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The competition to win ANCA’s annual Tool of the Year contest is fierce. So it’s no surprise that last year’s top contenders were team efforts. You could say the same thing about the entry from ARCH Cutting Tools in Cornish, Maine. It’s a platoon of cutting features they called “The Utilitarian.” Like many of the tools the outfit produces for their demanding client base, The Utilitarian can eliminate a host of what would otherwise be separate cutting tools. It can accomplish both plunge and side milling, plus multi-directional milling. It can cut a groove, thanks to a back trepan feature. It can add a back chamfer. And it’s concave end can create a convex ball. With an eye toward real-world practicality, the tool also features chip breakers to aid chip evacuation, corner radii to prevent chipping, and cylindrical margins to enable the various milling functions.

How do you build such a beast? It started with 30-year veteran, Pete Chapman, in engineering. Chapman has spent most of his career programming WALTER machines, and only recently got involved with ANCA machines. “I’d never seen this version of ANCA’s iGrind software until a year ago,“ he explained, “and I wanted to see what it was capable of. I poked around to find things I hadn’t used before, thinking someday someone is going to want to have a tool that does X, and we are going to have to figure it out. We’re better off learning in advance.” So, Chapman piled on feature after feature, testing each with ANCA’s 3D simulation to confirm that the machine could actually move the wheels through the carbide to grind the desired geometries.

From there, Steve Hutchins, a 28-year vet, used ANCA ToolDraft software to convert Chapman’s simulation into tool prints for the production floor. Hutchins praised the software, saying it’s easy to import multiple views of the tool and then add tolerances to each feature to guide the operators. Ordinarily, he’d also use ToolDraft to add images of the required wheels, along with their specifications. But he didn’t do that in this case because they planned to make just a few tools for the contest.

The tool has a 1” shank diameter and multiple steps ranging down to ¼” in diameter. So they opted to grind the OD on their new ANCA CPX pinch/peel grinder, operated by new team member, Jacob Hart. As Hutchins put it, “Jake’s only been here one year, and he can grind the most complex profiles there are, with tight tolerances and excellent finishes.” Hart modestly credited the CPX, saying it’s “very user friendly, and the repeatability is better than anything else I’ve heard about from more experienced grinders.” It was also the first time the facility used the machine for tools larger than ⅞” in diameter, Hutchins added.

After this prep work, Jake’s younger brother Josh Hart took over. Josh Hart has been with the company for 4 years, and used an ANCA MX7 Linear for the final 5-axis grind, including some spin grinding of the margins and the face of the trepan areas. In fact, with the exception of the major ODs ground on the CPX, all the complex geometries of The Utilitarian were ground on the MX in one shot, said Hart. “I used six different wheel packs to make the tool. Fluting alone was two wheels. A 30 degree for the smaller diameter and a 10 degree for the bigger back-lobe. There were two different profiles in the center section, so I needed a front facing and a back facing 12V9. I used the front facing 12V9 to get into back concave profile. Plus, there’s an 11V9, a chip breaker wheel, a cup wheel, and a gash wheel.”

Hart confesses that he broke the trepan off during the first grind, because he hadn’t yet dialed in the wheel speeds. “But it was perfect from there out.” He ground 4 tools, which Hutchins then inspected on a Zoller Genius using a program written by Seth Tillson, who’s been with the company about 7 years. All tools met the design tolerances of 0.0002” (5 µm) on the diameters and ±0.0005 to 0.001” (12.7-25.4 µm) on the profile sections, reported Hutchins. “The fact that the second tool was nearly perfect shows how good the simulation software is now.” He added that going from a simulation to a real tool accurate within 2 tenths is now routine at ARCH Cutting Tools.

Interestingly, they neither balanced the wheels nor used particularly fine grits to achieve the desired surface finish. Hutchins explained that customers have been demanding ever better surface finishes for about 5 years. “At first we were buying finer finish wheels and slowing programs way down. But ANCA’s new linear motor technology instantly makes it twice as easy to maintain fine finishes, due to the absence of lead screws and ball nuts. I’m not saying it’s easy. But you don’t have to buy polishing wheels and go back through your flutes, and so forth. You get a cherry finish out of the gate with the new machinery.”

The Maine team won the inaugural Tool of the Year competition back in 2018 (when they were Contour360). That tool made a splash in the market, recounted General Manager Chris Karcher. Naturally, they take the amazing 2023 Utilitarian on sales calls as well, he adds. “But it’s not the big wow factor you might expect, because we now make many such special tools, including staggered dovetail cutters and chamber reamers for the firearms industry.” In short, the “village” at ARCH Cutting Tools in Cornish, Maine has learned how to make the extraordinary, ordinary.

For further information, please contact:

Amanda Bakun
Marketing & Communications Manager – Americas
248-497-1168
amanda.bakun@anca.com

ANCA is a market leading manufacturer of CNC grinding machines. It was founded in 1974 in Melbourne, Australia where the company still has its global headquarters. ANCA has offices in the UK, Germany, China, Thailand, India, Japan, Brazil, Korea and the USA as well as a comprehensive network of representatives and agents worldwide.

ANCA CNC grinders are used for manufacturing precision cutting tools and components across a diverse range of competitive industries including cutting tool manufacture, automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical.