Sandvik Coromant’s use of recycled materials in turning grades is an important factor in customer’s productions being more sustainable.

When working with metal, a poor choice of tool or machining strategy can be the difference between success and failure. Waste material, poor productivity, and scrap components are all signs of an inadequate machining process. They’re also signs of unsustainable machining. With the right tools and processes in place, many sustainability gains can be made when cutting metal. But lots of machine shops aren’t realizing these advantages.

Metals are the backbone of today’s industrialized world. From steel in our buildings and aluminum in our cars, to titanium in modern aircraft and the copper found in electronics, metals are important building blocks in our economy. And their prevalence isn’t going to dwindle. As governments across the world implement plans to decarbonize, demand for renewable technologies will see our reliance on metals continue to soar. In fact, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Iron and Steel Technology Roadmap reports that global demand for steel will increase by more than a third between now and 2050.

But, as metal demand increases, so too will expectations on how metals are sourced, produced and used in manufacturing.

Making progress Producing metals has long been considered a carbon-intensive process. While it’s true that steelmaking produces a lot of emissions, industry has made successful strides toward reducing its impact. Green steels, for example, replace coking coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steelmaking, with renewable electricity and hydrogen. This can drastically reduce carbon emissions during the metal production process.

While recent innovations like green steel could bring a more sustainable future for the metal industry, there are several other technologies that can make metalworking processes more sustainable. Manufacturers must become more aware of these methods if they are to tackle tomorrow’s sustainability challenges.

The right tool for the job For machine shops tasked with cutting difficult-to-machine metals into desired forms, with tight tolerances and the utmost surface quality, the right tools and expertise are essential. Specifically, the tool should aid more efficient and less wasteful machining processes and support major sustainability benefits.

Scrapping components are a factor that prevents a workshop from achieving top performance. Common situations that lead to scrapping include using the wrong tools, human errors in machine programming and undetected variations in the raw material that cause unpredictable machining issues. Moreover, waste has a serious impact on the environment if it isn’t recycled. In fact, World Bank estimates that waste produced by industry is 18 times more than solid waste produced by municipalities around the world.

If machine shops are to reduce scrap, they must implement the right tooling setup and cutting data. Failure to secure these factors can result in irregular tool wear and unpredictable insert tool life – this leads to component rejections and, in turn, scrap.

Tool choice is especially integral to reducing waste in turning, a common lathe machining operation. Efficient steel turning can be achieved by reducing scrap and component rejections, as part of an effective strategy to bring down the cost of production within an existing machining setup. The strategy might include maximizing machine use or selecting more reliable tooling solutions, like the insert, to reduce cost per part.

But what are the characteristics of a more reliable tool? Turning grades that provide long and predictable tool life, with good chip control, should be considered for secure and productive machining. Selecting a tool with longer life, combined with greater wear and heat resistance, can yield tangible benefits, like minimizing unplanned stops or reducing material waste from the workpiece material or from the carbide insert itself.

These are all necessary preconditions for sustainable machining. Sandvik Coromant’s dedication to using recycled materials in our turning grades is also an important factor, in order to make our customer’s productions more sustainable. One of the criteria in our development project is to increase the use of recycled material while reducing waste.

Smoothing out the pain points While awareness of sustainability is gaining momentum across virtually all industries, so too is digital transformation. In a survey of more than 400 global manufacturing companies, 94% of respondents indicated that Industry 4.0 has helped keep their operations running during the pandemic. The challenges of COVID-19 have also served as a wake-up call to manufacturers that are lagging behind in implementing Industry 4.0 strategies.

The advantages of Industry 4.0 for manufacturers are now well known – that it helps managers and workers make better-informed decisions, leads to greater productivity, can reduce production errors and supports higher profits. But a lesser realized benefit of Industry 4.0 is the crucial role it plays in sustainability.

Historically, plant managers have based machining decisions on the initiative and experience of their workers. Machines that are connected through the Internet of Things (IoT), on the other hand, can enhance the invaluable experience of human workers to offer new possibilities for transparency, optimized planning and streamlined production. With this in mind, there are a number of digital services today that can help manufacturers implement more sustainable production processes.

A good place to start in any sustainability strategy is to conduct an audit of a plant’s current status with data-led insights. This approach can identify several areas of inefficiency that might impede a machine shop’s productivity and sustainability. For instance, if a facility is experiencing premature tool wear, subpar surface finishes or high machine downtime, the data gathered through sensors can help operators make informed improvements to their machining process in ways that help reduce waste and increase energy efficiency.

As an example, the CoroPlus Productivity Improvement Program (PIP) is one solution to these pain points. The PIP is a proven, structured process that can be performed on a single machine, on a process chain or across the whole plant. To begin the process, Sandvik Coromant experts identify inefficiencies in production and, from there, Sandvik Coromant installs machine monitoring solutions that give data insights in real time. This data can be accessed remotely to provide an in-depth analysis of a complete production cell, right down to the cutting tool.

CoroPlus PIP can support manufacturers by lowering costs and reducing inefficiencies, but also helps make the manufacturing process more sustainable. By making sure machines run as efficiently as possible and cutting down machining time, the program can eliminate waste and reduce energy consumption. Not least, major assets – the people on site – will have better working conditions while knowing machine processes are smooth, stable and predictable.

A few misinformed decisions can be the difference between productive, sustainable metal cutting and a wasteful machining process. However, as we become more aware of the impact of metalworking on the environment, innovations are being realized that can significantly improve the industry’s credentials. That includes finding more sustainable ways of not just producing but also machining metals for people, planet and profit.

Learn how lasers are used in ablation, texturing, and micromachining manufacturing processes.

About the presentation Globally, manufacturing is moving toward piece-part production, especially in the medical, aerospace, automotive (EC), and other key industries where lasers help reduce consumable costs and ensure extreme process repeatability. Onik Bhattacharyya explains how lasers are used in ablation, texturing, and micromachining manufacturing processes to overcome challenges ranging from tiny part features to functional surface textures that stimulate human bone growth on medical implants. He also compares these processes to traditional technologies such as electrical discharge machining (EDM), mechanical milling, and chemical etching with real-world shop examples. Attendees of this presentation will learn how laser micromachining, ablation, and texturing processes are used in several manufacturing applications, including medical parts and surgical tools, automotive production, mold and die, and many others. The technology makes it possible to hold tight micro machining tolerances on very small parts and generate repeatable surface texture patterns much faster than conventional methods.

Meet your presenter Onik Bhattacharyya is the director of global sales at GF Machining Solutions for the Microlution product line. He was formerly the vice president of sales and one of three founding members at Microlution in 2006. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, also from the University of Illinois.

About the company GF Machining Solutions is – along with GF Piping Systems and GF Casting Solutions – one of the three divisions within the Georg Fischer Group (Switzerland). We provide machines, technical solutions, and services to the tool and mold making industry and to manufacturers of precision components. The portfolio ranges from EDM, high-speed and high-performance Milling machines – including clamping and palletization systems, 3D laser surface texturing machines, and spindles – to solutions for tooling and automation, services, spare parts, expendable parts, consumables, and digitalization solutions. Our key customer segments are the aerospace, ICT, medical, and automotive industries. Based in Switzerland, GF Machining Solutions is present in more than 50 countries with our own sales companies. In addition, the division operates production facilities, research, and development centers in Switzerland, the U.S., Sweden, and China.

#ANCATooloftheYear 2022 celebrates the deep experience and creativity of the craftspeople who create the next generation of cutting tools.

Now in its fifth year, ANCA's industry-first competition launched for 2022 at GrindingHub. Participants and winners in ANCA Tool of the Year (TOTY) achieve important brand recognition as well as cash and other prizes.

ANCA’s Tool of the Year customers can submit their favorite tool, with the winners being judged and announced live at IMTS 2022. There will be two competition categories to recognize both the functionality and creativity of cutting tool manufacturers.

The winner of #MadeonANCA receives $10,000 AUD worth of ANCA innovations for parts, accessories or software that fit the winner’s grinding needs or a trip to ANCA's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. This amazing prize further includes access as an ANCA VIP to exclusive opportunities with our ANCA tool experts. The winner of the most innovative virtual tool will receive a full CIM software package.

Submissions are open from through August 8, 2022.

The competition will be based on the passion and the craft of tool making, celebrating a highly skilled tool grinding community.

The judging panel consists of:

At IMTS 2022, the top five finalist tools will be judged on the following criteria:

Sign up now for these presentations from HEIDENHAIN and ISCAR.

Our 2022 Manufacturing Lunch + Learn virtual events connect you to industry leaders who offer insights and technology that will keep you moving ahead in uncertain times. Join other industry professionals when you register for July’s monthly Lunch + Learn webinars, which is easy and convenient to attend from your home or office. REGISTER TODAY!

NEW CNCs MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.

MILLPWR a powerful yet easy to operate CNC retrofit systems for knee mills and bed mills. Faster set-ups, shorter run times and a major boost in productivity are just one "powerful easy" retrofit away. Our new MILLPWRG2 control and retrofit kits can turn just about any knee mill into a powerhouse money-maker.

TURNPWR is a workshop-oriented turning control that enables the user to program conventional machining operations right at the machine. It is designed for turning machine tools with up to two axes. TURNPWR was developed to satisfy the wants and needs of lathe machinists where manual and automated operation are both useful and needed. TURNPWR promises to enable the user to maximize throughput by significantly reducing setup time, scrap and other non-productive operations.

Speaker: John Parker, MT Business Development and Product Manager, HEIDENHAIN Corp.

Learn how to use logged data to complete future projects using directed energy deposition.

About the presentation Within the various additive manufacturing (AM) processes, several process parameters determine the resultant geometry and quality of a build. Understanding and controlling these parameters are the key to quality, part-to-part replication, and certification. In certain systems, data from builds remain locked away in a closed box, but can this data be useful for the end-users? Yes, and it’s useful. Along with developing and integrating in-process sensors and closed-loop control features, a data logging capability is essential for understanding the build history and variability from build-to-build. With data logging capability, a file is automatically generated in real-time and contains the time history of all parameters and process-monitoring sensors. The data sets provided can be used in post-process analyses to enable machine learning and defect-detection algorithms. This presentation discloses data that was used to correlate defects to anomalous process parameters using two Department of Defense (DoD) applications as examples.

Meet your presenter Melanie Lang, FormAlloy co-founder and CEO, is motivated by developing disruptive technology that delivers the future of AM by creating high-value components with superior performance. Her passion has manifested into making wave(length)s in metal additive manufacturing since co-founding FormAlloy Technologies Inc. in 2016. Prior to FormAlloy, Lang interned at Boeing and spent 14 years as an engineer and program manager at Lockheed Martin. In 2020, she was named one of SME’s 20 Exceptional Women in Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing for her focus on opening the design space for multi-material components. She holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois and an M.S. in systems architecture and engineering from the University of Southern California. In addition to her role at FormAlloy, Lang serves on the America Makes Executive Committee as the vice president of legislative affairs for Navy League San Diego. She’s the Women in 3D-Printing ambassador for San Diego.