For more than 30 years, we’ve been exceeding expectations for our customers. One way we do that is by reducing customers’ cost per hole, so it only makes sense that as a custom PCD and carbide cutting-tool maker, West Ohio Tool would up its game by adding CBN-tipped tools to our product and service offerings.
The recent inclusion of CBN was driven by our continuous drive to meet customer demand for a material especially suited to cutting ferrous metals, hardened steels and super alloy metals.
Because we work hand-in-hand with our customers to understand their production applications and needs, we saw that many of them were shifting toward operations that needed more than PCD and carbide. “Some of our customers have moved into working with steel,” said West Ohio Tool Production Manager Chad Mahurin. “Adding CBN allows us to provide them the optimum tool for those materials.”
CBN, or cubic boron nitride, is second only to diamond in hardness and has better thermal and chemical characteristics than PCD. CBN-tipped tools can withstand cutting temperatures up to 1,300 degrees Celsius and will not react chemically with iron, which is why CBN is preferrable when machining iron and other hard, abrasive metals. CBN also outlasts carbide-tipped tools in terms of tool life and wear.
“It’s all about price per hole,” Chad said. “How many holes do I get out this tool? And CBN tools last so much longer than carbide tools. As compared to carbide, CBN can significantly reduce price per hole.”
Shops have learned tool longevity and reduced cost per hole translate to savings in multiple ways:
- Fewer tools to purchase,
- Less regrinding costs,
- Longer production runs,
- Less waste,
- Reduced tool change time, and
- Decreased downtime for checkups.
“Once a customer sees the entire picture, they’re really glad they made the move to CBN,” Chad said.
In addition to offering new CBN-tipped tools, we provide fast turnaround on CBN re-tipping of other manufacturer’s tools, increasing longevity and performance with West Ohio Tool quality and precision.
“It’s like getting a brand new tool,” Chad said.
With various CBN grades available that are better suited for some applications and production processes than others, customers transitioning to CBN aren’t left to simply call in an order. We work with shops every step of the way to learn the specifics about what they intend to do to ensure they get exactly the right tool for the right application.
“It’s pretty much a custom operation,” Chad said of West Ohio Tool’s support process. “We try to find out everything. We look at the material, the machine parameters, the geometry of the tool; we find out everything and then get them the right grade of CBN.”
Making virtually every transaction a custom operation is the way we do business. It’s the right thing to do. We’re proud to partner with our customers. It’s how we exceed expectations.
