• New design enables 6D deep drilling with excellent chip control
• Ideal for automobile, aviation and medical device industries

Kyocera Corporation (President: Hideo Tanimoto) announced today that it has developed a new line of indexable modular drills, Magic Drill DRV, to be used mainly for hole drilling in the machine tool business. Ideally suited for the automobile, aviation and medical device industries, the new indexable drills combine a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coated insert on the outer edge and a physical vapor deposition (PVD) coated insert on the inner edge for the first time, enabling high-speed and high-efficiency processing.

The uniquely developed chipbreakers have improved chip evacuation and the holder’s thicker center core provides enhanced rigidity. Consequently, the new drill is now capable of deep drilling up to 6D (six times the holder diameter) for the first time. Kyocera aims to contribute to its customers’ increased productivity by broadening its product lineup to meet more diversified needs.

Development Background

Reduced weight and greater functionality of components are currently being promoted in the automobile, aviation and medical device industries. This trend increases the demand for products that enable high-speed and high-efficiency drilling of various workpiece materials under diversified drilling conditions. With previous indexable drills, PVD-coated chipbreakers were adopted for both the outer and inner edges, which has the disadvantage of increased wear and tear on the outer edge because it comes into contact with the workpiece material at a higher speed. To solve the problem, this new model adopts a CVD-coated chipbreaker with heat and wear resistance for the outer edge and a PVD-coated chipbreaker for the inner edge so that stable processing can be achieved even if a strong force is applied to the inner edge. In this manner, by making use of the features of both CVD and PVD coatings, high-speed and high-efficiency processing become feasible.

Product Feature

1) High-speed and high-efficiency processing of various materials

With an optimum chipbreaker selected from the four types available, the Magic Drill DRV series is capable of working with a variety of workpiece materials. The chipbreakers are designed so that four corners (edges) can be used, thereby reducing the customer’s processing costs.

2) Unique cutting edge enables excellent evacuation of drilled chips even in deep drilling – 33% increase of holder center core and drilling hole up to 6D

The outer edge has a “U-shaped” design to evacuate drilled chips easily and prevent the chips from clogging; and the inner edge has a “spoon-shaped” design to reduce frictional resistance during evacuation of drilled chips, thus enabling excellent evacuation of drilled chips. With this design, it becomes possible to form the flute (groove) into an optimum shape and increase thickness of the holder center core by approximately 33 percent compared with competitors’ products^*1. Through the achievement of high rigidity and low resistance, the new model is capable of drilling a deep hole up to 6D, which has never been possible with a conventional indexable drill.

Acquisition of SGS Tool Company to enable total solutions provision for further expansion of cutting tool business.

Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) recently announced that it has completed a share purchase agreement regarding the U.S.-based solid tool manufacturing and sales company, SGS Tool Company (President: Thomas Haag) and its group companies (herein “SGS Tool”).

Effective May 2, Kyocera will acquire 100% ownership of SGS Tool, and will rename the company as KYOCERA SGS Precision Tools, Inc. By incorporating SGS Tool, Kyocera plans to increase sales of cutting tool business in North America by 2.5 times by fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.

Background
Cutting tools are utilized for machining in various industrial fields including automotive, aerospace, energy, general industrial machines and medical related products ― with two main categories of products: indexable tools and solid tools. In this market, there is a high demand for companies that can provide total solutions for products ranging from roughing to finishing.

Currently Kyocera is expanding its cutting tool business globally with its main lineup of indexable cutting tool products; while SGS Tool is a solid tool manufacturing and sales company developing its business mainly in the U.S. and U.K. which possesses strength in products for the automotive, aerospace, energy and medical industries.

By incorporating SGS Tool into the Kyocera Group, Kyocera will create a business structure capable of providing total solutions and strengthen its business globally as a valuable comprehensive cutting tool manufacturer.

Main Objectives

1. Providing valuable solutions: By expanding its lineup with solid tools and creating a structure capable of providing total solutions, Kyocera will provide further added value solutions to customers.
2. Strengthening business in North America: By adding new manufacturing and sales sites, Kyocera will further strengthen and expand its cutting tool business in North America.
3. Development of products and technologies utilizing the knowledge of both companies: Through mutual utilization of the sophisticated product geometry and latest coating technologies originally developed by each company, Kyocera will enhance its competitiveness and meet an even wider variety of needs in the market.

Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) announced  that it will construct a new manufacturing plant in China, aimed at further strengthening the company’s industrial cutting tool business in the country.
Recently, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at Kyocera Precision Tools (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd. (herein “KPTG”) located in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. KPTG was established in January 2015 as a joint venture between Kyocera and a tungsten refining company in China, Ganzhou Grand Sea W&Mo Group Co., Ltd (President: Zeng Qingnin, herein “Ganzhou Grand Sea”), in order to meet the growing demand for industrial cutting tools in the automotive industry in China — where more automobiles are manufactured than any other country in the world.

“The Kyocera Group delivers a diverse range of products, and is working day by day to satisfy customers around the world. Notably, our industrial cutting tool business has achieved remarkable growth in recent years and is expanding globally,” stated Kyocera Corporation Chairman Tetsuo Kuba during a speech given at the groundbreaking ceremony. “With many customers in China, we decided to construct this new manufacturing plant in Ganzhou to further develop our business. We hope that our business in Ganzhou will not only contribute to the region and our company, but also play a role in strengthening the relationship between China and Japan.”

KPTG plans to begin operations at the new plant in January 2016 to produce carbide inserts. The plant will become Kyocera’s fourth manufacturing base for industrial cutting tools in China, in addition to its plants in Dongguan, Zhuhai and Shanghai.

By strengthening its manufacturing capability, Kyocera will be better equipped to respond to the expanding demand in China and aims to further increase its sales in the region.

New TN620 and PV720 hybrid cermets from Kyocera for steel processing offer 50% better abrasion resistance and fracture resistance than conventional materials

Kyocera Corporation has developed a new series of hybrid cermet materials – TN620 and PV720 – offering a 50% improvement in abrasion resistance and fracture resistance over conventional materials used as industrial cutting-tool inserts.

These cermet grades are ideal for a wide variety of metal-cutting applications ranging from high-speed to low-speed machining. These new materials expand Kyocera’s cutting-tool product line, helping users achieve higher productivity through longer tool life and stable processing of steel components widely used in automobiles and industrial machinery.

TN620 and PV720 exceed conventional materials in both hardness and strength through proprietary material technologies, such as a special hybrid-structure surface hardening that distributes ultrafine particles within the cermet in a more optimal manner; hybrid bonded phase, including special metal phase with high melting points; and hybrid hard phase with superior compressive stress effects. Further, PV720 builds on the superior properties of TN620 by adding MEGACOAT NANO, a multilayer coating technology never before applied to a cermet.

Product Overview
Material Name                        TN620                                  PV720
Lineup                               383 insert products            383 insert products
Processing conditions      Semi-finishing to fine-finishing of steel; turning
Production base                 Sendai Plant, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

It comes with the main characteristics such as:
Special surface-hardening hybrid structure improves abrasion resistance
Both TN620 and PV720 utilize a special graded composition to create a surface-hardening hybrid structure, which improves both hardness and toughness. By using tough cermet with superior chipping resistance and thermal shock resistance for the internal structure, and high hardness cermet for the surface structure, the new materials achieve superior fracture and abrasion resistance, as well as stable processing.

High-melting-point hybrid bonded phase ensure high-quality machining with improved surface finish
By creating a composite of conventional cermet and high-melting-point metal-bonded phase, the resulting hybrid bonded phase are highly heat resistant. This improves adhesion resistance, chipping resistance and fracture resistance to provide a stable machined surface of superior quality.

Ultrafine-particle hybrid hard phase improves strength and fracture resistance
The new materials offer improved flexural strength by incorporating a uniform ultrafine-particle “hybrid-hard-phase”. In addition, high-melting-point metal binding phases increase compressive-stress effects for better fracture resistance.

Proprietary MEGACOAT NANO multilayer coating technology
The PV720 grade improves on the already strong characteristics of TN620 by including Kyocera’s proprietary MEGACOAT NANO multilayer coating technology. Utilized for the first time on a cermet, MEGACOAT NANO provides outstanding abrasion and oxidation resistance for higher-efficiency machining with superior surface finish.

Kyocera has drawn on its many years of cermet technology development to create these new materials, which offer improved abrasion resistance, better fracture resistance and better surface finish quality than conventional steel-cutting tools.