Advanced carbide cutting tool technology

Citation

(2000), "Advanced carbide cutting tool technology", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 72 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2000.12772eab.004

Advanced carbide cutting tool technology

Advanced carbide cutting tool technology

Keywords Marwin, Cutting

Part of the Hydra Tools International Group, Marwin has a long tradition of cutting tool innovation in the aerospace, defence and automotive industries. Its application design of carbide cutting tools began with its successful creation of a twisted drill out of carbide.

Marwin considers that its advances in the field of high speed machining have always been ahead of parallel technology and in the 1980s the capabilities of high speed machining cutting tools were far beyond the then available machine tool technology. Today, Marwin's advanced carbide cutting tool technology is reported to be dramatically reducing production costs in many important manufacturing industries world-wide.

Marwin solid carbide cutters are designed to run at higher speeds and feeds in, for example, aluminium, exotic metals and hardened steel. The latest coating technology is said to allow these cutters to be used in high-speed machining applications, including all the cost saving and environmental advantages of dry cutting.

Coatings for both higher performance with coolant and excellent performance without have been developed in conjunction with leading UK universities to achieve greater added value for end-users.

Today, 14 CNC grinders comprising a selection of ANCA and Huffman machines, in addition to the very latest Rollomatic 600, are in operation at the Marwin Cutting Tools manufacturing and tool refurbishment cells. This technology combines with a highly skilled and experienced workforce to produce precision carbide cutting tools, both standard and specials.

A highly skilled workforce is essential due to the specialist and precision nature of the products. A number of engineering processes, by preference, are said to be carried out manually to achieve the demanding quality required by industries such as aerospace. To ensure that these skills are protected for the future, an effective apprenticeship scheme is also in operation.

Production manager, Tony Egley, pointed out:

In many cases, we are the toolroom for our customers, monitoring their tooling and scheduling refurbishment programmes such as grinding and new carbide tip replacement. Again, the traditional skills combine with technology to produce a quality service. There is a constant demand for tool refurbishment and we offer the skilled services that many others ignore. For example, a popular speciality is the manufacture of various sizes of root form cutters used on turbine blades, with refurbishment also in demand.

In terms of specials, the personnel at Marwin believe that, whatever shape of drill or cutter is required, they can produce it. They work closely with customers from the design stage of a process right the way through to producing the most effective tool for the job.