A number of companies from a variety of industry sectors are already gaining benefits from using the new Tiger.tec Gold cutting inserts from Bromsgrove-based Walter GB Ltd (www.walter-tools.com) for a range of rough- and finish-milling operations.

For example, a sub-contractor to the rail and energy industries dramatically extended tool life when machining an S275 structural steel component — by over 400% — and significantly reduced production cost.

Meanwhile, a supplier to the aerospace and automotive sectors more than doubled metal removal rates on an EN24T steel workpiece, reduced tooling costs and achieved operational cost savings of 71%; and a major automotive supplier not only reduced tooling costs by a fifth on a grey cast-iron component but more than quadrupled tool life when machining a GGG40 cast-iron part.

Walter’s Tiger.tec Gold features a new titanium aluminium nitride (TiAIN) coating process that enhances carbide insert performance and extends tool life compared to inserts coated using the conventional chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process.

Furthermore, these inserts are said to offer a high level of resistance to wear on flank faces, reduced hairline cracking, a greater resistance to plastic deformation and improved process reliability.

The sub-contractor to the rail and energy industries used the new inserts in conjunction with Walter’s M4000 universal milling system on what is essentially a finish-milling operation.

The 8,000rev/min vertical machining centre was run at similar speed and feed rates (251m/min and 751mm/min) on the S275 part for a brake assembly.

However, the 400% increase in tool life and tool cost reductions of 69% achieved with Tiger.tec Gold also provided a 51% saving in cost per edge, a 78% reduction in tool change times and the ‘release’ of 13hr of machine capacity over a year.

For 45deg face milling of EN24T steel shafts on a 12,000rev/min horizontal machining centre at the supplier to the aerospace and automotive sectors mentioned earlier, Tiger.tec Gold was run at a different speed and feed rate (180m/min and 1,074mm/min, compared to 100m/min and 353mm/min with the competitor’s insert).

The resulting operational cost savings of 71% were made up of increased metal removal rates (by more than 150%) and a 73% reduction in tooling costs; over a year, the use of Tiger.tec Gold for this operation alone released 31hr of machining capacity.

The automotive sector supplier has trialled Tiger.tec Gold on two applications. The first, involving Walter’s M4000 universal cutting system, saw a 90deg shoulder-milling application achieve a 20% reduction in tooling costs when rough-milling a grey cast-iron workpiece using a 12,000rev/min horizontal machining centre.

Run at similar speeds and feeds (275m/min and 1,559mm/min) as used previously, the new inserts also reduced the cost per cutting edge by over 50%.

However, it was the use of Tiger.tec Gold in a Walter Blaxx milling system that produced the significant increases in tool life — more than 250% — when rough-milling the GGG40 component on a 12,000rev/min horizontal machining centre.

Run at a different speed and feed rate than a competitor’s insert (200m/min and 2,122mm/min compared to 227m/min and 1,043mm/min), the Walter insert halved machining times, released 135hr of machine time over a year and — overall —
produced machining cost savings of 38%.