How Are Cutting Tools Taking Manufacturing to a New Stage
Verdusco Automation LLC
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Cutting tools are at the heart of manufacturing. Their advances single-handedly made machine-related workloads more efficient and precise. Thus saving time and improving yield production across the board. The transition from blunt, unrefined implements to sharp, accurate devices is one of the most astounding changes the industry has seen. So let’s talk about how it happened. And how they will continue to set manufacturers on a new path.?
Cutting tools started as basic utensils for subsistence. Then came metallurgy.?
Millions of years ago, cutting tools were primitive utensils used for survival purposes, hunting, and preparing food. The furnishing materials of the time were as diverse as sharp-edged wood, bones, and stone.?
They experienced a major leap throughout the XVI and XVIII centuries when metal-working lathes, engine cylinder boring machines, and screw-cutting lathes came into the picture. Their arrival, along with metal shaping machines, the steam hammer, and the milling machine, set the footprint for what would come with the boom of the industrial revolution.?
During the XIX and XX centuries, crucial findings in material metallurgy introduced a new kind of element into the cutting process. The alloys!?
Alloys are mixtures of metallic compounds with better performance than pure materials in terms of strength and endurance. Steel is a prime example of an alloy. It is a combination of iron and carbon mixed in different proportions to obtain varying capabilities for specific targets.??
The physical properties of alloys and metals in general make them excellent cutting materials. They give manufacturers the power to shape products according to their designs. Because of that, they have become essential components to support serial production in manufacturing.?
Besides metallic compounds, there is another recurring element for cutting. Diamond!
Diamond is one of the hardest materials on earth. It is also one of the best cutters in the field. So much so that it has been predominantly used in these sectors for diverse purposes:
For all there is to love about diamond cutters, there’s a huge disadvantage. It is how expensive they are when compared to other options.?
What’s coming up next in the cutting tool business?????
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Enhanced cutting tools to drive manufacturing to a new stage??
Cutting tools apply direct force to a material to deform its body. For the process to be effective, the cutting tool must always be harder and stronger than the material it is trying to cut through. There lies the challenge!
In manufacturing, cutting tools enable the creation of intermediate pieces or finished products that serve a purpose within the core production process.?
Over the past few years, there has been a focus on ameliorating the cutting materials and machines' design and performance to boost critical manufacturing metrics such as:
Several experiments on chemical composition, atom-level microstructure, and the cutting process per se are taking place. R&D has already improved applications and taken technology deployment to a wider scope.?
The progression can be appreciated through the development of advanced cutting materials such as polycrystalline diamond (PCD), cemented carbides (WC, TiC, or TaC), compacted graphite iron (CGI), and cubic boron nitride (CBN). Still, more fit-for-purpose materials continue to be invented and tested on a daily basis.?
On tooling, the refinement of coating technology, speed, vibration levels, and lifespan are ongoing aspects on the experts' minds. They work hard at it to bring safer and high endurance machines with more accuracy and capability than ever before.?
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