The KenTIP FS modular drilling system has a full solid carbide front, enabling it to withstand more heat and abuse.
A patented taper interface gives the KenTIP FS increased rigidity and accuracy, with a retention lock designed to eliminate pullout.
The KenTIP FS is available in 6 mm to 26 mm diameters.
Kennametal engineers took the strength and versatility of their KSEM modular drill system and combined it with the ease of use and low feed forces of its smaller companion drill, KenTIP. "The resulting fusion of these advanced holemaking technologies is the KenTIP FS, a 6 mm to 26 mm, 1.5 to 12 x D modular drill that is simple to use, produces good hole quality and is tough enough to compete with solid carbide drills across a wide range of materials," said a company spokesperson.
Alexander Schmitt, Senior Global Product Manager for Modular Drilling at Kennametal, said FS denotes the tool's "full solid" carbide tip. "It just looks like the tip of a solid carbide drill," he said. "That means the carbide tip fully covers and protects the steel holder from washing out, but the meaning goes a bit further. The KenTIP FS not only looks like a solid carbide drill; it also works like one. So you can think of it as a fusion of solid carbide's best characteristics together with the cost-effectiveness of indexable drilling tools."
Keeping Cool
The KenTIP FS design incorporates a number of important features. The flutes are highly polished after final machining, a process that Kennametal has found improves chip evacuation and reduces wash out near the tip. Instead of the two coolant holes found in most modular drill designs, the KenTIP FS has four: two at the tip and two in the chip gullet directly behind the head. This "multicoolant" approach provides greater coolant volume to prevent chip packing while simultaneously drawing heat away from the cutting zone, prolonging tool life and improving hole quality.
"Multicoolant allows us to tailor the cutting fluid needs to the application," Schmitt explained. "For example, adhesion and flank wear are a big concern in stainless steels and cast irons. Inserts with HPL and HPC point styles have through the tool coolant channels to provide better lubrication in this area to overcome the issue. In steel though, it is better to concentrate coolant to the rake and take the heat from the contact zone between chip and rake surface. We eliminated the front coolant holes in our HPG geometry inserts to raise our insert tool life and improve chip breakage. In addition, this avoids built-up edge and makes the insert more rigid, which allows higher penetration rates in steel applications."
Tuning Up
The HPG geometry is available in KCP15A, a new, highly wear resistant carbide grade designed especially for steel. "A newly-designed point angle and self-piloting chisel edge offer better positioning accuracy and hole straightness than other drills in this class, even under high feedrates," said the spokesperson. The insert corners are protected with small chamfers to reduce chipping, and the margins are similarly reinforced, making the HPG geometry suitable for cross holes and inclined exits encountered in hydraulics manifolds, for example, or the stacked plates used in heat exchanger production.
Kennametal also offers an HPL geometry, which has a split point designed to reduce cutting forces and break up long-chipping aerospace and medical alloys. Like the HPG geometry, it too is available in a new grade, in this case KCMS15, a wear-resistant, fine-grain carbide with an anti-adhesive AlTiN coating that extends tool life. For cast, ductile and compacted graphite irons, an HPC geometry offers four margin lands and a radiused point that eliminates the exit chipping and cracking common with these materials, with a specially-designed chip gash that clears chips quickly in combination with the front coolant exits.
All three insert styles have 143° points, and specially-prepared, polished or honed edges for increased tool life.
"Between the HPG, HPC and HPL geometries, the KenTIP FS can handle most anything a solid carbide drill can, but with far lower cost per part and equal or greater performance," Schmitt said.
Mounting Interface
KenTIP FS features the insert security of the larger KSEM and KSEM Plus drills, but uses a quick-release mechanism similar to the one with which KenTIP users are familiar-just clean the pocket with an air blast, set the insert in place and give it a slight twist, then secure it with the supplied smart wrench.
KenTIP FS has a patented taper interface designed to provide maximum rigidity and accuracy. Its retention lock eliminates pullout, and its large bearing surface is able to withstand extreme torsional loads without pocket deformation. Since the full solid carbide insert has no mounting screw, there is no risk of damage to the clamping mechanism from chip or workpiece contact.
Sustainable Solution
"With KenTIP FS, there is no need for reconditioning as there is with solid carbide and many modular drills," said the spokesperson. "Use the insert to its fullest capability, replace it with a fresh tool, and get money back for the old one using the Kennametal recycling service."
"Since the drill has a full solid carbide front, the interface can withstand more heat and abuse than competing modular drill technologies. In addition, the carbide tip fully covers and protects the steel holder from washing out. We simply put carbide where it matters," said Schmitt. "Granted, there will always be extremes where nothing but a solid carbide drill will do, but for perhaps 90% of the applications we see, the new design works exceptionally well in a variety of materials."
For more information contact:
Kennametal Inc.
1600 Technology Way
P.O. Box 231
Latrobe, PA 15650
724-539-5000
www.kennametal.com