Just ran the numbers on tool wear vs. cycle time and it's worse than I thought

I was digging through our CAM software logs yesterday and noticed something off. We've been running a 3/8 end mill at 10,000 RPM with a .050 doc on 6061 for the last 6 months. Turns out, pushing that feed rate to 80 IPM instead of 60 IPM shaved 12 minutes per part but cost us $240 more per week in inserts. Found the breakdown in a feed and speed calculator from Kennametal's site. Has anyone else actually tracked the real dollar cost of shorter tool life against faster cycle times?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_foster5312d ago

Buddy of mine ran the same test and his tooling budget went up 30%.

oliver24212d ago

Huh, 30%? That's a pretty big jump from one test, @parker_foster53. I'd want to see if that's actually a trend or just a one-time thing before calling it serious.

grace5652d ago

@oliver242 is right to question if it's a trend. But here's the angle people miss. The tooling budget jump might be them finally accounting for stuff that should've been in there all along. Companies bury tooling costs in other line items for years. Then one test forces them to break it out separate. Suddenly it's 30%. Not new spending. Just honest accounting finally.