Because feed rate ultimately determines the amount of time a job will take, improving feed rate can result in considerable savings of production hours and costs. New developments in cutting tools are improving efficiencies—sometimes as dramatically as tripling the feed rate. “Feed rate is where we will really improve things,” explains Martin Saunders, an application specialist in turning. He cites two examples of manufacturers who made overnight productivity improvements of 116 percent and 322 percent, respectively, simply by switching to a different insert for their turning projects in CNC lathes. No new machinery or methods were required.

“The insert that is providing productivity improvements on this scale, bringing a generational boost to hard part turning performance, is the Xcel-type insert from Sandvik Coromant. Sacha Kotarac, an application specialist with experience in problem solving for engineering companies, lets the surface finish determine his application of the insert. “I introduce Xcel as much as possible for finish-turning as long as the surface finish demands are achievable,” he says. “And I also use the feed-rate capability as much as possible for roughing operations. As long as I have sufficient clearance against any shoulder, the inserts can be applied with feeds up to 0.5 mm/rev (0.02 ipr), when normal stability is there. We are talking about rates twice that of wiper inserts. The Xcel and wiper inserts should also be seen to complement each other, often providing a stable operation with predictable results.