Leading truck, bus and diesel engine manufacturer Scania was already an established user of Seco’s Minimaster milling tools in its machine shop at Södertälje, Sweden.
However, after recent tests using Seco’s new range of Minimaster Plus tools
(www.secotools.com) for machining engine blocks for its 16-valve V8 engines, Scania reports that the new tool range lasted considerably longer than its predecessor.
Henrik Svensson, process planner at Scania, said: “We used to have to change our Minimaster tools once every day. With the new range, it’s every three days, which represents a significant improvement in tool life and tool cost savings.”
Scania manufactures five different ‘engine platforms’ (cylinder blocks). The cast-iron blocks weigh about 450kg and are machined to exacting tolerances and surface finishes on a large machining centre. Each block has eight palm-size cast holes that need to be expanded, shaped and finished; the Minimaster Plus tools — along with others — are used for these machining operations.
Mr Svensson adds: “With Minimaster, we would need to change tools after machining 30 engine blocks. With Minimaster Plus, this has increased to 90 engine blocks, which equates to an increase in productivity — more parts per tool — and a reduction in tooling costs.”
Scania is due to begin production of a new range of engine blocks made from super-hard cast CGI (compacted graphite iron), and Minimaster Plus was tested on the new material to see how it would cope.
The results were equally impressive. The Minimaster Plus milling cutters are available with different sizes of shank and replaceable two-, three- and multi-flute inserts; the tools also have internal through-coolant channels.