Working closely with the manufacturers of airplane landing gear, we designed a solution that not only increased their production rate, but the quality of the finished piece improved too. And we saved them money by prolonging the life of the tools they were using as well!

The customer was using a single flute PCD tipped router on a HSS body. These tools had been developed in-house and whilst they were cheap, they didn’t last long and the finish wasn’t great either.

We tested a bunch of solutions. 6mm, 10mm and 12mm PCD tipped routers; a square end and a ballnose end too. We also changed the design from a Z1 to a Z2 on a solid carbide body. This increased the feed rate and reduced vibrations.

The net result was a four-fold increase in feed rates from 2m/min to 8m/min and the tool life doubled too, from 2 working weeks to 4!