Getting 15x tool life, slashing cost

Prescott Aerospace Inc. is a build-to-print machine shop specializing in close-tolerance CNC machining, with applications in aluminum, stainless steel, and high-temp alloys. For more than 28 years, the company has supported the military aircraft, military ordnance, and commercial helicopter industries.
 

Challenge

Prescott was drilling holes in a custom, 455 maraging steel, annealed, for bushings in a demanding aerospace application.

When the company started to do jobs like this with the first CNC machines in the 1990s, “We were using one high-speed drill per hole – if you can imagine that,” says Mark Longfield, CNC programmer manufacturing engineer, Prescott Aerospace.

More recently, with high-pressure machines like the Matsurra V-Max 800 5AX and Mori Seiki NH4000-DCG, both running at 950psi, he says the company gets 300 to 400 holes per drill.

That was the case on one job, where a name-brand drill lasted for no more than 32 parts before breaking – at 12 holes per part, the tool lasted for 384 holes. But on this job, Longfield had more than 400 parts to complete. When he added up the cost of tool breakage, wasted time, and bad parts, Longfield knew he had a problem that had to be fixed. He also recognized the need to engage a strategic partner who both understood the industry and unique needs of his business to help identify a solution that would effectively address this challenge. Longfield turned to experts at MSC Industrial Supply (MSC), a distributor of metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations supplies that offers metalworking expertise and a wide array of proven inventory management solutions to industrial customers.
 

Solution

Longfield spoke to his MSC sales representative and the MSC metalworking experts, who brought him a high-performance Accupro 0.250" diameter Altin 5XD coolant-through drill, which was used to complete the job – and then some. The Accupro tool delivered 15x the performance of the previous drill, and Longfield says this durability is probably due to the larger coolant port designed into the drill.

“If the operator has to set up another drill after every 30 to 40 parts, versus running the entire lot, that’s time. Like we always say, we don’t sell parts, we sell time. The parts are a by-product of the time we spend in the shop,” Longfield states.
 

Results

On this one job, a single Accupro drill delivered 15x the performance of its predecessor, turning out 488 parts – for more than 5,800 holes – without breaking. That same drill was actually sharpened and returned to the tool crib to cut another day.

“I would have been happy to get 400 to 500 holes per drill,” Longfield says. “But to have one drill consistently perform through the entire lot of parts (5,800-plus holes) was truly phenomenal.”

He points out that he would have had to purchase 16 more of the old drills to do this job.

“We have a great relationship with MSC,” Longfield says. “The ability for me to call up MSC and have test tools brought in has been very beneficial for us. And when MSC’s metalworking experts recommend a speed-and-feed or a tool to me, I am 100% assured it will work.”

He adds that Prescott is switching nearly all of its end milling items (2,100 tool types) to the Accupro line. As a result of MSC’s longstanding relationship with Prescott, MSC’s experts have helped to identify additional opportunities to drive greater efficiencies in other areas of the business, including Prescott’s supply chain operations. The company is in the process of implementing MSC’s ControlPoint Inventory Management vending solution to electronically track and automatically reorder tooling as needed, to eliminate stock-outs and reduce downtime.

 

MSC Industrial Supply Co.
www.mscdirect.com/accupro