Success Stories: Productivity, Inc.

“Looking back, it seems the thread milling project far exceeded any expectations Oildyne or Productivity expected.”

"We started with five Leblond Makino A77 machines using a 1.2" solid carbide thread mill with a 1,0 mm pitch over 2" diameter I.D. thread in cast aluminum. Kevin finch of Oildyne contacted me at Productivity, Inc. Tooling & Accessories and mentioned he was having some troubles with burrs in the I.D. of their threads and asked if I would look into a solution for them. I contacted Laszlo Frescka at Advent Tool and Manufacturing and explained the situation to him. Laszlo's immediate solution was an Advent 1/2" solid carbide thread mill which would mill the full thread form of Oildyne's I.D. thread, eliminating any burrs that might be created by other conventional thread mills.

The tool was in stock, shipped immediately and was running in the A77 the following day. It was immediately clear there were improvements to the thread quality – the thread mill had created a burr-free thread. The tool ran at 10,000 rpm, 200 inches per minute, with a cut time of 5.5 seconds.

As the next step to improving the process, Laszlo from Advent Tool and I went to Oildyne with a 6 fluted Cat 50 Integral Shank tool. This tool was used, and it reduced the 5.5 second cut time to 3 seconds. An additional one-half of a day was spent on the shop floor fine tuning the tool so it would run at optimum performance. Our efforts paid off! We were able to get the cut time down to an amazing 1/3 of a second.

The tool is still in the machine today, running at 10,000 rpm, 325 ipm and the thread quality is as excellent as it was with the solid carbide tool. In fact, Oildyne liked the thread quality so well they purchased a tool holder to run that same insert in the Nakamura lathe. As a result of the success in the 6 flute Cat 50 Integral Shank tool, especially the speed in which it created the thread, Oildyne purchased four more – one for each A77.

Needless to say, their "productivity" has increased dramatically. Advent Tool tells us we are running the fastest thread mill in the world at 1/3 second cut time, and everyone at Productivity, Inc. and Oildyne tend to agree!"

Kip Shefveland
Sales Engineer
Productivity, Inc. Tooling and Accessories