Solid carbide drilling is one of the most common CNC machining processes. As a chief holemaking method, it offers several essential benefits. Putting it to work in your operations can increase your speed and product quality while lowering overall costs. This short guide explains what you need to know about solid carbide drilling.
Production Drilling Where High-Quality Tool Holder & Equipment Is Present
To understand why solid carbide is so popular, we need to look at its properties. Carbide is simply carbon blended with a metallic or semi-metallic substance. When you see metalworking solid carbide tools in production environments, they usually contain tungsten carbide crafted with tungsten steel as its base. These tools typically measure at least HRC65, which means it’s high-hardness steel on the Rockwell scale.
Benefits of Solid Carbide Drilling
Metalworking operations include solid carbide drills for many reasons. Their strength makes them perfect for drilling into hard materials. These drills allow cutting at faster speeds and higher feed rates while reducing the likelihood of jamming. Solid carbide also tolerates heat well, with melting points up to 2,800 degrees Celsius.
Solid carbide is strong, but it’s also the most brittle among drill bit metals. That’s why solid carbide drills deliver their best performance on high-precision machines. Pair them with high-quality equipment and tool holders in high-volume operations.
Difficult-To-Machine Materials
Solid carbide drills also excel at holemaking in metals that pose unique challenges. Refractory metals are heat- and wear-resistant, but they’re also hard to work through conventional machining methods. Four common refractory metals are molybdenum, niobium, tantalum and tungsten. They feature in industrial, scientific and aerospace applications.
Solid carbide is also exceptional with super-alloys, which exhibit high mechanical strength, thermal creep deformation resistance and corrosion resistance. Unfortunately, machining them generates large amounts of stress. Examples include nickel- and titanium-based metals such as Hastelloy, Waspaloy and TMX alloys. They feature prominently in high heat resistance such as chemical reactors, gas turbine engines and pipelinesInteractive Catalog To Easily Order & Apply
Interactive Catalog To Easily Order & Apply
You require an easy-to-use solution for ordering your machining tools. Kennametal’s First Choice catalogue offers a wide range of options for metalworking operations. This collection features versatile, high-performance products with rapid delivery. The First Choice system uses an interactive catalogue from which you can easily select the tools you need and place your order.
The First Choice system is an excellent way to order your solid carbide drilling tools. You can choose both universal and Kennametals’ GOdrill micro-drilling solutions from this catalogue. While the GOdrill is a general-purpose tool, it also features a marginless design to minimize friction and heat. Other essential benefits of the GOdrill include evenly distributed cutting forces, free-flowing chips in the center and a visible wear indicator.
Innovations in Metalworking
Solid carbide drilling opens up a world of possibilities in CNC machining. With its hardness and heat resistance, solid carbide bits are often the tools of choice for working with hard-to-machine metals. Cultivating a solid relationship with a CNC tool vendor is vital in transforming your metalworking operations.
