Tungsten Carbide Inserts A Closer Look at the Manufacturing Process and Quality Control Measures

The use of cutting tool inserts is becoming increasingly common in machining operations. Cutting tool inserts are small pieces of metal that are inserted into a cutting tool and used to support and guide the cutting action. They are designed to help reduce the risk of tool breakage during machining operations and can be very effective in doing so.

When using cutting tool inserts, the cutting tool is able to work at higher speeds and with greater precision. This means that the cutting tool is subjected to less strain and is less likely to break. The inserts also help to reduce vibration and chatter, which can cause the cutting tool to break. In addition, they help to distribute the cutting force more evenly, which can also reduce the risk of tool breakage.

Cutting tool inserts can also help to reduce the amount of time needed for a machining operation. By reducing the amount of time needed for the cutting process, the risk of tool breakage is reduced. This is because there is less time for the cutting tool to be subjected to excessive strain.

Overall, the use of cutting tool inserts can be very effective in reducing the risk of tool breakage during machining operations. The inserts help to reduce the amount of strain on the cutting tool, reduce vibration and chatter, and reduce the amount of time needed for the machining operation. All of these factors contribute to a decrease in the risk of tool breakage and can ultimately lead to improved productivity and efficiency.

The use of cutting tool inserts is becoming increasingly common in machining operations. Cutting tool inserts are small pieces of metal that are inserted into a cutting tool and used to support and guide the cutting action. They are designed to help reduce the risk of tool breakage during machining Indexable Inserts operations and can be very effective in doing so.

When using cutting tool inserts, the cutting tool is able to work at higher speeds and with greater precision. This means that the cutting tool is subjected to less strain and is less likely to break. The inserts also help to reduce vibration and chatter, which can cause the cutting tool to break. In addition, they help to distribute the cutting force more evenly, which can also reduce the risk of tool breakage.

Cutting tool inserts can also help to reduce the amount of time needed for a machining operation. By reducing the amount of time SNMG Insert needed for the cutting process, the risk of tool breakage is reduced. This is because there is less time for the cutting tool to be subjected to excessive strain.

Overall, the use of cutting tool inserts can be very effective in reducing the risk of tool breakage during machining operations. The inserts help to reduce the amount of strain on the cutting tool, reduce vibration and chatter, and reduce the amount of time needed for the machining operation. All of these factors contribute to a decrease in the risk of tool breakage and can ultimately lead to improved productivity and efficiency.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/pro_cat/steel-inserts/index.html

What Makes Machining Inserts Essential in Precision Manufacturing

Cutting tool inserts are an important part of the drilling process, as they are used to shape and form the drilled hole. They are designed to reduce tool wear rates by providing a precise cutting angle, which helps to reduce friction and heat buildup. The right cutting tool insert can also increase the life of the drill bit, and reduce the chances of breakage.

When selecting the right cutting insert, it is important to consider the material being drilled as well as the size and shape of the hole. The cutting insert should be made from a material that can withstand the high temperatures and pressures associated with drilling. The cutting angle should also be selected to minimize tool wear rate. For example, a larger angle will reduce the wear rate, while a smaller angle will increase it.

In addition, proper maintenance and lubrication of the cutting insert is essential for reducing tool wear rate. If the cutting insert is not properly lubricated, it can cause excessive wear and tear, leading to premature failure. The lubrication should also be changed regularly, as it can become contaminated over time, leading to further wear and tear.

Finally, the selection of the right cutting insert for the job is essential for reducing tool wear rate. Different cutting inserts are better suited for different materials and drilling applications, so it is important to select the best insert for the job. Selecting the wrong insert can lead to excessive tool wear rates and even tool breakage.

In conclusion, cutting tool inserts can be an effective way to reduce tool wear rates in drilling. By selecting the right cutting insert, properly maintaining and lubricating it, and selecting the best insert for the job, it is possible to reduce tool wear rates and increase the life of the drill bit.

Cutting tool inserts are an important part of the drilling process, as they are used to shape and form the drilled hole. They are designed to reduce tool wear rates by providing a precise cutting angle, which helps to reduce friction and heat buildup. The right cutting tool insert can also increase the life of the drill bit, and reduce the chances of breakage.

When selecting the right cutting insert, it is important to consider the material being drilled as well as the size and shape of the hole. The cutting insert should be made from a material that can withstand the high temperatures and pressures associated with drilling. The cutting angle should also be selected to minimize tool wear rate. For example, a larger angle will reduce the wear rate, while a smaller angle will increase it.

In addition, proper maintenance and lubrication of the cutting insert is essential for reducing tool wear rate. If the cutting insert is not properly lubricated, it can cause excessive wear and tear, leading to premature failure. The lubrication should also be changed regularly, as it can become contaminated over time, leading to further wear and tear.

Finally, the selection of the right cutting insert for the job is essential for reducing tool wear rate. Different cutting inserts are better suited for different materials and drilling applications, so it DNMG Inserts is important to select the best insert for the job. Selecting the wrong insert can lead to excessive tool wear rates and even tool breakage.

In conclusion, cutting tool inserts can be an effective way to reduce tool wear rates in drilling. By selecting the right cutting insert, properly maintaining and lubricating it, and selecting the best insert for the job, it is possible to reduce tool wear rates SNMG Cermet Inserts and increase the life of the drill bit.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/pro_cat/drilling-inserts/index.html

Enhancing Chip Control with Specially Designed Cutting Inserts

Indexable milling inserts are used to provide efficient and precise cutting solutions in heavy-duty cutting applications. These inserts have the ability to cut a wide range of materials, from aluminum to steel, and are used to produce more accurate and consistent results than traditional milling machines. This article will provide an overview of the benefits of using indexable milling inserts in heavy-duty cutting applications.

One of the main benefits of using indexable RCGT Insert milling inserts in heavy-duty cutting applications is the ability to achieve higher speeds. Since these inserts are designed to handle higher loads, they can withstand the higher cutting speeds required for these applications. This allows for faster production times, which can result in increased productivity and efficiency.

Another benefit of indexable milling inserts is their ability to provide better tool life. Since these inserts are made of tougher materials, they can handle the heavier loads associated with heavy-duty cutting. This means that they will last longer than traditional milling machines, resulting in fewer tool changes and lower costs.

Indexable milling inserts also provide improved accuracy. The geometry of these inserts is designed to produce a more accurate cut, resulting in a more consistent product.Surface Milling Inserts This results in higher quality parts and products, which is beneficial for both manufacturers and customers.

In addition, indexable milling inserts are more cost-effective than traditional milling machines. These inserts can provide more precise cutting solutions at lower costs, resulting in lower production costs. This makes them a more attractive option for many companies.

Overall, indexable milling inserts provide many benefits in heavy-duty cutting applications. They offer higher speeds, improved tool life, greater accuracy, and lower production costs. For these reasons, they are becoming increasingly popular for manufacturers and customers alike.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/coated-inserts/dnmg-insert/

Carbide Inserts: Unlocking the Secrets to High

Figure 1. An insert is a system of ineracting elements. These elements must be matched to the cutting conditions.

Figure 3. Cutting fluid is an often overlooked factor in cutting performance. Don’t guess–follow the advice of the tooling supplier.

Figure 2. This is a cross section of an insert recommended for heavy roughing (CVD coated Grade SV235 from Valenite). It is designed for optimum shock and impact resistance while providing excellent wear resistance and chemical stability in heavy-duty machining of steel. The substrate is cobalt-enriched with TiC and TiN coatings suitable for interrupted cuts.

PreviousNext

Users of carbide inserts often fall into two distinct camps. On one side, there are those shops that are looking for a “universal” insert grade that will effectively handle a wide variety of applications, even if it means tolerating less than maximum metal removal rates in certain cases. The advantages are reduced tooling inventory, standardized programming routines, simplified setup procedures, among other sought-after benefits. Unfortunately, this universal insert grade is an elusive goal for cutting tool manufacturers, although considerable R&D efforts are still being devoted to this quest.

On the other side, there are those shops that strive to find the perfect match between the insert and the application, a match-up that will give them the highest possible metal removal rates, best surface finish, longest tool life, and so on. Maximum productivity and optimal results are what they’re after. However, identifying that “perfect” insert hasn’t always been easy or certain—the proliferation of insert grades and styles can be bewildering. And even if a shop can find the ideal solution, it has to maintain the machining conditions that allow the near-perfect insert to deliver its full potential, but shops haven’t always had reliable information on what those conditions are.

As a matter of fact, most shops are caught somewhere in the middle of these two camps, being pulled in both directions at once.

But if you look at recent developments emerging from cutting tool manufacturers, the trend is decidedly toward the optimized insert. With today’s understanding of the sophisticated factors and forces at work in a successful application, it is apparent that certain vendors are able to deliver an extremely productive solution for a very specific set of machining conditions. And they should be able to provide highly reliable information about using these tools to get the intended results.

Knowing something about the complex interactions of the critical components that unite to produce an optimized cutting system will help you understand why this systematized approach can be so effective. It will also help explain how vendors can guide you to the best insert with more confidence and certainty than ever before. Let’s review some of the systems elements that an insert manufacturer has to work with and then look at how these elements can be engineered in combination to suit an application. In light of this discussion, you might find yourself reconsidering your approach to insert selection.

The Elements

Every successful cutting tool application represents a combination of:

a substrate,one or more coatings in most, but not all, cases,a chipbreaker, or “top form” geometry,a specific edge preparation,a specific style and nose radius,a toolholder, anda cutting fluid.

See Figure 1 (at right). A quick glance at any manufacturer’s catalog will clearly demonstrate that the potential combinations of these elements run into the thousands, if not the millions.
Finding a way to make sense out of such a variety of choices is the major challenge facing both cutting tool producers and cutting tool consumers in the coming years. Material-based color codes and selection procedures built on them are a step in the right direction, but only a first step.

As insert systems become more and more application specific, new selection paradigms must be created to guide consumer choices. Regardless of the shape these may take, they must necessarily be grounded in a thorough understanding of the individual role of each of the seven elements, and of their interactions while in the cut.

The Substrate

In a coated insert, the substrate is the “foundation” for the cutting system, but it never actually comes into contact with the workpiece. This fact permits cutting tool manufacturers to tailor substrate properties over a much broader range than was possible when the uncoated substrate was the cutting tool.

Nearly all substrates are made from tungsten carbide (WC), which is still the only material available with the combination of hardness and toughness required to handle a broad range of cutting applications. Other materials such as ceramics and cermets provide a useful complement to WC at the high speed end of the application range, but these are rarely used with coatings.

The first substrates were simply traditional, straight WC grades that were coated to improve their performance. Some of these combinations proved so useful that they are still in production today.

Improved processing capabilities have led to the production of “enriched” substrates in which the cobalt content of a layer near the surface is significantly enhanced while the formation of cubic carbides is prevented. This provides substantially more edge strength than a straight grade substrate and is widely applied in inserts intended for roughing and interrupted cutting applications, as well as on some hard-to-machine materials.

A more recent development is the family of “fine grain” substrates in which the size of individual WC grains is controlled. These are primarily used in insert systems designed for machining very tough materials such as aerospace and high temperature alloys.

Finally, substrate performance can be “enhanced” by selectively adding other types of carbide to the straight WC mixture. The most common “alloys” consist of WC plus titanium carbide (TiC), tantalum carbide (TaC), vanadium carbide (VC), and niobium carbide (NbC), or some mixture of them. Each of these additional carbide materials produces specific properties that are useful in a range of common applications.

Substrate requirements vary from one workpiece material to another. Take steel as an example. Because of the continuous chip formation and the heat generated at the cutting tip, an insert requires a lot more deformation resistance as well as wear and crater resistance than a substrate required for, say, gray cast iron. That’s because the cast iron does not generate as much heat, and the chips are more naturally broken anyway. Some of the cubic carbides, such as the TiC, TaC, NbC and VC, would be critical additions to a substrate designed for steel, but not as critical for gray cast iron.

For a gummy material like stainless steel, wear or crater resistance isn’t as critical as toughness because of the build-up and chipping that is encountered. Consequently, a substrate resistant to chipping—one that contains less cubic carbide and is high in cobalt and has a finer grain—is better for stainless steels and high temperature alloys.

Coatings

There are two factors to be considered in evaluating insert coatings: the material or materials used, and the process by which they are applied. Both impact insert system performance.

The coating itself acts as the interface between the workpiece and the cutting tool. Depending on the application, coatings can provide wear resistance, abrasive and crater resistance, build-up edge resistance, chemical resistance, or a simple reduction in friction that lowers cutting temperatures. Figure 2 (at right) shows an example of coatings engineered for a specific application.

The most commonly used coating materials and the properties they provide are:

TiC: abrasive, flank and nose wear resistance,TiCN (titanium carbonitride): abrasive and some crater wear resistance,TiN (titanium nitride): some crater resistance, friction reduction, gold color, and a diffusion barrier,Al203 (aluminum oxide): crater and wear resistance, plus abrasive wear resistance at high cutting temperatures, andAl2O3/ZrO2 (aluminum oxide/zirconium oxide): best crater resistance, but softer than Al203.

There are four major coating technologies used in the cutting tool industry today. These are differentiated primarily by the temperature at which they operate. This is important because the coating temperature directly impacts substrate properties performance.

The most common coating technology is chemical vapor deposition, or CVD, which operates at a temperature of roughly 1,000°C. Nearly as common is physical vapor deposition, or PVD, which operates at the other end of the temperature spectrum in the 400°C range.

Between these two extremes are two other emerging coating processes that promise to enhance insert system performance. Plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition, or PCVD, is well accepted in Europe and is being explored in North America. PCVD operates in the 600°C range. Finally, medium temperature chemical vapor deposition, or MTCVD, is an emerging and promising technology that operates in the 800°C range.

The key factor to bear in mind is that the properties of both the coating and the substrate are changed by the application process. The same coating applied to the same substrate by different processes may in fact provide very different performance in the cut.

Different coatings are required for different materials. For example, it is critical to have a smooth coating—one that is more than simply wear- or crater-resistant—for hard-to-machine stainless steels and high temperature alloys. A smooth, thick coating is required when running steel and cast iron, too, because of the heat and wear. The PVD coating process produces a very smooth surface, while CVD coatings can be polished to achieve a smoother surface finish.

Coating thickness is critical for steel and cast iron because of the higher speeds at which they run. For high speeds, an oxide coating in combination with TiCN and proper thickness make an ideal combination. On the other hand, coating thickness is not as critical as smoothness for stainless steel and high temperature alloys.

Chipbreakers Or Top Form Geometries

With today’s sophisticated insert shapes, the term “chipbreaker” no longer describes the contribution of this element to the insert systems. “Top form geometry” is a more precise term for the very complex shape seen on the cutting surface of a modern insert.

While chip control is still a major function, the top form geometry also serves to reduce cutting forces. Lower forces mean less heat, deformation and friction which enhance tool life and often improve workpiece size control and finish. Perhaps the best example of this is the use of “chipbreakers” on milling inserts. Generally speaking, milling chips tend to break themselves, but the other benefits of a well-engineered top form geometry are easily seen in reduced horsepower requirements and better parts. Many of today’s high speed milling applications on relatively low horsepower machines would not be possible without effective top form geometries on the inserts.

Matching the chipbreaker to the application is very important. Valenite, a case in point, has 28 different chipbreakers for turning, some for roughing, some for general machining and some for finishing. Specialty geometries exist for certain metals, such as high temperature alloys and stainless steels. The Valenite SR chipbreaker is an example of this type of geometry. They are a positive-negative geometry, one with a small nose radius, perhaps only 0.004 inch. A very fine geometry is necessary to take very light cuts and control the chips in these types of materials.

Many shops think they don’t need a chipbreaker for certain materials, such as gray cast iron and nodular cast iron, because the chips break on their own. These shops typically use flat top geometry for these materials because they have a lot of edge strength. However, we often recommend using a top form geometry for cast iron and nodular iron to reduce the cutting forces and minimize edge build-up.

Edge Preparation

In the past, most manufacturers offered only one or two standard edge preparations, or “hones,” for any particular insert size and geometry. Today, however, it is recognized that the “hone” is really determined by the application for which the insert system is intended. An insert system intended for high speed finishing of steel has very different edge preparation requirements than one to be used for roughing, even though both may share the same basic geometry.

Ceramic and cermet materials also require edge preparation in the form of a “T-Land” geometry. Testing shows that very subtle variations in the width and angle of the “T-Land” can have substantial impact on tool life.

As a general rule, a heavier hone is necessary for continuous turning and milling of most steels and irons. Stainless steels and high temperature alloys, on the other hand, require a small hone or an up-sharp insert because of the build-up generated. Similarly, aluminum requires an up-sharp insert, also because of build-up. For cases involving a severe interrupted cut such as occurs in milling, a heavier hone or a “T-Land” is necessary.

Style And Nose Radius

Here, at least, conventional wisdom still prevails. Selecting a style with the greatest included angle will provide the strongest possible insert for the application. In general, a large nose radius provides better surface finish. These geometric factors, in conjunction with the toolholder, determine the effective lead angle, which impacts cutting force, and the resultant heat and wear that shorten tool life.

Not Just The Insert

Needless to say, it takes more than just the right insert to get optimum performance. The toolholder and the cutting fluid should also be considered part of the insert “system,” even though these elements cannot be built in by the insert manufacturer.

In turning, the toolholder is the primary determinant of lead and rake angle, both of which can influence chip thickness, horsepower requirements, cutting forces and tool life. In milling the critical toolholder-related factors are radial and axial rake, which have the same effects found in turning applications.

Choice of cutting fluids is one of the most overlooked factors in the performance of any metalcutting application. See Figure 3 (at left). Recent testing has shown that the choice of cutting fluid can have a substantial influence on both insert life and cutting system performance, especially on hard-to-machine materials like stainless steels and high temperature alloys.

It is extremely important, therefore, to follow the insert manufacturer’s advice and instructions regarding toolholder selection and cutting fluids. Because the systems approach relies on a synergy between all of the elements, all of them are essential to enjoying the full benefits of an optimized insert.

Direction Of The Future

Laboratory testing and field experience have clearly demonstrated that the very subtle interaction of the seven elements of an insert cutting system can have an extremely large impact on application performance. Clearly, the direction for the future is in matching insert cutting systems more and more specifically to workpiece materials and cutting operations. MMS

About the author: Karl Katbi is product marketing manager at Valenite, Inc., Madison Heights, Michigan.

Simplifying Insert Selection

Today, we believe that 80 percent of all carbide used in machine shops across the United States is misapplied, whether using the correct insert but the wrong application, or vice versa. Cutting tool manufacturers have been working to solve this problem by developing various selection systems to guide users to the right insert for an application. A good selection system brings order and logic to insert use, and makes the growing range of insert choices a powerful resource for manufacturers.

The SpectraTurn Color System, from Valenite, shows how one selection system makes this happen for turning applications. The SpectraTurn Color System is incorporated into the company’s SpectraTurn Application Guide.

This system breaks workpiece materials into three general color categories: the blue category contains carbon and alloy steels; the yellow category includes stainless steels, titanium, and high temperature alloys; and gray and ductile irons, aluminum, and non-ferrous materials are listed in the red category. The system then breaks down each general category into more specific groups of similar materials.

For a new application, the user needs to do the following steps to develop a successful application. In this illustration, let’s assume that the user wants to perform a finishing operation on M1 tool steel.

Step 1: First, the user goes to the page where M1 tool steel is listed under the Tool Steels & Die Steels category of the blue section of the chart. From there, the user goes to the Blue Tungsten Steel Inserts (Steel) section on the following and looks at the Grade Selection Graph.

Here, the user goes down from the finishing area near the middle of the chart and sees that the center of the SV310 bar is closest to finishing. This is the recommended grade.

Step 2: The user goes to the nearby Blue Insert Application Guide and locates SV310 in the chart.

Step 3: Next, the user goes down the column under “F” for finishing, and comes to the recommended depth of cut (DOC), which is 0.020 to 0.070 inch. Next down the list is the recommended feed rate of 0.005 inch per revolution. Continuing down to the Tool Steels & Die Steels category (M1 tool steel falls into this category), we find the recommended chipbreaker—GF. Here, we also find the recommended speed of 600 sfm. So, we now have a complete recommendation for finishing M1 tool steel: use grade SV310 with an GF chipbreaker, Coated Inserts at a DOC from 0.020 to 0.070 inch, at a feed rate of 0.005 ipr and a speed of 600 SFM.

Whatever selection system you may work with, be sure to understand its underlying principles and follow the instructions carefully. As with any tool, wise use pays dividends.

 
The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/product/use-for-surface-milling-and-shoulder-milling-cutters-blmp0603r-blmp0904r-excellent-performance-indexable-milling-inserts/

Few Useful Processing Methods of Grooving and Cutting Tools

Eptam Precision Plastics makes critical components for medical, aerospace and process equipment industries at precise tolerances.

Eptam Precision provides a wide range of precision-machined parts for aerospace, medical, semiconductor and other commercial manufacturing markets. Of its three locations, its New Jersey facility produces metal parts and its Colorado facility produces injection-molded parts. New Hampshire-based Eptam Precision Plastics division uses nearly 75 CNC machines to produce plastic parts (with some crossover to metal parts). It makes critical components for medical, aerospace and process equipment industries at precise tolerances. The parts Eptam Precision Plastics produces range from 1 to 50 inches, and are used in a variety of applications, from orthopedic surgical kits to chemical containment units and devices used in semiconductor fabrication.

Despite having a sign permanently fixed to the front of its building reading “machinists wanted,” the company was challenged to find experienced, qualified people to fill its customers’ ever-increasing orders and forecasts over three production shifts. As a result, Eptam decided to augment its staff with technology designed to better visualize its facility and meet the growing demand on its people by customers and suppliers. After seeing a demonstration of Datanomix’s Fusion software, Eptam chose it to monitor, measure and Machining Inserts identify capacity constraints. The company began by integrating the Fusion system into its medical components value stream.

Eptam Precision Plastics medical components cell senior group leader Jesse Bunnell improved job predictability and spotted training gaps with Datanomix Fusion’s reports.

Benchmarking Production

Datanomix Fusion production monitoring software connects to the controller of each CNC machine on the production floor, reading data through industry-standard protocols like MTConnect and FANUC Focas, then determines benchmark information such as typical cycle times, utilization and rate of part production. The process is fully automatic — ?it does not require operator input or enterprise resource planning (ERP) data integration to understand what part is being Carbide Inserts made or how to create the benchmark. It determines targets within a handful of parts, but constantly recalibrates as it obtains more data. The software assigns a productivity score called Fusion Factor on a scale that ranges from A+ to C-: As indicate production at or above the benchmark, Bs mean production has fallen slightly behind and Cs warn of severe problems. These ratings inform most of Fusion’s other features.

For its part, Eptam will often have a senior machinist run a new job to demonstrate peak performance — for example, to show that a particular job should make a part every 45 minutes, 30 of which are machining time and 15 of which are various operator interactions, resulting in 67% utilization and a 0.75 parts per hour rate. The software then compares regular production to this benchmark, noting when the Fusion Factor drops and examining the data for patterns. These patterns can help supervisors spot training gaps — as when an operator is taking longer at a particular step — or other efficiency or resource deviations the manufacturer can adjust for continuous improvement.

Putting Data Into Practice

The Fusion software generates benchmark and performance data into several reports, each of which streamlines a different facet of production visibility.

The Shift Report doubles down on the process described above, summarizing the productivity of entire work cells with detailed shift comparisons of the job scores achieved at each station. Group leaders can use this report to see variances between shifts and workstations, further improving their ability to identify training gaps and performance differences to continually communicate and improve.Coffee Cup Reports create a scorecard at the end of the day or shift, concisely communicating the previous day or shift’s output to upper management. The Fusion system emails these reports to a configurable distribution list, providing part counts, cycle times, alarm frequency and production score by job. The report’s name comes from the idea that management will review the report at the start of the day over a cup of coffee, before presenting the information at each morning’s production meeting.Quote Calibration takes the production benchmarks and maps them to profitability goals on a part-number basis. Shops like Eptam can enter a target shop rate or machine rate, which combines with the Fusion Score to show the minimum they should charge per part to sell their machining time at the desired margin. Management can use this data to foster a clear connection between business performance goals, part performance and shopfloor initiatives.

Datanomix’s Fusion system’s automated capabilities save Jesse Bunnell hours of manually collecting and organizing data.

Versatility Through Data

By automatically gathering this information and generating these reports, Datanomix says its Fusion software saved Eptam hours of data chasing, as the shop had previously collected this data by walking the shop floor. The extra time not only enabled the shop to increase its productivity and make key decisions, it allowed Eptam to better adjust alongside the market.

During the early part of the COVID pandemic, Eptam’s medical division saw a decrease in demand on account of the freezing of elective surgeries, even as its semiconductor part division saw a massive increase in demand from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Some of these semiconductor parts use expensive materials that range from $50 to $400 per pound and require material stability in extreme temperatures and corrosive environments, as well as antibacterial and dimensional integrity. As a result, manufacturing these parts requires Eptam to stay cognizant of overwhelming amounts of data. The parts’ cycle times also tend to extend into hours, making utilization of machine-time and conformance to cycle time standards vital. Having seen the benefits of machine-level benchmarks and increased visibility from its medical components cell, Eptam quickly decided to connect its semiconductor fabrication machines to Datanomix’s Fusion system.

With the Eptam Northfield facility now connected and able to visualize data, the production staff has complete clarity on the performance of the day while it happens, on how to turn threats to productivity into training and continuous improvement, on obstacles standing in the way of greater output and on where to dispatch key personnel to keep the day trending positively.

The Carbide Inserts Website: https://www.estoolcarbide.com/product/scgt-aluminum-inserts-p-1218/