Ceratizit training days help customers become more productive

Ceratizit recently invited West Pharmaceutical Services staff to its Technical Centre on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sheffield for one of the cutting tool maker’s technical training days.

These allow customers to receive in-depth cutting tool training and benefit from Ceratizit’s technical expertise.

West Pharmaceutical Services was invited to the technical training day by Iain Tattersall, technical sales engineer at Ceratizit UK & Ireland, who regularly visits the company, along with application sales engineer Vince Witham, to provide technical and tooling support.

The invitation was extended not only as a gesture of appreciation for being longstanding customers, but also so that staff could be brought up to speed on the tooling specialist’s latest innovations, its advancements in tooling and also be shown the latest and most advanced machine techniques and metalcutting skills to take back to the company’s shopfloor in Cornwall.

More importantly, training days, run on a weekly basis, help to fill the knowledge gap that is blighting the engineering industry. Realising the importance of passing on know-how that has been learned from years of industry experience, younger generations are encouraged to attend training days so that these technical skills are not lost in the future. Furthermore, sharing innovative machining techniques, practices and skills, means customers get the most from Ceratizit’s tooling.

For West Pharmaceutical Services, the day started off with a morning of in-depth theoretical training delivered by Shaun Thornton, technical manager at Ceratizit UK. Covering everything from materials, tools and sustainability, to speeds, feeds and cutting data, this extensive training equips customers with a solid foundation of background knowledge that is useful in maximising the performance and profitability of machines.

Taking time to answer questions and ensure that everyone has followed everything covered in the theoretical training, Mr Thornton then led the attendees downstairs to the workshop where they could put the theoretical knowledge to the test.

The engineers at the Technical Centre planned an afternoon of practical learning whereby guests could incorporate the morning’s theory with some engineer-led machine demonstrations.

After lunch, the afternoon’s practical training began with an interactive cutting tool demonstration on a Mazak Integrex I-250H multi-tasking machine. Allowing the attendees to input the cutting data, the guests could see how each operation ran and which values of cutting data worked best for the specified machining conditions.

Immersing guests in hands-on, interactive training is at the heart of these training days. Furthermore, live video feeds from the machines, played on large screens throughout the workshop, meant that everyone can get a detailed view of how the operations are running and whether the cutting data has been calculated correctly.

After the demonstration on the Mazak, it was time for more practical work on XYZ machines. On the XYZ 800HD vertical machining centre and the XYZ UMC 5X 5-axis machine, the visitors once again were encouraged to work out the cutting data for themselves, before putting this knowledge to the test and running the specified programs.

On the XYZ UMC 5X, guests took part in a machine demonstration where they were shown how aluminium pen pots – given out to customers at training days – were made.

This machine demonstration also showcased Ceratizit’s latest cutting tool technology: KOMflex and ToolScope. ToolScope is a process monitoring control system that can be retrofitted to most CNC machines. Monitoring spindle torque and live cutting data, this information can then be used to optimise aspects such as tool wear and prevention of tool breakages and collisions.

Pairing this with KOMflex, an actuated closed loop boring and probing system, the engineers demonstrated how these technologies streamline machining processes. They prevent damages which occur thanks to the advanced monitoring with ToolScope, while reducing the risk of scrapping costly components with KOMFlex.

Once everyone had finished their demonstrations and all questions had been answered, customers were given fully documented training booklets containing information on the tooling, machine demonstrations and cutting data that they had used throughout the day.

Following on from the training day, Vince Whitham helped West Pharmaceutical Services to implement changes to its current tooling and cutting data back onsite in Cornwall. These changes, influenced by the training day, had an immediate positive effect on productivity, cycle times and tool life.

To benefit from a training day, the company invites interested parties to speak to their Ceratizit technical sales engineer to enquire about availability and booking. 

Ceratizit UK & Ireland
www.ceratizit.com