By Bob Goulding, Technical Engineering Manager
Essentially thousands of cutting tools saturate
the market today. Because of this, manufacturers can optimize most of their
operations with standard tooling. Given the rapid and constant change of the
industry, however, there will be those special applications that require a
custom solution.
And by custom, that can mean something as
simple as adding a half-inch to the diameter of a square shoulder mill cutter
or as complex as developing a highly specialized form milling cutter. A
combination tool is a great example of a custom solution as it can perform
multiple operations, such as milling and drilling, with one tool, decreasing
indexing time and increasing productivity.
If you’re going to specify a custom tool for
a job, there are a few things you should consider. First of all, a custom solution is typically more expensive than standard
tooling. But if a custom tool is going to offer you productivity-boosting
benefits, including longer tool life and faster machining speeds, the
additional cost becomes insignificant.
Secondly, because custom tooling is not an
off-the-shelf solution, it's not readily available. So, if you were to have a
machining problem and break every custom tool in your shop, you would
experience downtime due to the delivery time associated with replacement custom
tooling. For this reason alone, we work hard to find a standard
solution that can meet the unique needs of our customers. If we can’t, we work
equally as hard to provide the fastest turnaround time on a custom solution.
Lastly, you need to make sure your machine
tool can handle the intended capabilities of your custom tool. There are cases
where existing machining equipment can’t meet the expectations a manufacturer
has when switching from standard to custom tooling, namely in increased power
or rigidity of the setup. Also, don’t forget to assess the skill level of your
machinists when transitioning over to a custom tool.
At Seco, we can help you iron out all the
details and determine if custom tooling is right for you. After all, we provide
more than just cutting tools, we provide
complete solutions. Our custom tooling team possesses extensive expertise in
all major industry segments, including aerospace, automotive, oil and gas,
medical and energy.
We work closely with our customers to
determine exactly what they need and then create a solution that will optimize
their unique operations. Furthermore, our custom tooling division in North
America is one of 12 globally networked locations, providing us access to
expertise from our colleagues worldwide.
Most recently, we’ve experienced increased
demand for custom tooling, especially solutions for the automotive industry.
Because automotive manufacturers produce high volumes of components daily, they
rely on our combination custom tooling to remove significant cycle times from
their operations for improved throughput.
If you’re curious as to how our custom
tooling team can benefit your operations, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Bob is the technical engineering manager for
Seco Tools in North America. He is responsible for overseeing and driving the
organization towards its goals of helping customers overcome their
manufacturing challenges so they can remain competitive in their respective
industries. The organization includes proposal, quote and design tooling
engineers for custom applications who work together with Seco’s process project
managers whose focus is on customer component productivity improvements. The
group also includes Seco’s machine tool organization and the manufacturing unit
for tool production. In his spare time, Bob is an avid soccer enthusiast, both watching
and playing and also supporting his kids in their respective teams.
