The Importance of Deep Hole Drilling in Aerospace, Automotive & Die & Mold Manufacturing
Deep hole drilling plays a crucial role in aerospace, automotive, and die & mold manufacturing, ensuring the precision and reliability of key components such as:
- Aircraft landing gear & engine components – requiring extreme accuracy and surface finish for safety and performance.
- Automotive crankshafts & fuel injector bodies – demanding precision holes to ensure durability and efficiency.
- Hydraulic systems & transmission shafts – where smooth, round holes are necessary for optimal fluid movement and mechanical performance.
- Die and Mold – Hard material drilling with complex geometries, cross holes, and interrupted cuts for coolant channels.
Achieving accurate and efficient deep hole drilling in these applications presents several challenges, including chip evacuation, hole deflection, and consistency of hole accuracy. Traditional gundrilling methods often result in chip clogging, excessive tool wear, high machining costs, and complicated tool re-grinding management. DeepTriDrill, Tungaloy’s indexable gundrill, is designed to overcome these challenges and improve productivity.
DeepTriDrill: The Solution for Precise Deep Hole Drilling
DeepTriDrill offers advanced features that enhance hole accuracy, chip control, and tool life, making it an ideal choice for aerospace, automotive, and die & mold applications.
1. Chip Splitters: Optimize Chip Evacuation
One of the primary challenges in deep hole drilling is efficient chip evacuation. Poor chip control can lead to clogging, increased spindle load, and reduced tool life. DeepTriDrill’s indexable insert is designed with chip splitters that break chips into smaller, more manageable sizes, preventing clogging and ensuring stable cutting conditions. This results in:
- Lower cutting forces for improved machining stability and long tool life.
- Minimized risk of chip jamming, reducing downtime and increasing productivity.
Additionally, each TOHT insert has 3 cutting edges, and every edge is equipped with a wiper to improve surface finish and hole straightness.
2. Guide Pads: Ensuring Hole Accuracy and Stability
Maintaining hole straightness and roundness is critical for high-precision aerospace, automotive, and die & mold components. DeepTriDrill is equipped with precision guide pads that provide tool support during drilling, reducing hole deflection and enhancing hole accuracy. The key benefits include:
- Superior hole roundness and straightness, minimizing the need for a secondary finishing pass.
- Stable guidance, even at high feed rates and depths.
- Improved surface quality, essential for applications requiring tight tolerances.
To further enhance efficiency, all guide pads have two usable sides and are equipped with double chamfering for smooth entrance into the workpiece. Each guide pad size is available in three different carbide grades, providing flexibility for various materials and machining conditions.
3. Cutting Force Reduction & Optimized Chip Formation
Deep hole drilling requires precise control over cutting forces to ensure stable machining and prolonged tool life. Each insert is equipped with a high-rake chip former, designed to form short, manageable chips while drilling.
DeepTriDrill’s standard lineup includes two types of chip formers for each insert:
This versatility ensures that manufacturers can select the best chip former for their specific application, enhancing efficiency and tool life.
4. Front Coolant Supply: Improving Tool Longevity & Chip Evacuation
Coolant supply is critical in deep hole drilling to prevent overheating, extend tool life, and maintain efficient chip evacuation. DeepTriDrill features front coolant holes ensuring proper cooling, chip evacuation, and consistent performance. This results in:
- Extended tool life by reducing heat buildup.
- Improved chip evacuation for uninterrupted drilling.
- Greater drilling stability for high-precision applications.
5. High-Performance Insert Grades for Versatile Applications
DeepTriDrill is available in two standard grades to meet a wide range of machining needs:
- AH9130 – High wear resistance, designed for drilling various materials.
- AH725 – Good balance between wear and chipping resistance, suitable for machining steel and stainless steel under general cutting conditions.
These grades ensure optimal performance in diverse applications, providing reliable wear resistance and durability.
Proven Performance in the Industry
DeepTriDrill has been successfully implemented in various aerospace, automotive, and die & mold applications, demonstrating improved machining efficiency, tool life, hole precision, and tool management cost reduction. Below are real case examples showcasing its impact on production performance:
By replacing a traditional spade drill with DeepTriDrill featuring dual guide pads, a customer successfully resolved issues in a challenging cross hole operation. The upgrade resulted in a 3.5x boost in productivity, along with significant reductions in cycle time, tool breakage, and machine downtime.
With optimized cutting parameters—1200 RPM spindle speed, 54 mm/min cutting speed, and 70 mm/min feed rate—DeepTriDrill demonstrated outstanding performance and process stability. This makes it an ideal solution for machining pre-hardened steel in die casting mold applications.
In the machining of SUS309S gas burner parts, switching from a traditional brazed drill to DeepTriDrill resulted in a 3x increase in drilling productivity. By increasing the feed to 0.03 mm/rev, the feed rate was significantly improved, producing clean holes, short chips, and minimal cutting noise. Enhanced chip evacuation further contributed to process stability and efficiency, leading to quieter, cleaner, and more reliable operations.
Why Manufacturers Choose DeepTriDrill
With increasing demands for precision, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, DeepTriDrill provides a competitive advantage by offering: ✅ Optimized chip control for deep hole drilling. ✅ Longer tool life with replaceable inserts, reducing machining costs. ✅ Superior roundness and straightness, minimizing rework and enhancing part quality.
As aerospace, automotive, and die & mold industries continue to push for higher precision and productivity, DeepTriDrill is the ideal solution for manufacturers seeking to improve deep hole drilling operations.
Explore DeepTriDrill today and experience enhanced efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings.