This is the road to success walked together by Tungaloy sales representatives and their customers.
A Chatter-Resistant End Mill! The Tool That Improved Machining Efficiency and Enabled Tool Consolidation
Interview Courtesy ofKondo Iron Works Co., Ltd.
Tungaloy Sales Representative
Kenjiro IwataKenjiro Iwata
- From
- Hyogo Prefecture
- Joined
- 2019
- Hobbies
- Golf, Fishing
Shoulder milling with end mills — especially under long-overhang conditions — is highly prone to chatter, a problem that plagues many machining users. This is the story of how such a long-overhang end milling challenge was resolved.
Kondo Iron Works Co., Ltd., based in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, has been machining a wide range of mechanical components — including machine tool parts, construction machinery parts, dedicated equipment components, and jig parts — for 63 years since its founding. The company consolidates medium-sized lathes, machining centers, turning centers, and horizontal machining centers in a single factory, earning high praise from customers for cost, delivery time, and shipping cost management.
To achieve low cost and short lead times, Kondo Iron Works practices “single-vendor integrated machining,” reducing delivery times by eliminating hand-offs between multiple vendors. The company specializes in mid-size component machining and owns multi-tasking machines and 5-axis machining centers, enabling multi-face machining in a single chucking to meet diverse customer needs.
Kondo Iron Works is also proactive about environmental measures, actively working on SDGs action plans and pursuing Eco Action 21 certification. Solar power accounts for 13% of the company’s total energy consumption, while the remainder is purchased as CO2-free electricity, effectively achieving zero carbon dioxide emissions from its power usage.
SDGs Initiatives
CO2-Free Power Usage
Rooftop Solar Panels
When It Comes to Turning, It’s Tungaloy
The relationship between Iwata, the sales representative, and Plant Manager Kondo of Kondo Iron Works began in 2022. Plant Manager Kondo had long regarded Tungaloy as his first choice for turning operations, primarily using Tungaloy turning inserts for many years.
The relationship with current sales representative Iwata started when he visited to introduce himself as the new representative during a joint call with authorized distributor Shin-ei Shokai. Since then, through regular visits together with Mr. Yamaguchi, Chief at Shin-ei Shokai, Iwata conducted improvement interviews and deepened the relationship by continuously making improvements in lathe machining — particularly in grooving and threading operations.
End Milling Challenges on Multi-Tasking Machines
Kondo Iron Works handles a large volume of machine tool and industrial machinery work, machining shafts and flange components for these industries on multi-tasking machines. For such shaft components, there are many operations involving slotting and counterboring bolt seats on cylindrical sections, which have been performed using square end mills and shoulder milling cutters.
“At our company, we actively use multi-tasking machines for round-part machining, performing multi-face machining in a single chucking to promote process consolidation. For shaft-type workpieces, we frequently perform slotting, shoulder milling, and helical milling with end mills on the cylindrical sections to machine bolt seat faces and keyways.
In such end milling operations, the approach of the milling spindle on the multi-tasking machine and workpiece interference often necessitate long tool overhang.
Because of the long overhang, chatter is prone to occur in end milling, which forces us to reduce the depth of cut, resulting in longer machining times.”
This highlighted the challenges unique to tooling on multi-tasking machines.
Finding the Solution at MECT 2023
Despite this long-standing challenge, Plant Manager Kondo had tested end mills from various manufacturers and adopted the best-performing ones, but had not yet found an end mill with truly satisfactory performance. Then, while attending MECT 2023, he discovered a promising lead at the Tungaloy booth.
“While visiting the Tungaloy booth at MECT, I found an interesting end mill. I hadn’t had a particularly strong impression of Tungaloy’s end mills before, but this end mill’s unique product features gave me a feeling that it could deliver real results. The complex cutting edge geometry suggested it might be expensive, but I asked Mr. Iwata to arrange a sample so we could first verify its performance through testing.”
A Chatter-Resistant End Mill: FinishMeister
FinishMeister is a square end mill with a proprietary Combination Edge design featuring two types of cutting edges — roughing edges and finishing edges. The roughing edges reduce cutting resistance and create vibration cycle shifts that suppress the resonance that causes chatter, providing superior chatter suppression compared to conventional square end mills. Additionally, because the finishing edges protrude beyond the roughing edges, they handle wall surface finishing, delivering surface roughness and quality equivalent to conventional square end mills.
Shorter Machining Time and Tool Consolidation Achieved
After receiving the sample, testing was promptly conducted. The test was performed on S45C workpiece material using a FinishMeister ø12 end mill. Starting with test cuts at the maximum cutting edge length of the FinishMeister, the optimal chatter-free depth of cut (ap) and feed rate were gradually explored.
As a result, optimal cutting conditions were identified: cutting speed Vc = 100 m/min, feed per revolution f = 0.26 mm/rev (fz = 0.065 mm/rev), depth of cut ap = 7–8 mm, and cutting width ae = 12 mm — achieving chatter-free machining.
“FinishMeister’s high chatter suppression capability has been extremely effective in end milling with long overhang, where chatter is most likely to occur. The significant reduction in machining time achieved by reducing the number of passes — for operations that previously required many passes — has been a major benefit.
Furthermore, given the variety of parts we handle, we wanted to set the end mill overhang length on the longer side to reduce the hassle of changing tool lengths. FinishMeister’s excellent chatter suppression means that even with long overhang, there is a wide tolerance for cutting conditions that keep chatter at bay, which we find very attractive.
Beyond chatter suppression, the ability to use it for finishing is also a major advantage. Previously, we used separate end mills for roughing and finishing, but FinishMeister handles both roughing and finishing in a single tool. For operations like slotting and counterboring where high surface quality is not required, we now use a single FinishMeister all the way through to the finish cut. We highly value the tool consolidation this has enabled.”
In addition to reduced machining time, significant improvement was achieved through tool consolidation as well.
Key Improvement Points
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Reduced Machining Time Through Superior Chatter Suppression
FinishMeister’s excellent chatter suppression capability controls chatter even in end milling operations requiring long overhang. Higher depth of cut became possible compared to conventional tools, successfully reducing machining time.
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An End Mill with Roughing Edges That Can Also Handle Finishing
With its proprietary Combination Edge design featuring protruding finishing edges, FinishMeister can handle finishing operations as well. Consolidating roughing and finishing into a single tool enables tool consolidation.
The Future We Want to Achieve
Kondo Iron Works continues to pursue further improvement activities beyond this success.
“On the shop floor, people tend to stick with overly conservative conditions out of fear of failure, or continue using the same old tools and methods.
I want our employees to actively try new tools and methods.
To encourage such challenges, I try to create an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks — by having management accept a certain degree of failure.”
“At our company, we are actively working on solving environmental issues, including SDGs action plans and activities toward obtaining Eco Action 21 certification. Our intention was to dispel the image that manufacturing = environmentally harmful.
We want to bring a new axis of values to the world of manufacturing — not just producing goods, but manufacturing components for industries aimed at environmental improvement, and reducing environmental impact through new machining methods like this one. We plan to tackle this issue through approaches unique to the manufacturing industry. We will continue to drive activities toward building a company that contributes to achieving a circular society.”
“I personally found FinishMeister to be a characteristically interesting tool, so I’m really glad this project turned out well.
In my sales activities, rather than simply introducing the tools customers ask for, I believe what’s important is understanding the true challenges customers face through thorough interviews. By grasping and understanding the problems, I strive every day to deliver proposals that lead to genuine problem-solving. My goal is to make every customer I serve become an even bigger fan of Tungaloy.”
Looking back on this project, all parties involved reflected positively.
Tungaloy is committed to understanding the challenges our customers face and walking alongside them toward both problem resolution and the realization of their ideals.
Products Featured in This Article
Ultra-High-Performance End Mill Delivering Outstanding Cutting Performance
FinishMeister
Achieves remarkable productivity while dramatically reducing machining costs and inventory management expenses