Seco Tools has introduced a modular toolholder system for manufacturers seeking to improve their productivity with Swiss-style machining. The system enables fast, easy and repeatable insert indexing and tool changes outside of tight machine work envelopes. The QC Toolholders also feature Seco Jetstream Tooling^® and Jetstream Tooling^® Duo technology for optimal chip control, high-quality surface finishes and extended tool life.

Seco Tools announced today that Seco India earned AS9100D certification on January 13. This is an important milestone because it enables Seco Tools to better support the aerospace sector across India and provide customers with solutions boosting productivity profitability. The certification is the result of a collaboration between Seco Global Quality department and Seco India—the first facility within the company to receive the certification—to develop aerospace-specific quality control standards.

A machining workshop seeks to produce a certain number of parts, at a required level of quality, in the most efficient way, delivered on time. Traditionally, manufacturing businesses defined efficiency by return on investment. Success was measured in terms of continuous runs of thousands or hundreds of thousands of pieces and maintaining steady output from one or many machines was the goal. From that point of view, a machine that was running and making parts was considered efficient.

To address the difficulties manufacturers face when performing disc milling operations in hard-to-machine materials, Seco Tools has announced a new line of products, the 335.18 and 335.19 disc mill cutter bodies. Close-pitch insert pockets improve stability and productivity, while plug-and-play internal coolant system further ensures the highest tool life and superior chip control. These features, as well as a new corrosion-resistant cutter body and indexable inserts with four cutting edges, allow these disc mills to outperform high-speed steel alternatives, especially in tough materials like sticky stainless steel, titanium and superalloys.

Seco Tools meets its customers' needs with a complete suite of online services at www.secotools.com. Users may access a full web store and electronic data interchange (EDI) service. The website also has a suite of online applications and up-to-date industry news and insights. Seco Tools designed its website to help users achieve the highest level of productivity for their manufacturing operations.

Precise machine tools and advanced cutting tools together provide outstanding metalcutting productivity. However, the link between the cutting tool and machine spindle – the tool holder – is crucial in fully achieving that productivity. Tooling manufacturers offer a wide variety of tool holder styles, with each engineered for optimum performance in certain machining applications. A machining shop, therefore, should base its choice of tool holders on its specific operations as well as on the parts it produces. Nevertheless, while shops seek to acquire the most advanced machine technology and cutting tool materials, they often place minimal importance on selecting, applying and maintaining tool holders that best fit their specific production needs.

For aerospace shops struggling with holemaking and milling operations in hybrid stacked materials, the new JC899 Hybrid Stack finisher and JC898 rougher from Seco Tools are ideal solutions. The finisher, JC899, features a patented two-in-one geometry that eliminates problems with delamination and fiber pulling out when working with stacked materials such as carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) combined with titanium/aluminum. Together with the JC898 rougher, the JC899 finisher offers three to six times more tool life over conventional drill/reamer combinations and generates pollution-free holes and side walls with perfect surface finishes to deliver up to 300 percent greater process efficiency.

For manufacturers seeking solutions to unpredictable tool life and slow rough-machining speeds when working with heat-resistant superalloys (HRSA), Seco Tools has expanded its line of highly productive Secomax CW100 ceramic insert grades. Featuring new whisker-reinforced geometries, this round line of ceramic solutions offers superior performance for challenging aerospace and power generation applications involving Inconel 718, Hastalloy, Waspaloy, MAR, Nimonic, Rene, Udimet and other HRSAs.

The advanced coating and tool geometry of the new TTP2050 threading insert grade from Seco Tools offers efficient, secure, stable performance, along with the effective chip control necessary to prevent threading chips from ruining critical parts in the final phases of production.

Seco Tools has announced the release of three new grades specifically for stainless steel turning featuring the company’s latest Duratomic^® generation and its Used-Edge Detection technology. The new TM grades TM1501, TM2501 and TM3501 secure operations and improve productivity in materials ranging from austenitic stainless steel to high-alloyed, super-duplex stainless steels. The expanded range of 479 total TM insert configurations also includes three new geometries with chipbreakers optimized for finishing and medium-roughing applications in stainless steel.