Exchangeable Head Tooling Solutions

Exchangeable, modular and replaceable describe tooling solutions that are industry game changers.

These tools have become synonymous with profitable machining practices.

Cutting tools have evolved from a brazed tool to a mechanically clamped indexable tool and now replaceable tool.?Tungaloy?is at the forefront of evaluating new concepts and ideas for more productive tools and developing these solutions for overall improvements for our customers. Through this article, we share?Tungaloy’s?unique exchangeable head solutions for milling, drilling and reaming operations.

The modular concept is not new. In fact, childhood games such as the jigsaw puzzle follow this concept to bring a preconceived idea into shape.?

And, building blocks are actually an exchangeable block type toy which began an engineering aptitude for many.?Tungaloy’s exchangeable head tooling solutions are an adaptation of this idea and help in building multiple useful tool assemblies. With just about 50 odd blocks, we created hundreds of logical shapes. We built cars, trucks, buses – Automotive, we built aeroplanes and other flying objects – Aerospace, Trains – Railway, houses, bridges – Infrastructure, simple machineries – Equipment and general engineering

Tungaloy?has emerged as a leading metal cutting solution provider, with exchangeable head tools, for building stronger?Automotive,?Aerospace,?Equipment?and general engineering,?infrastructure?and?railway?industries.

What makes an exchangeable head or modular head tool a better option for our customers?

An exchangeable head tool is designed as a cutting head and a holder with a precise connection between the two. This offers multiple advantages to customers.

• Flexibility: The tool body is made from high-quality steel, which is more flexible compared to solid carbide. Hence, it can be used at optimum parameters, even under adverse conditions and unusual applications such as uneven entry & exits or not so rigid fixture setup. A solid carbide tool would tend to chip or break in adverse conditions or when applied at high productive parameters.

• Reduced non-productive time?– An exchangeable head equals ease of indexing. With a conventional end mill, reamer or drill the tool must be taken out of the machine, be replaced with a reground or new tool, and then put it back in the machine. This process adds to a lot of non-productive time or simply put – wasted time. With an exchangeable head tool, it is indexed right on the machine saving time and thus increasing productivity.

• Best R.O.I?– The cost of a solid carbide tool is very expensive compared to an exchangeable head solid carbide tool. Every single recondition of the tool costs about 1/10th of the original tool cost but does not guarantee original tool performance. In addition, it also requires time-consuming overhang setup. Head exchangeable tools are not regrindable and have a constant overhang. Hence, exchangeable head tools offer the best ROI.

• Excellent process control?– With no regrinding and no frequent offset input, exchangeable head tools offer excellent process control as it uses a fresh cutting edge every time. Due to the manual intervention of a reground tool, there is always possibility of error.

The tool diameter and length of a solid carbide tool keep changing after every regrind. Hence, careful monitoring is necessary.

With?Tungaloy’s exchangeable head tool, it’s a non-issue.

• Safety?– With no manual intervention, there is the least chance of an accident related to the tools.

• Lower inventory?– When using Solid carbide tools, customers must keep a minimum of 3-4 tools to run the production cycle without the risk of running out of tools. With exchangeable head tools, a minimum inventory of heads is required.

Tungaloy?takes care of safety stock for customers thus lowering the customer’s expenses.

One exchangeable head can be used on drill bodies of different lengths with?our?DrillMeister.

• Build tools to need?– Just like building blocks, we can create a tool assembly in the required diameter and length with?modular tooling systems?well within the principles of tool design.

TungModular?blade system enables customers to build different tool assemblies for different grooving applications – shallow grooving, deep grooving, face grooving, groove turn system etc.

The first row of?Tungaloy’s deep shoulder mill (TungTri?TLA) is an exchangeable ring which enables customers to build longer tool assemblies based on their requirements.

• Reliable performance –?No regrinding means no faulty angles on the tool. Hence,?performance repeats every time the customer uses?Tungaloy’s exchangeable head tool with 100% reliability.

• Helping Go Green –?Every exchangeable head tool requires less tool material, the rest of it being tool steel body. Therefore, compared to a full solid carbide tool, it leaves a lower carbon footprint. With the increased usage of?Tungaloy’s exchangeable head tools, lower energy consumption and customers would be helping in creating a greener planet for our future.

Exchangeable head tooling solutions from Tungaloy:

Tungaloy’s?DrillMeister, offering a unique self-clamping drilling head,?TungMeister?with threaded connection and?ReamMeister?with tapered screw expansion clamping, has introduced revolutionary changes in exchangeable tooling solutions.

One of the greatest advantages of exchangeable heads is that they can be offered in a wide range of grades, unlike the solid carbide tools, which are normally produced from a K10F grade.?Tungaloy?offers AH715 / AH725 / AH735 and AH750 grades in its?TungMeister?range, and with just one shank, customers can perform roughing, finishing, high feed, ball finish or even trochoidal operations using various types of heads. Selection of head would be based on the machine condition and the machining process, thus defined – low depth, high feeds, low width of cuts and high depth of cuts etc. Over 13,000 tool combinations possible with?TungMeister.

Wide range of geometries:

45 kinds are available. The head indexing is easy and highly accurate with precision thread.

Three kinds of shank material:

Steel:?for general purpose

Carbide:?for highly accurate machining due to excellent rigidity

Tungsten:?reduced chattering due to high vibration damping capacity

Similarly,?DrillMeister?offers 50 drilling possibilities per drill body. The clamping of the drill head is so unique, it offers the most reliable clamping, retaining the elasticity of the body and offering extended tool body life.

• DMP?geometry for general drilling
• DMC?for long overhang drilling
• DMF?for flat-bottom drilling
• DMH?for heavy-duty drilling
• DMN?for aluminium alloy drilling.

Over and above this, special heads are also available for improved performance.

ReamMeister?offers an innovative clamping mechanism to control runout and improve repeatability while maintaining IT7 hole accuracy and superior surface finish in parallel to high productivity.

The body accommodates a wide range of diameters with two types of heads – one for through holes (BL type) and the other for blind holes (AS type) so that it can effectively evacuate chips during the reaming process.

Once again, it is proven that?Tungaloy?always builds tooling solutions which help deliver better machine utilization.

For more info or demo products, please get in touch with us: https://tungaloy.com/contact/