b'These little tools cant afford any unnecessary abuse.Chips Away als, such as stainless steel, titaniumWith each downsizing step, the and heat-resistant superalloys, startdegree of difficulty increases ex-at 0.2 mm (0.0079"). Tools are avail- ponentially. The smaller the surface is in Monroe, Connecticut.) Mik- able for drilling up to 50 diametersarea of the tool, the more difficult rons microdrill line starts at 0.1 mmdeep. it is to manufacture the geometry (0.0039") in diameter, and drills forMicrocutting tools are not sim- while maintaining the required qual-cutting difficult-to-machine materi- ply a reduction in size, he said.ity and tolerances.Gotti said the variety of micro-holemaking applications continues to increase as a result of the min-iaturization trend, especially in the medical industry, where more min-imally invasive operations are per-formed with ever-smaller instru-ments, such as stainless steel endo-scopic forceps and titanium bone plates. Other parts include auto-motive fuel injectors, stainless steel watch cases, dental abutments and nickel-based turbine blades.Garud said microdrills also are usedtomakeholesinnozzles, HUGE perforated discs and pneumatic components.GET READY FOR A MODULAR FIXTURING SYSTEM THATS Cool DownSimilar to macroscale applica-tions, applying a through-coolant drill is required, if possible, when deep-hole drilling with micro tools. Inaddition,itscriticaltohave proper coolant concentration, qual-ity and pressure to effectively evacu-ate chips out of the hole, said Jacob Pete Rak, applications engineer for Kyocera SGS Precision Tools.Ifpossible,internalcoolant should always be used for reliable operation with efficient chip re-moval, Garud said, noting that Wal-ter USA offers microdrills as small as about the author Alan Richter is To learn more, scan code oreditor-at-large ofvisit bluco.com / extra-large CTE. Contact him at alanr@30 YEARS OF EXCELLENCEctemedia.com. BLUCO.COMI1.800.535.013516JULY 2021SmallParts.indd 16 6/17/21 11:09 AM'