Fenn Tool sales director Brian Pearce, who believes it is important for his engineers to understand the whole manufacturing process and provide a fully tailored solution for the customer, says: “The approach to selling cutting tools for manufacturing processes requires more than the tool itself.

That is why Fenn Tool has selected Edgecam as a technical partner. Our work with customers involves expertise in both tooling selection and the optimum implementation of this tooling, which is why we had Edgecam train four of our engineers in CAM technology — and further training is planned.”

Mr Pearce says that with 12 field-based sales engineers, Fenn Tool is in a good position to take advantage of its collaboration with Edgecam (www.edgecam.com).

In particular, he says Edgecam’s Waveform high-speed machining strategy has played a key role in two of Fenn Tool’s UK product launches — the five-flute Penta Mill and the Speedtwister (the company is the UK agent for Austrian carbide and HSS cutting-tool company Maykestag, which supplies these cutters).

Founded by owner Peter Fenn in 1982, Essex-based Fenn Tool has developed into one of the UK’s largest independent cutting-tool distributors.

The company was already well known as the sole UK agent for many top European cutting-tool manufacturers before starting to produce its own Fetoga range of solid-carbide end mills in 2000.

Mr Pearce says: “Fenn offers an extensive range of tooling for most applications. As well as our ever-expanding cutting-tool portfolio, we also supply complete tooling packages for customer projects — from conception through to completion — in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, medical, oil and gas and general engineering.

“The partnership between Fenn Tool and Edgecam means our customers get a combination of the right tool and software that is a perfect fit for their machine tools.”

Edgecam’s strategic partnership manager, Wesley Tonks, says: “Cutting-tool geometries are now being designed to take advantage of Edgecam’s ability to achieve increased metal removal rates with Waveform — using higher spindle speeds, higher feed rates and deeper engagement of the tool.”

As well as improving material removal rates by up to 500% in some cases, Waveform also considerably lengthens cutting-tool life by ensuring a constant chip load; the increased depth of cut means that the full flute length is used, providing a more-stable cutting condition.