Drill Fix PRO

July 07, 2023
Drill Fix PRO Applicable for Machining Centers, Drilling Machines and Lathes

Kennametal® has upgraded its Drill Fix indexable drilling platform with Drill Fix PRO™. Kennametal’s latest innovation offers customers a cost-effective solution for a wide variety of drilling operations.

“When it comes to performance, Drill Fix PRO is the overachiever in our indexable drilling portfolio,” said Kennametal’s Senior Global Product Manager Michael Hacker. “It delivers superior surface finish, hole quality and chip evacuation plus increased versatility for a broad range of customers’ needs."

Designed for extended tool life and smooth drilling at high metal removal rates, Drill Fix PRO has outboard inserts that feature a wiper geometry for smoother surface finishes and larger coolant channels for high-volume flow. Other platform advancements include the versatility of the four-time indexable cutting edges that offers an extended application range.

Drill Fix PRO is applicable for machining centers, drilling machines and lathes. While on lathe machines, it can also be used as a boring bar, making use of the X-offset feature in horizontal cutting.

This upgraded platform compliments Kennametal’s innovative stainless steel and high-temp alloy indexable drilling grades KCMS35 and KCMS40. Both grades have higher adhesion wear resistance and meet a demand in the aerospace, petrochemical, chemical and energy industries for increased reliability and tool life in indexable drilling.

Related Glossary Terms

  • boring

    boring

    Enlarging a hole that already has been drilled or cored. Generally, it is an operation of truing the previously drilled hole with a single-point, lathe-type tool. Boring is essentially internal turning, in that usually a single-point cutting tool forms the internal shape. Some tools are available with two cutting edges to balance cutting forces.

  • boring bar

    boring bar

    Essentially a cantilever beam that holds one or more cutting tools in position during a boring operation. Can be held stationary and moved axially while the workpiece revolves around it, or revolved and moved axially while the workpiece is held stationary, or a combination of these actions. Installed on milling, drilling and boring machines, as well as lathes and machining centers.

  • centers

    centers

    Cone-shaped pins that support a workpiece by one or two ends during machining. The centers fit into holes drilled in the workpiece ends. Centers that turn with the workpiece are called “live” centers; those that do not are called “dead” centers.

  • coolant

    coolant

    Fluid that reduces temperature buildup at the tool/workpiece interface during machining. Normally takes the form of a liquid such as soluble or chemical mixtures (semisynthetic, synthetic) but can be pressurized air or other gas. Because of water’s ability to absorb great quantities of heat, it is widely used as a coolant and vehicle for various cutting compounds, with the water-to-compound ratio varying with the machining task. See cutting fluid; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.

  • lathe

    lathe

    Turning machine capable of sawing, milling, grinding, gear-cutting, drilling, reaming, boring, threading, facing, chamfering, grooving, knurling, spinning, parting, necking, taper-cutting, and cam- and eccentric-cutting, as well as step- and straight-turning. Comes in a variety of forms, ranging from manual to semiautomatic to fully automatic, with major types being engine lathes, turning and contouring lathes, turret lathes and numerical-control lathes. The engine lathe consists of a headstock and spindle, tailstock, bed, carriage (complete with apron) and cross slides. Features include gear- (speed) and feed-selector levers, toolpost, compound rest, lead screw and reversing lead screw, threading dial and rapid-traverse lever. Special lathe types include through-the-spindle, camshaft and crankshaft, brake drum and rotor, spinning and gun-barrel machines. Toolroom and bench lathes are used for precision work; the former for tool-and-die work and similar tasks, the latter for small workpieces (instruments, watches), normally without a power feed. Models are typically designated according to their “swing,” or the largest-diameter workpiece that can be rotated; bed length, or the distance between centers; and horsepower generated. See turning machine.

  • wear resistance

    wear resistance

    Ability of the tool to withstand stresses that cause it to wear during cutting; an attribute linked to alloy composition, base material, thermal conditions, type of tooling and operation and other variables.

  • wiper

    wiper

    Metal-removing edge on the face of a cutter that travels in a plane perpendicular to the axis. It is the edge that sweeps the machined surface. The flat should be as wide as the feed per revolution of the cutter. This allows any given insert to wipe the entire workpiece surface and impart a fine surface finish at a high feed rate.

Additional Products from Kennametal Inc.

The GOdrill, Kennametal's first microdrill, works with multiple applications and effective drills multiple materials.

With approximately 25 percent longer tool life, the new KCSM30 milling grade from Kennametal directly reduces cost-per-part for shops working on titanium, according to the company.

New stack drill from Kennametal for aerospace composite/titanium stacks can operate with through-coolant or without for superior chip evacuation.

New Beyond MR (medium roughing) inserts from Kennametal a synergy of geometry and grade, with smooth cutting action and higher wear resistance among the results.

With eight cutting edges, the new KSSM8+ face milling platform from Kennametal is focused on maximum metal-cutting performance in cast irons and steel workpieces at a low cost.

With its new Beyond grade of fine-grain carbide and unique point geometry, the new HPS solid-carbide drill from Kennametal is reportedly achieving excellent metal-removal rates and long tool life, making it an ideal tool for holemaking in aluminum.

Advanced hard turning, or the use of superhard polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) cutting tools for machining hardened ferrous materials like cast irons, is eagerly sought across a number of key manufacturing industries. Hundreds of millions of brakes discs, brake drums, flywheels, and…

Tool selection, tool configuration, and the best applicable tooling advice based on the customer's part and process requirements are all at the touch of a few mouse clicks in Kennametal's revolutionary NOVO.

Experienced manufacturers know that when milling, three main considerations predominate: metal removal rate, tool life, and surface finish. All three are critical to successful metalworking, but often one will predominate. Manufacturers facing parts requiring 90-degree shoulders also know that…

By combining high clamping force and optimized interference levels, Kennametal says its new KM4X100 provides a robust connection, extremely high stiffness, and bending load capacity for greatly improved performance in machining high-strength alloys and other materials.