OSG's Blog for

Give and Take  

Author: Alan Richter

Published: July 2020 - Cutting Tool Engineering Magazine Vol. 72

When a workpiece material is relatively easy to machine and a wide range of parts are made of it, a large number of part manufacturers will machine it. As a result, shops must achieve a high level of productivity to remain competitive, and that’s certainly the case with aluminum alloys.

One cutter doesn’t fit all aluminum machining needs, so end users must work with toolmakers that have offerings across the spectrum.

“Because there are such a high variety of parts that are made of aluminum, you have to have a high variety of tools to serve the market,” said Alyssa Walther, automotive specialist for Irving, Texas based OSG USA Inc., who’s based in Bensenville, Illinois.

Playing Flutes

When milling aluminum, the number of flutes on a tool is critical. Walther said a three-flute tool is common and effective for performing conventional roughing and semifinishing. Two-flute tools, however, provide an added benefit when slotting, deep pocketing and even finishing because their design enhances chip evacuation by providing the most amount of flute space.

“If you have a longer overhang and want a really smooth finish, typically the lower number of flutes will

help reduce the amount of cutting vibration because there are only two points,” she said. “You’re basically indexing the tool 180° apart, so it gives the tool a chance to calm the chatter down.”

Although a two-flute tool is more ordinary for milling aluminum, Parker said LMT Onsrud offers three-flute roughers that help lower the considerable spindle load on a machine.

However, two- or three-flute tools are not the only options when cutting aluminum. Walther said end users performing high-efficiency machining, which generally involves running at high feed rates and taking deeper DOCs (step-downs) and a shallow WOC, are gravitating toward tools with four to seven flutes — or more.

“It depends on what the customer’s style of machining is,” she said.

A Lubricious Layer

To help prevent BUE and extend tool life, Matsumoto said OSG USA can deposit a diamondlike carbon coating on tools for aluminum applications.

“We are trying to reduce the friction so we can avoid chip welding on the tools,” he said.

The coefficient of friction for OSG USA’s DLC coating is approximately 0.1.

Tools that cut aluminum commonly are uncoated. In those cases, Matsumoto recommends much polishing of tool surfaces to combat BUE.

You can view the original article by clicking here

St. Charles, IL – May 2020 - OSG USA recognized the recipients of its annual “Shaping Your Dreams” scholarship program, which was created to assist students in fulfilling their educational goals in the fields of machining, manufacturing, and engineering. Jackie Fisher of York Community High School and Kyle L. Townsend of Wadsworth High School each received the $5,000 scholarship toward their education in their chosen fields. Fisher, the Illinois recipient, will be attending Iowa State University in the fall with a major in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Fashion Design. She has a passion for problem-solving, sewing, and design.  Fisher stood out among many qualified applicants due to her excellent writing skills and creativity. Townsend, the Ohio recipient, will be attending Ohio Northern University in the fall where he will major in Mechanical Engineering and minor in robotics.  He is looking forward to expanding his knowledge and feeding his hunger to learn more about the Engineering field.  Townsend hopes that his passion will help deliver innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to better provide solutions for the needs of a more modern tomorrow. Due to Illinois’ stay-at-home order and social distancing guidelines, OSG USA awarded the recipients via virtual ceremony on May 20th, 2020.

OSG will be LIVE on YouTube this Thursday demonstrating the A Brand AE-VMS Carbide End Mill!

Tune in on 6/18 at 11:00 am (CST) by heading over to OSG USA's YouTube page or by clicking HERE 

To our valued customers, we are excited to announce we will begin customer curbside pickups for our locations in Placentia, CA and St. Charles, IL starting Monday 6/8. 

For the safety of our customers and employees, we ask you to read and follow the guidelines below. 

Customers will not be allowed in the building and must follow the process outlined. Signage will be posted for the driver to follow as well.

• 2 Hour advanced order (No Exceptions)
• Pull up to Northside of the building by the overhead bay in a designated area in St Charles and back of the building in CA. 
  • 9:30 – 4:00 local time for pickups ONLY
• Do not exit the car.
• Must have PO or OSG order #
• Call Whse Phone number. (The number will be posted on the sign at the location as well) 
  • STC Pickup – 630-790-1410
  • CA WHS – 630-866-2811
• Warehouse staff will wear a mask and gloves to bring package out
• The person picking up will be asked to sign packing slip on a clipboard
• Warehouse staff will dispose of gloves and put pen in a separate area for disinfecting.

We look forward to serving you!

OSG Phoenix PD indexable drill provides needed solution to manufacturer of large cast pumps

Scott Kemp |  District Manager

The mining and dredging industries are known for the harsh conditions that man and machine must endure. These industries require the extraction and transport of large volumes of materials from one site to another using large diameter slurry pumps. A slurry pump is a centrifugal pump that suspends solids in water, creating a mixture referred to as slurry. Slurry pumps are widely used to transport abrasive solids and are engineered to withstand extremely abrasive materials such as phosphate rock and tar sands. It is critical to have a dependable and well-designed pump that expels large quantities of corrosive materials in a safe manner.

GIW Industries, Inc. is a world leader in slurry and process pump solutions. Founded in 1891 in Augusta, Georgia, United States, GIW has been manufacturing slurry pumps for over 100 years. The company moved to their current location in Grovetown, Georgia in 1964 and is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion. In 1996, GIW became a full subsidiary of KSB Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of pumps and industrial valves. In 2014, the GIW® Minerals product brand was established aiming to provide the best and longest wearing slurry solutions in the industry.

GIW’s Grovetown plant currently employs approximately 650 staff members and produces around 200 parts per week in batches of one to 10. GIW is continuously looking for ways to improve quality and productivity through their partnership with Fastenal, the company’s onsite distributor. It was through this partnership that GIW began to look to OSG for solutions to their large diameter drilling issues.

GIW and Fastenal were experiencing problems with stock outages and discontinued competitor items that interrupted the manufacturing of GIW’s slurry pumps. Because GIW is an existing user of OSG HY-PRO taps and has had positive experiences with OSG tooling, they were willing to test the OSG Phoenix P5D indexable drill on the pump bodies.

The OSG Phoenix PD indexable drill series is engineered for efficient and stable hole-making up to 5xD. The PD drill features a unique flute design with high precision finish and integrated chip breaker. This series offers a broad insert lineup to accommodate a wide range of work materials, such as steels, stainless steels, cast irons, aluminum alloys and non-ferrous metals.

The OSG Phoenix PD indexable drill series is engineered for efficient and stable hole-making up to 5xD. The PD drill features a unique flute design with high precision finish and integrated chip breaker. This series offers a broad insert lineup to accommodate a wide range of work materials, such as steels, stainless steels, cast irons, aluminum alloys and non-ferrous metals.

GIW’s pump bodies are made of cast steel or ductile iron. The parts are machined on very large vertical and horizontal boring mills, such as its newest Giddings & Lewis floor type horizontal boring mill, using CAT50 tool holders. The number of holes and the depth varies dependent on the application of the pump. The competitor drill requires two different grades of inserts, whereas the OSG Phoenix P5D indexable drill (EDP# 7802794) utilizes the same insert inboard and outboard, which has the potential to reduce insert inventory by 50 percent. Moreover, the competitor tool was drilling +0.006” oversize. Tool life was measured at 30 to 40 holes at a speed of 1,500 rpm and 0.005 ipr using CIMTECH 285 coolant.

The OSG Phoenix P5D indexable drill is used to drill holes in GIW’s production of slurry pumps made of cast steel and ductile iron.

By utilizing the OSG Phoenix P5D with the insert grade XP1010 optimal for cast iron, the hole diameter was improved to less than 0.006” oversize, which is within GIW’s tolerance. The hole finish also improved, all while maintaining identical speeds, feeds and tool life as the previous tool. The insert grades, speeds and feeds can be adjusted to further optimize the performance of the Phoenix PD drill. Through the strong partnership between GIW, Fastenal and OSG, insert inventory and the number of vendors required can be reduced, thereby greatly minimizing GIW’s overall costs. GIW currently spends over $400,000 on tool bodies, inserts and hardware. Savings in inventory reduction alone is estimated around $1,200 USD per month. With a strong partnership, innovative tooling solutions and a model to excel by continuous process improvements, GIW is pumped for success for years to come.

For more information on GIW and the OSG Phoenix indexable series

Fastened for Flight

Author: Kip Hanson

Published May 4, 2020 - 10:30am Cutting Tool Engineering Magazine

Rivets aren’t sexy like jet engines and flight control systems, but that doesn’t make rivets less important to the well-being of an aircraft. For example, a Boeing 747 has nearly 1.5 million such fasteners, all of which contribute to structural integrity.

Some newer planes, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, require far fewer rivets and screws due to enhanced use of lightweight composite materials. Nonetheless, each fastener must be held firmly in place for an aircraft to be deemed flightworthy. Even a spacecraft, which is expected to endure the extreme speeds and temperatures of interplanetary travel, is fastened together with rivets not all that different from those found on a fishing boat or recreational vehicle.

Give a Hand

A large percentage of these fasteners still are installed manually.

“Several methodologies exist, but the most prevalent is the use of a power drill and spring-loaded microstop, also known as a microcage,” said Linn Win, senior business development manager at OSG USA Inc., Irving, Texas. “The cutting tool itself is typically a piloted 100° or 130° countersink with a threaded shank that screws into the microstop. You set it to the desired depth, place the tool’s pilot into a pre-drilled hole, engage the drill motor and then push down to produce the countersink.”

He described a few methods that are more productive. One is to use a semi-automated drilling unit, which can drill and countersink in a single-shot operation. Also, robotic and fully automated systems not only accurately countersink a hole but install a rivet, commonly known as drill and fill.

Whatever the method, a backing bar or similar type of support — usually placed on the inside of an aircraft — often is needed to keep aircraft skin from deflecting during drilling. In other instances, two or more sections of material may need to be disassembled, cleaned, deburred and then reassembled before rivet installation. Compared with chamfering a hole in a machined part, countersinking fasteners on an aircraft fuselage is complex work.

These operations are made even more complex by the fact that aircraft-makers use a wide range of materials to construct their wares. The all-aluminum skins of yesteryear slowly are being eliminated in favor of composite sandwiches that in some applications include titanium, creating challenges for cutting tool manufacturers.

In addition, each aerospace OEM has its own fit requirements for fasteners, which might vary from plane to plane or even from one specific area to another in an individual aircraft. 

You can view the original article by clicking here 

We are excited to announce a new service to keep you connected to OSG!

Trouble with an application or need some technical support? Click HERE to schedule a time for a live virtual meeting with one of our skilled engineers! While we may not be able to be there in person, we are here and ready to serve you!

UPS Statement can be found HERE

FEDEX Statement can be found HERE

To our valued customers,

As you might have heard recently, several states have issued “shelter-in-place” and “stay-at-home” orders where OSG has locations, such as California and Illinois.

I would like to announce that OSG and its workforce will be able to continue operating as an “essential business.”

OSG is part of the supply chain providing critical infrastructure sectors. In Governor Newsom’s order, he specifically references the Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers during the COVID-19 Response. A review of the Memorandum identifies Critical Manufacturing as one of the 16 critical sectors. Critical Manufacturing includes “workers necessary for the manufacturing of material and products needed for medical supply chains, transportation, energy, communications, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, the operations of dams, water and wastewater treatment, emergency services, and the defense industrial base.” Additionally, on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) webpage, the CISA notes that the definition of critical infrastructure is “appropriately broad to include a wide range of stakeholders who either directly or indirectly enable the functionality of the infrastructure systems.” As such, given the industries that OSG supplies, it is concluded that OSG is a business in the critical manufacturing sector.

In short, OSG will remain Open for Business!

We continue to monitor the situation as each state and local government may have different orders and definitions, and will provide updates that might impact our ability to serve you.

Yours faithfully,

Jeff Tennant

President

We are pleased to announce the release of our NEW A Brand AE-H Advanced Performance Carbide End Mill series!

The following list numbers are associated with the A Brand AE-H End Mills:

• List #8410- A Brand AE-BD-H (inch)
• List #8510- A Brand AE-BD-H (metric)
• List #8590- A Brand AE-LNBD-H (metric)
• List #8430- A Brand AE-BM-H (inch)
• List #8530- A Brand AE-BM-H (metric)

This series offers the following features & benefits:

• OSG’s DUROREY coating that enables superior heat resistance and high toughness optimized for high-hardness steel milling
• Thickening of the center core to prevent deformation of the ball tip and improve control of chipping.
• Superior ball R precision +/- 0.005mm
• Superior shank accuracy that can support h4 tolerance (0/-0.004mm)

This series is ideal in the following applications:

• High-hardness steels (up to 70 HRC)

Check out the tools HERE