TOOLING TRACK RECORD & FOCUS UNDERPIN CONTINUING SUCCESS
5-axis machining work, Open Mind hyperMILL
CAM (https://is.gd/gatuno), both of which
share a common constant engagement
engine, he explains. In the new facility, this
consultancy effort has been further boosted
through the installation of a Spinner U-630
5-axis machining centre (Whitehouse
Machine Tools, https://is.gd/iyiqug) to
support customer demonstrations, while to
complement its high performance products,
it also employs Rego-Fix toolholding (https://
is.gd/ozupez). The capabilities of new, UKproduced
ceramic end-mills were underlined
via a demonstration on the day of the
celebration event, cutting Inconel (image,
p28). The previously used machining
facilities at Leeds are now more focused on
developing and testing new products.
Supporting the company’s consultancydriven
approach is a recently added,
soft-launched factored range of inserted
carbide milling and turning tooling under the
FordMAX name. As Ward explains: “We don’t
want to lose that focus of being the best of
what we do – something we prove day in day
out with our solid, round-shank tooling. But,
more and more, people such as Whitehouse
Machine Tools come to us with complete
parts that need to be machined in total.
If customers use other tools to, say, perform
roughing and then use our tooling and
strategies after that, there is the possibility
that they think they can substitute our tools
but employ the same high speed machining
strategies. I have seen so many people fail
that way, so I want to be able to satisfy the
whole package. We have undertaken two or
three projects so far, having extensively
tested the tooling for two years in the eld,
and are now more actively promoting it to
end-users, but where supply will be through
distribution, as always.”
In a parallel initiative, the introduction of
a Leeds-produced high performance, budgetpriced
range of solid carbide tooling has
been made over the past two or three years,
also under the FordMax banner. It is aimed
at lower volume, batch production situations.
“This is tooling that we know will perform
better than the competition, without the
distributor having to stand on duckboards to
deliver that,” the UK operation’s managing
director offers.
In looking ahead to future developments,
MA Ford CEO Hill observes that the number
The FordMax range of cutters, both solid carbide and
indexable insert styles, is a recent addition
of 3D-printed parts that require machining
will increase, particularly in the aerospace
and medical sectors, and that the company
is looking at developing tools to best tackle
the machining of these. Also, that as
manufacturing technologies develop, he
cited 7-axis machining, so cutting tools must
also evolve to support them.
BIG CHANGE COMING
An area of major development will be the
materials from which cutting tools are made,
he says. “We think there is going to be a big
change in cutting tool materials going
forward. Not only in the coating
technologies, but in the carbides as well.
There haven’t been a lot of changes in the
carbide market, but there have been a lot of
changes in coating technology. We’re seeing
a lot of mixing of technologies in coating
right now and it’s producing some
All images Andrew Allcock
phenomenal results. There will be some very
big increases in productivity with these, and
they will be hitting the market fairly quickly.”
But on carbide substrates themselves,
things won’t move so fast. He reveals that
one of the very latest innovations has been
development of a new carbide substrate that
involves seven or eight rare earth metals
engineered into the material design that will
result in “a super carbide of the future”,
although not in the next couple of years, the
CEO adds, concluding: “MA Ford is
dedicated to applying the latest technologies
and producing the newest tools and
improving productivity for our customers.”
Returning to that opening statement
about the company’s comparative pro le,
Ward says: “We won’t just say we are the
best; we’ll prove we’re the best. We ask for
nothing more than that we are given a
chance to prove it.”
30 August 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
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