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SWISSmachining
high-polish finishes on our tools. All of
this helps prevent chipping.”
Dale Newberry, president of MICRO
100, a toolmaker based in Meridian,
Idaho, agreed that high-quality carbide
is important, but said there’s more to
it than that. “Because of the strength
of our carbide, we’re able to run [the
tools] at lower surface speeds without
breaking the tools. We put our carbide
through a proprietary process that
increases the transverse-rupture
strength without losing hardness.
Normally with carbide, when one
(strength or hardness) goes up the
other goes down. But with this process,
we’re able to maintain both hardness
and strength.”
The right shape
Besides using high-quality carbide,
toolmakers must pay special attention
to geometry when grinding micro
22 | MAY/JUNE 2012 | MICROmanufacturing
boring tools.
“Everything changes in the small
tool,” explained Newberry. As bore sizes
decrease, the relative clearance angle
beneath the cutting edge increases
proportionately. Also, the lead angle of
the tool is typically flatter, so that on
flat-bottom bores you can avoid coming
across the bottom of the hole. “There’s
just no room for this when
boring a 0.02" hole.”
But if there’s no room,
why not just make a
smaller boring bar? “We
could do smaller. But there
hasn’t really been a call
for bars that small,” said
Scientific’s Christopher.
“You know, I’d probably
agree with that,” said
Scott LaPrade, marketing
manager at Genevieve
Swiss Industries Inc.,
Westfield, Mass. “I’ve had
some special requests here and there,
where maybe somebody had a really
small bore down at the bottom of a
countersink or something like that, but
I can’t remember the last time I fielded
a call where somebody was looking for
something smaller than the 0.016" bar
we currently offer.”
High SpeeD
Meets
Ultra-High
Precision
Smaltec is proud to present the rst true high-speed spindle/MICRO-EDM machine. Now, one platform can perform
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and the precision of micro edm. Be a part of the next generation of micro machining innovation.
HSS µEDM
Achieve spindle speeds of 200,000 RPM while
utilizing standard micro tooling readily available in
today’s market.
MICRO 100
Boring tool for 0.150" deep × 0.045"-dia. minimum bores.
Create holes to 3 micron diameter while achieving a
surface roughness of less than 50 nanometers Rmax.
Cut conductive materials with ultra-high precision
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