The new dimension for thread manufacture
12/20/2009 6:10:00 PM
With the Walter Prototyp Paradur® HSC, Walter is announcing a further solid carbide tap for steel
Tubingen, November 2009 - Solid carbide tools are also playing an increasingly important role in threading. Walter has already followed this trend with the Prototyp Prototex® HSC for through-hole threads. The blind-hole variant Prototyp Paradur® HSC now follows. The special feature: these solid carbide taps are suitable for steel materials.
The cutting of threads using solid carbide taps is now moving in previously unknown cutting data regions. Trials with the Walter Prototyp HSC taps on conrods made of the material C70 (1.1231) also resulted in significant increases in the tool life: the through-hole tap Prototex® HSC achieved 13,500 threads, while a solid carbide competitor only managed 6,400 and had to be re-ground twice. The new blind-hole tap Paradur® HSC, designed for thread depths up to 2xD, managed 4,500 threads. The HSS-E tool used for comparison managed 450 threads.
The outstanding property of the Prototex®/Paradur® HSC taps is the range of applications: this covers both steel materials with strengths from approx. 850N/mm2 to 1,200N/mm2 with hardness =55HRc as well as high quality cast materials. Up to now there have been very few solid carbide taps for steel available on the market, this situation applied particularly to blind-hole versions. Suitability for steel is possible due to a special very fine grain carbide and a manufacturing process that requires considerable know-how. In the case of blind hole threads, the chips must be transported to the rear. For this reason Walter developed a special geometry, the carbide grade must also satisfy the highest toughness requirements.
The performance and tool life of solid carbide taps are exploited especially in mass production. Important applications in future should be in vehicle manufacture.
The Walter Prototyp Paradur® HSC is a new high-end blind-hole tap for steel materials and is made of solid carbide. Compared to HSS-E taps, 10 times the tool life is possible.
