and tooling from Kennametal includes three new geometries for small-diameter internal and external applications. The precision-ground and molded styles are available in both flat-edge and full-radius face grooving geometries.

Kennametal Streamlines Brand Structure
Kennametal (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) has completed the migration of all its current brands of metalcutting tools and tooling systems into two distinct portfolios: WIDIA Products Group and Kennametal Products group. The company announced the launch of WIDIA Products Group at EMO Milano 2009 in Milan, Italy last month.

Shrink-Fit Covers Carbide, Steel, HSS Shanks
Kennametal offers a shrink-fit toolholding system for machining centers and multi-tasking machines. The program is split in two lines: general purpose (GP) and high torque (HT).

Inserts Cut Stainless And Super Alloys
SGE inserts for Kennametal’s Mill 1-14/18 platform are said to improve performance for companies machining stainless steels, super alloys and high-strength steels. Micro-geometry features, such as a 20-degree rake angle, a negative T-land and a small hone, enhance the inserts’ performance by increasing feed capability, reducing cycle times, lowering cutting forces and increasing tool life.

Grades Improve Titanium Turning Productivity
Kennametal’s Beyond line of high-performance turning products includes 11 additional grades for improved productivity in steel, stainless steels and cast iron applications. The latest grade, KCS10, is a medium positive (MP) geometry with the capability of improved titanium designed to improve surface finish while extending tool life.

Aluminum-Hogging End Mills Reduce Part Costs
Kennametal’s MaxiMet end mills are designed for aerospace and general engineering shops seeking to improve performance in machining high volumes of aluminum. According to the company, the cutters are suitable for applications that require both high metal removal rates and quality wall and floor finishes. The cutters feature a flute design that is said to enable high feed rates by providing rigidity behind the cutting edges.

End Mills Feature High Performance, Long Tool Life
Designed to replace multiple tools used for roughing, semi-finishing, slotting and profiling, Hanita’s VariMill II family of solid-carbide end mills is suited for high-temperature alloys, nickel- and carbon-based alloys and titanium. Available from Kennametal, the tools feature five unequally spaced flutes, a patented flute form and end geometry and AlTiN coating that enables heavy cuts and long tool life, the company says. The end mill geometries are designed to virtually eliminate chatter and harmonics to allow slotting at cutting depths of 1 × D and perform side-milling operations at redial and axial cutting depths ranging to 0.

Helical Cutters Increase Milling Versatility, Performance
Mill 1-14 helical cutters from Kennametal are designed for greater axial depth of cut than a standard end mill, the company says. The flexible cutter range features inserts stacked two, three and four high. The helical cutters can be used for medium to heavy roughing and semi-finishing in applications such as contour profiling, slotting, ramping, helical ramping from solid and plunge milling.

Inserts Offer Long Life, Tight Tolerances
Kennametal has added screw-on, positive chipbreaker inserts to its Beyond line, which includes 11 grades for improved productivity in steel, stainless steel and cast iron turning applications. The chipbreaker inserts, which include the FP (finishing positive), MP (medium/roughing positive) and MW (flat top) models, are said to provide significant tool life savings across a range of applications and materials. Additionally, the inserts’ tight dimensional tolerances can improve indexability, the company says.

Modular Drill Diameter Range Expands
The Ken TIP modular drill system from Kennametal features various solid-steel bodies (3 × D, 5 × D and 8 × D, among others) and replaceable drill points for precision hole-making in steel. The modular design allows users to keep the drill bodies in a machine or holder and replace drill points as needed. Running at speeds comparable to those of solid carbide drills, the system offers high metal removal rates compared to common modular drills and reduces setup times, the company says.

Modular Drills Combine Benefits Of Indexable Tools
Kennametal says its KSEM Plus modular drills combine the high feed rates and length/diameter capabilities of modular drills with the high speed and low consumable costs of indexable drills. The drills offer increased metal removal rates and productivity in various applications, including the energy market. The drill bodies accept a range of head diameters, and inserts or heads can be replaced without removing the body from the spindle.

One Insert Design Machines A Variety Of Materials
Kennametal’s Mill 1-10 tooling platform performs common machining applications such as face milling, shoulder milling, pocketing, slotting, interpolating and ramping for steels, aluminum and exotics, all with one common insert style. The tooling platform accomplishes this through the use of multifunctional cutter bodies and First Choice inserts, which consist of different grades and edge preps for various work materials but utilize the same cutting geometry and size. Cutter bodies come in straight and helical flute styles.

Tooling For Turning
Kennametal’s 800-page turning catalog contains information on new product offerings as well as classic tooling selections designed to increase accuracy and productivity in turning, grooving, cutoff and various other turning center applications.

Cutting Tools For Multiple Industries, Applications
Cutting tool catalog features Kennametal's latest cutting tools and systems.

Extra Tough Tool Steel Meets Its Match In Extra Tough Inserts
A new grade of coated inserts enabled this shop to cut an especially hard tool steel so effectively and efficiently that it could deliver a massive set of press brake dies on time. The inserts are part of Kennametal’s Beyond line of carbide tooling. 

Spinning Turning Tool Offers Alternative To Single-Point Cutters
CAM developer DP Technology recently performed a successful test cut of a new cutting tool for turning applications that is designed to reduce vibration and heat buildup. The company's CAM software package, Esprit, now contains an add-on for programming the new tool. Developed jointly by machine tool builder Mori

Insert Grade For Stainless Steel

Face Milling System For High-Volume Operations

Thread Milling System

Thinking About Shopfloor Interoperability-And Making It Happen
The significance of “plug-and-produce” integration for machine shops and manufacturing plants becomes clear from the perspective of an ERP software developer.

Face Mills For Low Cutting Speeds, High Metal-Removal Rates

Long-Length Drill For Automotive Powertrain, Hydraulic Parts

Machine Tools Used As Dedicated Equipment…For A Little While
Two keys to this shop’s success are versatility and speed. It uses flexible machining centers, rather than dedicated equipment, and constantly reconfigures them into new cells for new jobs. The speed at which it can do this, in addition to in-house tombstone manufacturing capability, provides the nimbleness to quickly respond to its customers’ needs.

Split-Point Fiber Drill

From Out Of The Lab
Disruptive technology's  purpose is to disrupt the way machining is done. This article includes some of the developments to come out of the Machining Technology Laboratory (MTL), an R&D initiative dedicated to finding innovations in metalworking processes.

A Subscription To Spindle Speeds
A peculiar characteristic of machine tools is that they can't be put to use until the user performs a critical final assembly step-installing the cutting tool in the machine.

Positive-geometry Cutter Mills Multiple Materials

Hydraulic Chucks For Increased Accuracy

Driven Units Enable High Spindle Speeds And Feeds

Making Programming Hands-Free (Almost)
Feature-recognition CAM software helps this technology company's internal mold shop deliver critical molds more quickly. A programmer is still needed, but the software automation saves considerable time.

Drilling And Beyond
This collection of hole making-technologies offers some new, unusual and overlooked ways to make holes in machined parts. One of these tools might be the solution you're looking for. All of them will help you rethink your approach to hole making.

Miniature Carbide End Mills

Cylinder Head Porting On A Turn/Mill Machine
This complex milling operation is performed effectively on a machine that does turning.

Milling Inserts For High Speed Aluminum Machining

Software Automates Tool Inventory Tracking
Nestled in a farming community of 1,500 people, MetalQuest Unlimited (Hebron, Nebraska) is a 40-person shop serving the petroleum, energy distribution, hydraulics, agriculture, electronics and automotive parts sectors. At its inception in 1996, the company had one multi-axis CNC lathe. It has since added a variety of multi-functional CNC machining centers and lathes.

Selecting High Speed Tooling Requires A Balanced Approach
Plug in the right choices, use the right formulas and repeatability, reliability and improved productivity result.

The Incentive Effect
The Future of Machining - 2005 It's not just changes in machining challenges that matter. Changes in cost analysis and business arrangements are also driving the introduction of new tools.

Extreme Tool Setting
A plant performing 79,000 tool setups per year measures these tools with one presetter and two gatekeepers.

Unusual Function For Groove And Turn System
Although this tooling was engineered for turn, face, profile, OD and ID groove, bore and cutoff applications, it is used in 95 percent of the company's threading functions in which large OD square threads are required.

Face Mill For High Feed Rates And Smooth Cutting

End Mill Designed For Ramping
Features of the tool facilitate ramping and other aspects of milling holes and pockets.

Cast Iron Milling Program

Carbide Drill Improves Productivity For Heat Exchanger Manufacturer
After using this solid carbide drill, the company experienced a 250 percent increase in feed rates and a 250 percent jump in speed.

Modular Carbide Drills

Milling System Keeps Valve Production Flowing Smoothly
Carbide inserts proved to be too slow in the milling of three Inconel high-performance alloys used in the manufacture of valve components for oil drilling and other industrial and commercial applications.

The Right Tool For Milling Titanium
Milling titanium is different from other metals because of the risk of heat build-up. Thanks to the metal’s low thermal conductivity, overly aggressive milling may even pose a risk of combustion. With titanium, in other words, there may be more than one reason why the cutting speed can’t be increased. And yet the speed of production still can be increased.

Modular Carbide Tip Drill

Turning And Grooving System

Harley Davidson Parts Manufacturer Mills A 'Mile Of Aluminum'
This designer and manufacturer of Harley-Davidson aftermarket motorcycle engines and related components, is using PCD milling to finish engine cases, oil pumps, rocker boxes, inner and outer primary engine covers, and transmission cases and covers.

Holding The Center
Using a collet-type workholding system, a high-volume shop improves accuracy when machining round parts.

New Borders For Swiss-Type Turning
The traditional niche may be too narrow. This shop uses sliding-headstock lathes for jobs that wouldn't normally be run on this type of machine.

Milling System Puts Productivity In Fast Lane
When this company won a contract to machine automotive parts for a customer, they were faced with the need for a milling tool that could meet tighter cycle times, enable machining centers to perform multiple tasks, maximize the life of milling tools and reduce tool inventory.

Vacuum Pump Maker Finds Innovative Ways To Reduce Manufaturing Costs
With new tooling, this manufacturer was able to mill housings at 3,000 sfm and a feed rate of 230 ipm. Cutting time dropped from 20.68 minutes to 12.74 minutes, a savings of nearly 40 percent.

Trends That Drive Cutting Tool Development
Cutting tools have highly engineered coatings and geometries for all types of manufacturing methods and materials.

Are You Turning Fast Enough?
Let's face it. When most shops go looking for process improvements, turning is seldom at the top of the list. Sure, many shops these days are doing fine work in such areas as reducing lathe setup, combining milling and turning operations on a single machine, and automating workpiece handling functions. But for all the talk of high speed machining and other milling and drilling process improvements, precious little of that kind of thinking is being applied to the turning process itself.

Chatter Control In A Box
This company learned how chatter control may be attained through an analyzer that 'listens' to an unstable cut, and isolates the distinct frequencies in this sound in relation to the number of cutting edges on the tool, and the analyzer then calculates the optimum speeds for smooth cutting in that particular operation.

The Case For Cutting Tool Standardization
It's possible to increase overall machining efficiency at the same time you decrease cutting tool inventory. Here's how.

Fine Pitch Cutter Increases Milling Productivity
This 120 year-old manufacturer to update its manufacturing processes and expand its product offering so it could become a sole-source supplier for its customers in the steam industry.

The New Model For Short-Order Manufacturing
Through the combination of innovative process development, cellular manufacturing and quick setup procedures, this shop found a way to mix efficiency and flexibility in small-lot machining.

Tune Chatter Out Of Tools
A basic tenet of metalcutting is shorter tools are more rigid than longer tools and generally deliver better cutting results. Closer proximity of a cutting edge to a machining center spindle or turning center turret translates into higher feeds and speeds with better surface finish and less chatter.

Plant Floor Partnerships Pay Off
Synergy between the machine tool buyer, the machine tool builder, the machine tool distributor, and the tooling supplier doesn't just happen. But making it happen is well worth the effort, as the experiences of this company prove.

Cutting Tool Considerations For High Speed Machining
Fast CNC processing and high pressure coolant all contribute to removing metal at dramatic rates. But, what should a shop know about cutting tools in high speed applications?