Extended tool life, escalating sales
Carbide tool sales are fastest-growing segment as HSS stagnates
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/1998
Popular, long-lasting carbide tools and coatings continue to cut up the marketplace. Sales revenues are expected to climb between 12 and 18 percent this year for carbide end mills and drills, says Jim Christie, president of Valenite Inc., a manufacturer in Madison Heights, Mich. "That's by far the fastest growing sector of the market. Clearly the trend in smaller-diameter end sizes is driving it," says Christie, who presented an update on high-speed machining at the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute's first-ever World Conference in April.Last year, an estimated 41 percent of the world metal cutting tools market included so-called round tools such as end mills, reamers, taps and drills, according to Cincinnati Milacron Marketing Co. Christie and others expect round tool sales will continue to escalate.
For example, carbide end mills made up seven percent of the total market last year -- equal with high-speed steel end mills -- and their share is growing fast. According to the USCTI, solid carbide end mills enjoyed a 17 percent compounded annual growth rate between 1991-96, compared to a two percent gain for high-speed steel milling cutters.
The heady growth of carbide tools in machine shops is largely a result of customers using high-precision, computer numerically controlled machinery. By using CNC machines, shops take advantage of carbide tools and inserts that offer increased surface speeds compared to high-speed steel, for example. They cost more than steel products -- although relative costs dropped a bit recently -- but carbide products offer extended life, Christie and others say. The end result is increased productivity: the automotive changeover process can be significantly shortened, for example.
Jim Markel, an outside sales manager for Grinding Supplies Co. in Oak Park, Mich., sees that trend continually among his customers in the Detroit area. As more shops use the most sophisticated CNC machinery, Markel sees them turning to carbide, and in many instances specialty coatings, which also provide extended life and often reduce the need for coolants. That allows customers to reduce the time to produce base molds used in automotive manufacturing, for example.
"Basically wherever the machining centers are, that's where the carbide usage is up," he says. "The equipment that you have right now, it's opening the door for coatings, it opens the door for Cermet (a new cutting material), it's opening the door for ceramics.'' Cermet cutting tools are used heavily in Japan and are beginning to take off in Europe, but the impact has been minimal in the U.S. so far, Christie says.
John Murray, a purchasing specialist at Grinding Supplies, agrees. "You see a huge growth in the carbide industry and a decline in the grinding and high-speed steel," he says. "Every product line has kind of a growth and then peaks out...I think carbide is just starting the heavy growth."
The automotive industry is among the end-users leading the charge to carbide. William Stokey, president of Allied Machine and Engineering Corp., a Dover, Ohio manufacturer, says carbide tools are the fastest-growing sector of his business, percentage wise.
Automotive customers are "looking to get away from transfer line processes to high-speed machining processes and they're looking for good solutions," says Stokey. "It's changing the way they're doing business and the way we're doing business."
Markel and Christie are among those who say coatings will be the next wave, as materials such as titanium nitrade allow tools to work under faster and hotter conditions. "The carbide future is in the coatings," Markel says.
Microscopic coatings offer another advantage by decreasing the amount of coolants needed during machining. That is already a factor in countries like Germany, which prohibits coolants because of environmental concerns.
Sophisticated coatings used for specific applications such as making engine blocks are already eclipsing carbides in the insert business, comments Christie. "We're at the next stage of evolution" (in inserts), he says. "We made the conversion to carbide many years ago and we're now in the process of putting on more sophisticated coatings." He sees a continuing, but declining niche for carbide inserts.
While the shift from high-speed steel machining to carbide is pronounced, Christie and others believe there will continue to be important niches for steel. "It's never going to go all the way to carbide because it's application sensitive. That's the international trend," says Charles Stockinger, USCTI executive director.
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