A customer case study

An example of a real-world application comes with Dormer’s A553 High Speed Cobalt (HSS-E) drill, which has become a key component for a Swedish manufacturer.

Larssons Mechanical Workshop, founded in 1951, manufacture subcontracted metal products, as well as processing and assembly support for a wide range of industries. One particular job involved the machining of thousands of holes in its packaging machine rollers made from 2346 and 2333 stainless steel.

A 12mm diameter A553 drill – which features a TiAlN Top coating and internal coolant – is used to drill thousands of holes to depths of up to 70mm, which equates to 70-75 meters of drilling. For Larssons, HSS is the preferred option as Gunnar Wistrand, CNC operator, said: “It is flexible drill that, unlike a carbide drill, is more forgiving if something happens. Another safety advantage of the A553 is that we can leave the machine without risk of failure.”

In this respect, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages as Gunnar confirms, “Utilising the A553 it takes an extra 30 seconds for each reel to be produced. However, the process is more predictable and changeover time is greatly reduced. The extra time it would take to change tools would cost us far more. Not changing the tool as frequently also eliminates any safety concerns with tool changes.”