Peter Sutherland explains the reasoning behind estimating the cost-per-part of cutting tools \u2013 including some of the hidden costs that can add up in terms of manufacturing productivity and cycle times.<\/p>\n
How many times do we hear, \u201cYou get what you pay for!\u201d in our personal and business lives? This saying comes up all the time, and there\u2019s a reason: the value of the item is usually determined by its price. Engineering cutting tools are no different. You\u2019d be amazed at how many engineering companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on machinery and complex software, then neglect to consider the true value of the cutting tools actually performing the work!<\/p>\n
The Good, Better, Best of Cutting Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n At Sutton Tools, we employ a \u2018Good, Better, Best\u2019 principle to help you decide on the best tool for each application:<\/p>\n Your decision in choosing a tool will depend on many factors, including overhead and labour costs \u2013 are you paying $25 per hour for machine time in a developing country, or $150 per hour in Australia or Europe? Regardless, we suggest always going with the Best option, simply because the outcome value of high performance versus standard is better, and tool life is extended.<\/p>\n Cost-per-part is a simple and effective comparison benchmark used by Tooling Engineers and Estimators around the world, and can help you decide which tool is best for your business. After all, your machines are only as good as the tools they use.<\/p>\n What is cost-per-part?<\/strong><\/p>\n Typically, cost accounting uses the sum of all the manufacturing inputs to determine a final number: we look at statutory costs, capital equipment financing, labour, raw materials, fixed overheads such as energy, and tooling (sometimes called \u2018consumable\u2019 costs).<\/p>\n When you wrap up the total sum of these costs against the total production output of a given period, you are able to produce a globally recognised business measure: your hourly rate. If you exclude the material and other costs, you can estimate the time taken to manufacture each component and then cost the component in time.<\/p>\n However, the big problem for many companies is the cost of the consumables used to make the part! This puts the focus on achieving the most machining time out of each and every tool, day-in and day-out. This is why it is important to establish the cost-per-part.<\/p>\n The cutting tool in cost-per-manufactured component<\/strong><\/p>\n Engineering cutting tools are the consumable percentage of the overall picture. Depending on the type of work and materials being machined, they can considerably influence the output in nearly every machining application.<\/p>\n If we instead look at just the number of parts used in any given time frame, the simple equation is the amount of machining time one tool can deliver. The elephant in the room, so to speak, is the cost of the consumables in manufacturing operations.<\/p>\n Key factors that influence tool life are:<\/strong><\/p>\n Beware of hidden tooling costs<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to buy a \u2018good enough\u2019 tool because the initial investment cost is significantly lower. However, hidden costs can easily add up to more than purchasing one high performance tool:<\/p>\n Remember, you get what you pay for. The value of a high performance tool \u2013 that can be reground and recoated to extend its useful life \u2013 versus a standard tool will be a large factor in your ability to cut costs, produce high quality components and improve your processes and cycle times.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like us to help you assess the true cost-per-part of your industrial cutting tools, just contact us or ask your Account Manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Peter Sutherland explains the reasoning behind estimating the cost-per-part of cutting tools \u2013 including some of the hidden costs that can add up in terms of manufacturing productivity and cycle times. How many times do we hear, \u201cYou get what you pay for!\u201d in our personal and business lives? This saying comes up all the […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tool-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4784,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/4784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imtoolsbox.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Low Carbon Steels and Aluminium are soft and easily machined compared to Super Alloys used in the aerospace componentry manufacturing industry, such as Titanium and INCONEL. They\u2019re very hard and therefore more difficult to machine.<\/li>\n
\nWhen high quality low TIR precision tool holders are used, and they are firmly clamped or held during the machining process, the chance of unwanted movement and harmonic vibrations are eliminated. The cutting edge on your tool is less likely to suffer premature damage.<\/li>\n
\nMachines that have precision high-quality slideways and spindles with Optimised CNC Software offer infinite control on the tool path and this can influence tool life.<\/li>\n
\nThe dimensional tolerance expectation in aerospace parts is specified in hundredths of millimetres, and mirror surface finishes are regularly required. Combination of machine tool movement, ambient temperatures in manufacturing and cutting tool wear resistance are for critical factors in achieving specifications.<\/li>\n
\nHere at Sutton Tools, we pride ourselves in being at the forefront of cutting tool technology. Our Product Engineering team combines tool materials, geometry, micro finishing and PVD coating to every application tool we supply, to give you a long lasting tool. We focus of the ability of the tool material to withstand wear, abrasion and impact resistance, along with the cutting geometry and grinding process to produce what we call an \u2018application-specific high performance tool\u2019 that may incorporate pre and post PVD coat and micro finishing processes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nThe need to change tools frequently increases labour costs and the length of process cycles.<\/li>\n
\nTools with an unpredictable tool life can fail unexpectedly mid-process, potentially incurring damage to raw materials or semi-processed components in addition to machining downtime.<\/li>\n
\nSub-optimal cutting tools with shorter tool life must be replaced more often, especially in mass production \u2013 which leads to the need for further costs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n