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Cutting tools: The contours of smart-shop profit
They come in varied forms, and they are designed to handle a range of duties. All in all, though, cutting tools have but one purpose: making the chips fly. It's fair to say, in fact, that IMTS is the best place for a smart shop to restock its arsenal of cutting tools. All the key manufacturers will be there, ready to show off their latest developments and ready to help you keep the chips flying. As the following pages attest, each manufacturer is placing the greatest emphasis on product performance. Whether a company is showcasing PVD (physical vapor deposition) coated carbide insert grades or a new milling line, it is starting all conversation by saying, "Look what this can do for you and your business." Don't be surprised to hear the word "comprehensive" used often inside McCormick Place, either. Carboloy, for instance, will be showing its CombiMaster system, "an array of inexpensive tool shanks and screw-in cutting heads that can be combined to meet most mold-and-die machining requirements, including high-speed finishing." That is just one example. Bottom Line advice Only last month, writing in The Bottom Line in Metlfax, Senior Editor Paul Miller encouraged readers to keep an open mind about cutting tools, pointing out that "you might just get high productivity, even if operations seem to be good enough right now." That's advice to keep in mind as you roam the halls of McCormick Place. Of course, Miller adds this caveat to IMTS-goers: "Try some new tools, but be sure they really do improve performance. Besides the obvious boost in productivity, your operators might enjoy the different sound a better tool could make, and so might the machine tool. Does the machine register different anomalies [vibrations] when a new tool comes to cut? Do chatter marks appear in new locations, or, better yet, do they disappear? Keep track of tool performance." IMTS 98 is the best place to start a strategy of productivity for the next year--and right into the next century.--Joseph F McKenna |
