Mastering high-volume hole making

Overcoming common drilling pain points with CoroDrill® DE10

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High-volume drilling requires precision, efficiency and reliability to meet demanding production schedules and maintain cost-effectiveness. For manufacturers, these requirements often pose challenges, such as ensuring tool longevity, achieving consistent hole quality and minimising downtime. So, what's required to achieve more efficient hole drilling in an increasingly competitive environment? Here, Mikael Carlsson, Global Product Specialist for Indexable Rotating Tools at Sandvik Coromant, explains how a new drilling innovation could reinvent high volume hole making.

High-volume hole making often reveals challenges that can be underestimated, even by experienced manufacturers. Many already recognise the critical importance of tool wear and cycle times, but it is the hidden complexities of high-speed and high-penetration operations that can profoundly impact productivity and operational efficiency.

Take, for example, thermal and mechanical stresses encountered during the drilling of thousands of holes — especially in typically more challenging materials like hard steels and heat-resistant super alloys. These forces can lead to accelerated tool fatigue, burr formation or even deformation of the workpiece.

Such challenges go beyond tool durability. They involve understanding the interplay between the tool's geometry, coatings and material composition with the specific characteristics of the workpiece. Effective heat dissipation, resistance to microfractures and the ability to maintain edge sharpness over prolonged use are all crucial factors for ensuring consistent quality across extended production runs.