Reaming Application Illustrates True Cost of Cutting Tools
Cutting tools have two costs: purchase price and combined cost of all time, effort and extra steps required for a particular tool.
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One caveat is that this search for savings often requires a change of thinking. Previously, the injector body manufacturer saw the critical hole as a boring application. The savings came when the company saw it as a reaming application instead. Something similar frequently occurs in milling work, Mr. Edler says. Many facilities can double their metal-removal rate in milling, but doing so requires the counterintuitive step of switching to a high-feed milling tool design that mandates a light depth of cut—lighter than what the shop is taking now. Running this tool at a substantially higher feed rate can more than overcome the lighter cut to save overall cost. In applications such as these, he says, the cost-effective approach often looks very different from the way that a given part or feature has historically been machined.
Cost Analysis
This cost analysis for machining the blind hole does not include the savings from eliminating 100-percent inspection. Even without these savings, total cost per piece was reduced by 60 percent, despite the fact that the winning tool had the higher pricetag.
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