Hole quality is of prime importance when machining aerospace components. But what happens when a manufacturer seeks to eliminate an entire second stage from its drilling processes, without sacrificing quality? In this case, it turned to a global leader in metalcutting, Sandvik Coromant. Here, James Thorpe, global product manager explains why an innovative drill design offered the necessary solution.

Is it time for manufacturers to rethink how they go about making holes? Despite being the most common of all machining processes, holemaking is also the one most often taken for granted. Most machine shops see little reason to change or upgrade their existing holemaking setup. Once certain tools or cutting parameters are allocated to manufacturing a certain feature or component, it can stay that way for years.

But this could all be set to change in the wake of COVID-19. According to McKinsey & Company’s COVID-19 briefing note “resilience will be needed if manufacturers are to navigate an economically and socially viable path.” The report refers to the ‘next normal’, where manufacturers face unpredictable and lasting shifts in the markets.

This is why a lot of manufacturers are already diversifying their lines to explore new products and vendor bases. Machine shops that once specialised in a specific area have opened their CNC lathes and mills to a wider variety of tough and challenging materials. For aerospace manufacturers, these changes must be made without sacrificing process security, quality of components or cost-per-part.