February 2021 U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $149.5 million, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI) and AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was up 3.3 percent from January's $144.8 million and down 17.1 percent when compared with the $180.3 million reported for February 2020.

In this podcast, Scott Walker chairman of Mitsui Seki USA and Bruce Morey Senior Technical Editor for Manufacturing Engineering magazine discuss the most important technical trend affecting machining and manufacturing today—the rapid advance of computing.

Holemaking in steel and cast iron up to one inch in diameter is one of the most widely used metalworking processes. What is driving drilling and tapping performance are advances in substrate, coatings, three-flute designs, and combination tools. Just as important are advances in coolant delivery, using different size holes and shapes to facilitate chip evacuation.

Selecting the best type of cutting tool for holemaking jobs is not always clear. It is best to have a drill that caters to the workpiece material, produces the specs required, and provides the most profit for the job at hand. Considering the variety of jobs and parts manufactured in machine shops, there is no “one-drill-fits-all.”

Today’s deep hole drilling systems control coolant much the same as they would a machine’s spindle or axes. Careful management of coolant pressure, filtration, temperature and flow rate is key to optimizing deep hole drilling.

EMAG Group Acquisition: Samputensili Machine Tools and Samputensili CLC have become EMAG SU.