Keller Engineering Inc., a Torrance, California, production machining shop, had a challenging cutting problem to solve. Since the company’s inception in 1972, its founder, Albert Keller, has devoted a large amount of effort to ensure the company is using the right machining and workholding equipment and cutting tools to reduce handling and setup.

To find a cutting tool that would replace time-consuming manual work to fulfill a 4,000-part order, Mr. Keller sought out cutting tool experts at Emuge Corp.

He explained that his shop had been using a couple of ineffective, slow and costly solutions to cut a 5/16 internal thread inside of a titanium rod that is inserted into a broken tibia (leg bone) to add support while the bone heals. The first step involved producing the part on a lathe; however, it could not go as deep as the customer specified. This required a second operation—hand sinking and tapping to finish the threads—an extra step that added significant cost to the job.

Emuge analyzed the shop’s predicament and recommended a thread milling solution. The shop heard about thread milling, but wasn’t sure it could be performed on such small parts. The technicians assured Mr. Keller that his thread mills could indeed do the job, and they backed up their assertion by visiting the plant and also provided the company with the CNC G code, another step to ensure a successful job. After purchasing the Emuge cutting tools, Emuge technicians provided Keller with the software that specified feed, speed and coolant for application success.

Part production using these tools has proved to be efficient and cost-effective. Emuge’s thread mills eliminated costly hand sinking, tapping and grinding operations. Further, claims that technicians made that one thread mill would create at least 2,000 threads have held true.

“That switch saved us a lot of money and certainly boosted our profits on the job. We use a lot of different kinds of cutting tools here, including Emuge’s. We always try to find the right tool for the job,” Mr. Keller says.