Adaptive Milling. Dynamic Motion. hyperMILL. Profit Milling. VoluMill. Waveform machining. If you’re one of the lucky people who machines parts for a living, chances are about 50-50 that you’re using one of these or a comparable high-performance programming technology.

Advances in turning insert technology that promise faster processing, longer tool life and reduced cycle time are always promoted with great fanfare by suppliers and welcomed by manufacturers looking for a competitive edge.

Tool coating is ubiquitous. The variations are dizzying. And, we’re at an inflection point in the technology in the U.S. So, whether you’re a tool user or a tool manufacturer, it’s a good time to dive into this topic.

In the world of metrology, lack of variety is not an issue. “You can think of a thousand ways to measure a hole,” said George Scheutz, director of precision gages for Mahr Inc., Providence, R.I. Techniques could include an operator equipped with a simple, custom-built go/no-go gage up to a robot loading a part onto a CMM with a pre-loaded program, and everything in between.