2025 Buyer’s Guide: Tooling & Workholding Product Releases
Get more life out of your tooling and workholding systems, cutting tools, abrasives, devices, clamping, fixturing and other equipment with today’s leading edge products. The post 2025 Buyer’s Guide: Tooling & Workholding Product Releases appeared first on Fabricating & Metalworking.
New Speed Drills for High-speed Precision Hole Making
Monaghan Tooling Group (Dayton, OH) introduces MK Tools’ R4 Speed Drill series high performance solid carbide drills engineered for high speed, precision hole making in a range of materials including carbon steel, cast iron, grey cast iron and various alloys. Designed for demanding machining environments, they are available in standard sizes from 3 mm-to-20 mm, with drilling depths of 3XD or 5XD, and are equipped with through-coolant capabilities to enhance performance.
The advanced design features of the R4 Speed Drill Series improve machining efficiency, such as 2-flute geometry with a 30° helix angle for superior chip evacuation to minimize downtime. Their 140°-point self-centering geometry eliminates the need for pre-drilling operations, saving time and improving efficiency. Each is precision ground from premium carbide feedstock using the latest CNC grinding technology. Their 4-facet point geometry with cross-web thinning (form c) and large radius provide optimal stability and reduced cutting forces. Polished parabolic flutes and two guide lands ensure superior centering, low vibration, and improved surface finish.
The R4 Speed Drill series are ideal for high-speed applications in automotive, aerospace, and general machining of components such as connecting rods, injection pumps, wheel carriers, guide wheel shafts, and more.
Next-gen End Mills Combine Quality with Flexibility
The next generation of Seco Tools LLC’s (Reynoldsville, PA) C-Series end mills (formerly Niagara
Cutter) deliver flexibility, performance and longer tool life. These end mills incorporate an advanced SIRON-A coating that boosts general-purpose tool life by up to 30%. SIRON-A coating is the first choice universal coating for steels, cast iron and stainless-steel materials. With one tool for general machining applications, shops can significantly reduce tooling inventories and costs, increase profitability, and remain competitive in the face of increasing pricing pressures.
“The wide range of tools we offer in this series makes it easy for shops to select the best option for their unique part mix and equipment portfolio,” said Jay Ball, product manager for Seco Tool.
Available in chamfer, square and ball nose geometries, the series includes 2-, 3-, and 4-flute configurations to provide the versatility needed for a variety of traditional milling applications. The end mills are well-suited for every day, general-purpose applications such as roughing and finishing when side milling, face milling or slotting. The versatility of the end mills also allows shops to machine various materials without changing tools.
New Insert Achieves Better Tool Life in Stainless Steel Applications
Allied Machine and Engineering (Dover, OH), a leading manufacturer of hole making and finishing cutting tools for the metal-cutting industry, offers the new M geometry insert for the GEN3SYS XT Pro high penetration drill. The new M geometry insert is designed for all 300 series, 400 series and super duplex stainless steels in addition to other hard-to-machine materials in the ISO M group.
Adding the M geometry insert with Allied’s AM460 coating to the GEN3SYS XT Pro high penetration drilling system gives machinists access to an insert with industry-leading tool life in stainless steel applications. With a substrate that provides the best balance of toughness and wear resistance necessary to excel in stainless steels, the M geometry is designed for improved chip formation while drilling high penetration rates within industries such as oil and gas, HVAC, automotive and more.
Not only does the M geometry insert achieve better tool life in difficult-to-machine stainless materials, but it also offers consistent failure modes to reduce the risk of catastrophic failures. Furthermore, in job shop environments, machinists can utilize one holder with multiple tip geometries when switching between stainless steels and other materials.
Rough, Finish, Contour Turn, Face or Longitudinal Turn with the Same Tool
CERATIZIT USA (Schaumburg, IL) demonstrated how the future of conventional turning is changing dramatically at IMTS 2024. Instead of a fixed setting angle to the workpiece, shops are now using milling spindles to produce highly dynamic angles. CERATIZIT refers to this as “High Dynamic Turning.” At IMTS, CERATIZIT featured the FreeTurn tool with a slim, axial structure that allows users to benefit from 360° of freedom in the axis without the risk of collision. The dynamic positioning optimizes chip breakage and improves component quality by changing the position during the process. Even undercuts or contours, which currently require an additional tool, can be produced. With FreeTurn, shops can rough, finish, contour turn, face or longitudinal turn with the same tool.
With conventional turning processes, a separate tool is needed for every contour. This results in enormous tool costs and long tool changeover times. With High Dynamic Turning and the FreeTurn tool together with the high level of freedom provided by the milling spindle, the cutting edge can be changed through rotation about the tool axis, providing huge savings on tools and changeover times. Plus, machining time is reduced by up to 25%.
Compatible CAM software for FreeTurn is available through industry partners like EXAPT, EdgeCAM by Hexagon, GibbsCAM, Heidenhain, hyperMILL, SolidCAM, Siemens NX and TopSolid.
Other FreeTurn advantages include but are not limited to:
- Machine almost all workpiece contours with one tool
- Run at 40% higher feed rates
- Reduce empty tool paths by up to 90%
- Adjust feed rates during processing
Expanded Thread Mill Line features a Range of New, Innovative Tools
EMUGE-FRANKEN USA (West Boylston, MA) offers a significant line of thread mills, including innovative solutions for challenging threading applications and materials such as nickel alloys, titanium, high tensile strength steels, cast aluminum and more. EMUGE-FRANKEN offers five distinct thread mill tool families to address a range of machining requirements. The thread mill tool families include THREADS-ALL
, THRILLER style, SHUR-THREAD, VARIO Full Profile and GIANT-IC carbide insert style.
New thread mills in the expanded include:
- THREADS-ALL/MAX line of premium sub-micro grain solid carbide thread mills that are designed for maximum performance in high tensile strength and hardened materials from 44-66 HRC.
- THREADS-ALL/HEADED line featuring circular thread milling bar/bodies with exchangeable face inserts provide an excellent modular solution for milling larger thread dimensions in stainless steel, titanium, nickel alloys, cast iron and hardened high alloy steels >25 HRC, and mold and tools steels.
- THRILLER-MAX thread mills are designed to dramatically improve tool life and performance in hard-to-machine, high tensile strength materials 44-66 HRC.
- VARIO-Z external thread mills are specifically designed to produce external threads in a wide range of materials and applications.
- VARIO SKIP tooth thread milling cutters with alternating tooth rows are designed to reduce radial cutting forces and provide an option to remove the incomplete thread.
High Quality Threads Thanks to Hydraulic Tapping Arm
Flex Machine Tools (WAPAKONETA, OH U.S.A.), an American manufacturer and leading provider of machine tool solutions worldwide for metal fabrication operations and more, offers the versatile FlexArm GH-60 Hydraulic Tapping Arm. It ensures consistent, high-quality threads by maintaining perpendicularity while tapping in a range of applications including light reaming, chamfering and deburring.
The GH-60 tapping arm capacity ranges from 3/8″ to 2″, has a long reach between 20″ and 84″, and provides the ability to adjust rpm between 55/275. Its ergonomic design effortlessly articulates over the workpiece, making it simple to tap all holes in a single easy setup, increasing productivity and reducing operator strain. The adjustable clutch in the tap holder prevents tap breakage and extends tool life. Quick change tap holders facilitate seamless and fast tool changes. Customization is made possible with a variety of accessories designed to optimally fit shop requirements.
High-volume Hole Making Mastered
Sandvik Coromant (Mebane, NC), a global leader in metal cutting tools and manufacturing solutions, introduces its second-generation exchangeable-tip drill, CoroDrill® DE10. Engineered for high-volume drilling across all materials, CoroDrill DE10 sets new standards in productivity, efficiency and sustainability. With its innovative geometry, this tool delivers true plug-and-play functionality and uncompromised performance.
Building on the success of CoroDrill® 870 for H9-H10 hole tolerances, CoroDrill DE10 introduces advanced features that enhance versatility and operational ease. Users will appreciate the familiar pre-tension clamping interface, thoughtfully designed to align with operator experience while delivering enhanced security. The solution prioritizes robustness, enabling quick tip changes, reliable high-speed drilling and extended drill body life with more tips per tool. Its unique -M5 tip geometry delivers unmatched performance across diverse materials and cutting conditions.
CoroDrill DE10 addresses several common drilling challenges, particularly for manufacturers tasked with producing large quantities of holes in a single operation. With high feed capabilities, the tool achieves superior penetration rates, boosting productivity and lowering the cost per hole. Additionally, both tool inventory and cycle times can be significantly reduced because it eliminates the need for a pilot hole to guide the drill into place.
The tool has been tested against multiple competing tools, each time showing significant advantages.
Smart Manufacturing Solution Ensures Faster, Reliable Changeovers
Speedgrip Chuck Co.’s (Elkhart, IN) CSC Contactless Stroke Control for turning machines makes workholding changeovers quick and more consistent. The CSC Contactless Stroke Control eliminates the need to manually adjust proximity switches after each workholding clamp changeover and provides fast confirmation of part-clamping position. This smart manufacturing solution automatically displays digital measurement of the cylinder stroke while clamped on the workpiece and machine feedback, stroke position and real-time workpiece dimension data during operation and sends clamp confirmation signal to machine tool CNCs.
In addition to confirming part and stroke position, the control data aids in determining whether part parameters are in range prior to machining and helps prevent scrap and tool damage if workpiece clamping is not confirmed. Plus, the simple, affordable design quickly mounts to virtually any CNC workholding device and easily retrofits to older machines.
Each of Speedgrip’s new products are American made, in stock for fast delivery and backed by more than 75 years of workholding solution expertise.
New Drills Proven to be 3x-to-4x Faster Than Previous Models
Star SU, Star Cutter Co.’s (Farmington Hills, MI) marketing, sales and service affiliate, announces the availability of a new line of expert internal coolant drills from Louis Bélet, designed specifically for stainless steels. This drill line is suited for application in all fields where stainless steel is used, such as watchmaking, medical, aerospace, automotive, etc.
Machining of stainless grades, such as martensitic and austenitic, is often slow and prone to errors. To address these challenges, one of the drills in the new range (REF .376-10) achieves depths of up to 10xd and at rates that are 3x-to-4x faster than previous drills. It also eliminates the need for pecking, resulting in smoother, more productive operations. Further, to eliminate the need for a centering or deburring device, a second drill (REF .336H) can be used, with or without a chamfer, to produce a pilot hole.
These drills are designed with a compression chamber that minimizes coolant pressure loss, improving efficiency and accuracy with the drills able to hold concentricity of <0.003 mm at the drill tip. Additionally, an increased surface area of the lube holes and their specific shape enable these drills to achieve 3x the throughput compared to previous generations.
To tackle complex stainless steels and even superalloys like CoCr (Phynox), Louis Bélet developed a micro-grain carbide specifically for stainless steel applications. The TISI (titanium-silicon) coating reduces friction, decreases heat buildup, and prevents burr formation, ensuring longer tool life. The unique cutting-edge preparation also ensures optimal coating adhesion and durability for longer tool life.
Intelligent Clamping
System 3R (Lincolnshire, IL) a supplier of tooling, automation and software systems for electrical discharge machining (EDM), laser texturing, additive manufacturing and milling machines, has a wide range of tooling solutions to improve your shop’s process control. With intelligent clamping you can:
- Operate your machine tools at higher speeds with greater accuracy and at the same time with less wear. Vibration Damped Palletization (VDP) chucks are enabling up to 30% improvements.
- Improve your process security to avoid starting machining without correctly clamped pallet. System 3R chucks with integrated sensors for monitoring chuck status eliminates this risk.
- Improve your process control to avoid machining parts that are poorly clamped due to contamination or wear/damage. Intelligent clamping measures the quality of a clamping, making it possible to act on a poor clamping before starting machining. In addition, you will get a clear view of status of
your tooling.
- Verify that your tooling is up to date. System 3R provides accessories for validating clamping force, flatness of pallet after mounting workpiece, wear of pallets, and more.
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