At Sharpedge Technologies, we have long experience in enabling clients to realize significantly higher machining efficiency and productivity by delivering the most suitable cutting tool solutions for industry-specific materials. In the aerospace industry, for example, materials that offer the optimal strength-to-weight ratio – like super alloys, alloys of titanium and aluminum, composites, and glass-fiber reinforced plastics – are preferred. However, cutting or milling threads in these stronger but more abrasive materials requires using highly specialized tools with specific cutting geometries, from makers like DC Swiss.
The range of innovative productivity solutions from DC Swiss includes cutting taps (for manufacturing internal threads) and thread whirling and milling cutters (for through and blind holes, with both left- and right-handed threads). The taps are equipped with different flute forms and conditioned cutting edges, and are available in a choice of tolerances that achieve high surface quality. The spiral flutes on the thread milling cutters facilitate thorough chip removal and clean surfaces.
The cutting taps are made using high performance powder metallurgical steel (HSSE-PM), while the thread milling cutters are solid carbide tools – both materials known for higher hardness and thermal resistance. Choosing between tools with or without an outside radius – depending on the material being machined – enables more secure clamping. Tools with an outside radius have a rounded thread crest which prevents breakable angles between the tool and the material.
Combining these tools with DC Swiss’s thread guages can guarantee tapered or cylindrical threads as required. Further, DC Swiss also offers material-specific surface coatings for ideal wear protection. For instance, the DC VS coating ensures higher cutting values when machining abrasive materials.
Standard DC Swiss tools support the creation of threads with diameter between 0.3mm and 160mm, even in harder-to-machine materials. However, customized solutions are also available, along with comprehensive testing and calibration support. DC Swiss has a continuing history of innovation to meet the latest machining requirements. Most recently, they have introduced a new set of taps for maching titanium, which is typically complicated as titanium is a ductile material with low thermal conductivity.
Through our long-time collaboration with DC Swiss, we have learned to trust their excellence and commitment to providing state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions across industries and applications.
Another trusted toolmaker is URMA AG, whose world-leading reaming, milling, and boring systems are go-to solutions for such aerospace manufacturing challenges as ensuring process reliability and furthering sustainability via reducing material wastage. As URMA’s exclusive collaborator in India, we are deeply familiar with their knowhow and attention to detail when designing precision tools. Their high‐precision bore machining solutions meet the highest quality requirements and deliver accurate fits, and are capable of machining all special alloys as well as harder materials like titanium.
Take for example their boring tools, with the choice of a system-independent or modular interface for maximum flexibility. The former comprises a simple cylindrical shank while the latter is available as either an axial threaded connection or a side lock system. Similarly, their high performance reamer, the modular URMA Reaming RX, is a quick-change system with a replaceable reaming head. It leverages the most advanced cutting materials and coatings and offers unmatched positioning accuracy and performance. As the reaming head can be replaced on the machine itself, machining downtime is minimized, which heightens productivity and results in cost savings.
To meet the needs of milling non-ferrous and new-age materials like aluminum, composites and fiber-reinforced plastics URMA has introduced the MX Diamond and MX Boronite modular cutting tools. As the names suggest, these tools add the cutting power of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and polycrystalline boron nitride (PCBN) to the strength of solid carbide. These quick-change tools are characterized by high rigidity, high cutting speeds (up to 5000 m/min) even at high feed rates, and they reduce processing time by up to 96%.
Whether used for face milling, shoulder milling, or for finishing and roughing, URMA’s milling tools guarantee perfect axial run-out and optimal performance. They truly represent the next generation of high-speed, high feed rate milling. URMA has also brought out innovative tools for optimal machining such as the RH Reamhone for single-step reaming and honing, suitable for high tolerance applications. The advantages of leveraging this tool include high-speed, high feed rate honing, leaner production, and economized machining.
Partnering with expertise- and experience-rich tool manufacturers like DC Swiss and URMA has given us a direct view of the ever advancing frontiers of manufacturing. Catering to the global defence and aerospace industries involves grappling with evolving challenges in terms of materials, methods, and costs, which provide the impetus for developing newer, more precise, more productive tools and technologies. We continue to seek inspiration from world-renowned brands and enrich our clients and peers with the wisdom gained in this process