Gloucestershire-based Scorpion Tooling (www.scorpiontooling.co.uk) was established in 1990 with the intention of providing an efficient tool regrinding service and universal grinding facilities for local industry.

The company’s early success and reputation for providing high-quality work at competitive prices soon led to a demand for an extended range of services — from both local customers and those further afield.

Having initially launched a limited range of standard cutting tools developed and produced in-house, Scorpion’s range has grown over the past two decades to include tool such as drills, form tools, thread mills, routers, uncoated and coated carbide slot drills and end mills.

The company also makes unequal-pitch end mills and slot drills for machining aluminium. It is also involved in an on-going tool development program with the University of Bath; and when its standard tools are unable to satisfy uncommon applications, it will work closely with customers to design and produce special tools.

It now has customers in the aerospace, medical, automotive, oil and gas and general engineering industries. To meet the ever growing demand for its products, Scorpion not only buys high-quality machine tools but also what it considers to be the best available consumables, including coolant and grinding wheels.

Managing director Chris Wands says; “Our aim is to improve the performance of our clients’ precision cutting tools and cut their manufacturing times and costs. As well as supplying new tools, we offer a re-grinding and re-conditioning service. This side of our business continues to grow, such is the cost of larger-diameter tools — hence our purchase of five-axis Schneeberger CNC grinders.

“Of all of the factors that influence the accuracy, surface finish and overall quality of the tools that our grinders produce and regrind, the grinding wheel used has the biggest influence. In order to find the ideal wheels for our particular needs, we have performed trials on many brands and grades of grinding wheel.

“A successful trial of 3M NaxoForce wheels convinced us that they were ideal for our use. In addition to the quality and accuracy of the tools that these wheels help to produce, their long-lasting characteristics make them very cost-effective. Moreover, the technical assistance and advice provided by 3M’s staff have allowed us to substantially increase our feeds and speeds when using our NaxoForce wheels.”

These 3M wheels (www.winterthurtechnology.com) feature a hybrid bond system that combines the advantages of several bond techniques; these include the cutting ability of synthetic resin and vitrified bonds, as well as the profile retention and durability of metal bonds.

Because flute grinding involves the removal of a large quantity of stock in which the groove may be up to 8mm deep, it is considered one of the most demanding — and time-consuming — grinding operations. Moreover, the large contact area makes access for coolant difficult; this places a ‘strain’ on both the grinding wheel and the workpiece, which is why grinding depths and feed rates have — up to now — been kept to a minimum to prevent thermal damage. However, 3M says NaxoForce makes such traditional methods a thing of the past.

With high demands on the edge quality of carbide tools, the profile retention of abrasive coatings is of great importance. Ideally, the grinding wheel should also allow high removal rates with excellent surface quality.

NaxoEdge is said to offer these advantages, as well as good cutting performance; this is attributed to the glaze-resistant hybrid bond and small grit size, which ensure long-lasting trueness of form and reduced dressing
frequencies.