b'number of places to adjust the angle of a tool so itpast few years, there has been an arms race in the cut-would be presented correctly to the grinding wheel. Ating tool industry, with toolmakers offering things like tool with multiple steps, angles and radii required nu- variable pitch geometry and variable helix geometry. merous setups, all done by hand. Making more thanThese advances would have been close to impossible one tool also meant batch processing after each newwithout modern grinding equipment.setup. The work could be very tedious, and a singleCutting tool companies also have benefited from wrong setup might scrap a whole batch of tools. Ad- things like reduced lot sizes, greater flexibility and ditionally, cutting tool designers faced limitations be- faster setups. Productivity has been enhanced because cause they had to be careful not to specify geometriesone person can tend numerous machines. Multiple set-outside the capabilities of a grinding machine. ups are less frequent, with most tools being made in With their advanced programming techniques,one setup and thereby increasing quality. Most sub-CNC tool and cutter grinders revolutionized cuttingstantially, advanced machines have automated the te-tool manufacturing. The ability to control multiple axesdious aspects of cutter grinding and allowed toolmak-and program complex grinding paths permitted toolers and engineers to focus on chip formation theory, designers to create cutting tool geometries that havereducing the lead time of new designs.challenged milling and turning machine tool buildersAdvancements in CNC machines and programming to keep up. have altered the way that manufacturers make and use Advanced endmills are the best example. Over thecutting tools. Cutting tool manufacture and mainte-nance for most machine shops now is outsourced to companies that specialize in cutting tools. Engineers about the authorand toolmakers are focused on chip formation theory, Christopher Tate is facilities operationand grinding machine dynamics are no longer the lim-director at EthosEnergy in Houston.iting factor in cutting tool design. The next wave of ad-Contact him at [email protected]. vances likely will involve cutting tool materials and the abrasive tools used to manufacture them.CTEctemag.com/cteguide.com35ToolSharpening.indd 35 7/19/21 11:14 AM'