Kennametal Inc.
Profile
Kennametal offers a wide variety of engineered components & hardfacing wear protection. Our advanced material technologies, including Carbide, Alloy, Conforma Clad, HTM & Tricon, provides protection against erosion, abrasion & corrosion for various applications in downhole & surface equipment, such as: Drilling Tools, Mud Motors, & Flow Control.
Address
1600 Technology Way
Latrobe, PA 15650
United States
Phone: 1-812-948-2118
Fax: 1-812-944-3254
Press Releases
Partners in Productivity: New Tooling Blasts Barriers, Blazes Trail to Success for Major Pump Manufacturer
(LATROBE, PA) – Higher gasoline prices. Dependence on foreign oil. Emerging alternative energy sources. Increasing environmental concerns. Electric vehicles, hybrids, and natural-gas-powered bus lines.
The energy landscape is white-hot with manufacturing and research activity. If there is a common denominator for those participating in oil drilling, shale gas extraction, wind farms, or numerous other energy businesses, it’s that those who are quick-to-market make money while the slow get a lot of missed opportunities.
Making it its business to be among the agile, a global manufacturer of industrial compressors, blowers, pumps, loading arms, and fuel systems, reached out to its technology partners for assistance. Its long-established operating philosophy says that how results are achieved is as important as what is achieved. Additional tenets include showing initiative and a bias for urgency; while using rigorous logic and methods to analyze difficult problems and implement effective solutions. Not stopping at the first answers is key.
Philosophical Brethren
Finding itself with an immediate need to increase productivity, the pump manufacturer found a partner with many of the same beliefs in Kennametal Inc. Unprecedented growth in natural gas exploration led to increased demand for the fluid-end manifolds the company manufacturers. Despite the plant’s significant increase in head count, demand for manifolds had increased tenfold.
As the company and Kennametal had a business relationship, plant management immediately sought to work with Kennametal to adopt an “any and all solutions” mindset to boosting output both at its own plant and among the many subcontractors it was using to keep up with demand.
Deep Radii, Thousands of Pounds of Chips
Fluid end manifolds are critical to oil and gas drilling operations and endure extreme amounts of wear. They are assemblies for heavy-duty, high pressure pumps that receive fluid from a supply manifold and direct or transfer the fluid to an outlet manifold.
The manifold base can be a forging of modified 4140, 4150 or 17-4 steel grades anywhere between 8,000 and 16,000 pounds (3629 to 7257 kg). “As these can be around 2,000 pounds (907 kg) when finished, the first challenge was to come up with milling tools to remove as much metal as possible as quickly as possible in a tough-to-machine material,” says Dave Cope, Kennametal’s manager of technical programs for Engineered Solutions North America. “Design features included very deep radii of 6 in. (152.4 mm) deep on the mounting side and other numerous external and internal features.”
Kennametal’s first response was to design custom T-slot cutters that it supplied for testing on the customer’s equipment. “The first test met with limited success, but with customer input, we made adjustments and the second test was very successful,” Cope relates. Based on this initial success, the company and Kennametal committed to a team approach to explore the most effective mix of custom and state-of-the-art standard tools to achieve the needed productivity gains.
“With the vast amount of material to be removed both on the surface and internally, it eventually became a two-pronged milling and holemaking approach to tool development,” Cope says. The results were a combination of applying the most effective standard tools and developing a number of custom solutions across multiple Kennametal milling platforms, including custom HARVI™ T-slot cutters, custom HARVI helical cutters, and other indexable face and copy milling solutions. On the holemaking side, KSEM Plus™ indexable drilling, KenFEED™ plunge milling, and deep-hole (10XD) solutions were engineered to attack the required internal features.
KSEM PLUS modular drills combine the high feed rates and length/diameter capabilities KSEM modular drills are known for with the high speed and low consumable costs of indexable drills.
“The benefits are increased metal-removal rates and productivity in many applications,” says Allen Poponick, manager, global machining technology at Kennametal. “KSEM PLUS drill bodies accept a range of head diameters, and users can easily replace inserts or heads without removing the body from their spindle, further improving holemaking efficiency.”
KSEM PLUS tools, suitable for holemaking in steel, stainless steel, cast iron, and nonferrous alloy workpieces, consist of a steel body coupled to a high-strength steel head. A single tool body can handle a range of drill head sizes. The drill body features a central coolant hole that maintains body rigidity while allowing maximum coolant flow through the tool. A margin and relieved clearance eliminate trapping of chips between the drill body and hole wall to increase tool body life and improve hole surface finish, while differential helix flutes smooth chip evacuation and maintain rigidity.
At the spindle, standard WD or SSF shanks provide maximum toolholding security, stiffness, and accuracy with flanged face contact. The flexible shank configuration allows use on machining centers and in lathes with an inexpensive coupling system.
Mating the body and head is the patented Flexible Drilling System (FDS) coupling system, which uses radially activated locking screws to guarantee high repeatability and minimal runout. Assembly and tool change are fast and easy, and the FDS allows one head to fit several body length/diameter ratios.
KSEM PLUS modular drills are available in standard lengths of 5, 8, and 10× diameter in metric and inch sizes from 1.250 in./31.75 mm to 2.756 in./70.00 mm. Custom tools with HSK, KM, FCM, or ISO tapers; length to 17× diameter; and intermediate diameters are also available.
“Oilfield, drilling, and subsea customers form the biggest bulk of our business,” he says. “We make flanges for wellheads, connector manifolds, and rigs that operate at the bottom of the ocean. We process a lot of alloy steels, stainless, Inconel, and some aluminum.”
The part where Sun needed drilling help was made of annealed, 4130 medium- to high-alloy steel, run on the company’s 40-HP Kuraki KBT11Z CNC horizontal boring mill. The spool part had a flange on each end, requiring 24 thru-holes on one end, indexing the part, and 20 holes on the other.
The holes were straightforward mounting holes without threads or a high finish tolerance, so Sun used a straightforward holemaking method, a coated 2.375-in. diameter spade drill. With a single cutting edge, Sun had to run the spade drill in pecking cycles, starting the hole and then withdrawing the drill, usually used to break chips so they are small enough to flow up through the flutes on the tool without causing damage to the hole surface or the drill.
For example, a variable peck cycle could start with a 1.00-inch peck, then the tool would be retracted slightly to break the chips. The next peck would only go 0.50 inch deeper, followed by one 0.25 inch deeper, with the last peck going only 0.05 inch deeper than the previous peck. The deeper the drill goes, the more difficult it is for coolant to get to it, so pecks are used both to evacuate chips and get more coolant to the tool tip. And because they take so much time, pecking cycles are usually considered a “last resort” holemaking strategy.
“We were certainly feeling pressure to decrease cycle time,” Eldridge says. “This part required both lathe work and mill work, so a complete job was taking in the area of 185 to 200 hours.” Indeed, the test Hray was able to run for Sun had a baseline of over eight and a half hours (512 minutes) just for making 24 holes using the spade drill, and there were still 20 holes on the other end of the part to drill. Making 24 holes with the KSEM PLUS drill took 38.4 minutes.
Effective Collaboration
Cope credits the direct input from the customer’s team for spurring Kennametal’s effort at effective collaboration. “This plant was a relatively mature operation with a lot of experience in leaning out its processes,” he describes. “With years of experience and acquired knowledge, it was hard for them to believe that significant improvements were possible.” Cope credits plant management for fostering a collaborative environment focused on accelerating the productivity curve.
While this relationship remains ongoing with many tooling development projects currently underway, initial results have been outstanding. From 110 machining hours per manifold, current performance stands at less than 40, a reduction in machining time of approximately 64%. “Moreover, the same tooling concepts can be leveraged at multiple OEM and subcontractor sites to drive the significant growth goals for this customer to dominate this industry segment,” Cope says.
Such collaboration stands out as an example of mutual success between customer and technology supplier, particularly when many companies facing such significant growth opportunities immediately think of expanding capital equipment first and consider how to choose the most effective tooling solutions later. “Having a tooling partner involved early in the process can save significant time and money,” Cope explains. “Collaborative engineering can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by right-sizing capital investments and ensuring that new machine tools provide the necessary spindle connections, torque, rigidity, and horsepower to drive the newest tooling innovations.”
Faced with a white-hot energy industry, this kind of success demonstrates what can happen when a driven customer and motivated technology partner commit to test, adjust, and document continued process solutions. The result is a plant newly positioned for increased productivity and future growth.
Kennametal Inc.
Celebrating its 75th year as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers seeking peak performance in demanding environments. The company provides innovative wear-resistant products and application engineering backed by advanced material science, serving customers in 60 countries across diverse sectors of aerospace, earthworks, energy, industrial production, transportation and infrastructure. With approximately 13,000 employees and nearly $3 billion in sales, the company realizes half of its revenue from outside North America, and 40% globally from innovations introduced in the past five years. Recognized among the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” (Ethisphere); “Outstanding Corporate Innovator” (Product Development Management Association); and "America's Safest Companies" (EHS Today) with a focus on 100% safety, Kennametal and its foundation invest in technical education, industrial technologies and material science to deliver the promise of progress and economic prosperity to people everywhere. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.kennametal.com.
Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA; 800.446.7738.
High-res images are available upon request.
Email Ray Chalmers at ray@chalmersindustrial.com
Kennametal Stellite™ — New Business Unit Expands Kennametal Solutions Portfolio
LATROBE, Pa. — With the acquisition of UK-based Deloro Stellite, Kennametal’s newest business unit, Kennametal Stellite™, brings industry-leading wear-resistant solutions in alloys-based science, cast and machined components, hardfacing materials, and coating services that excel in wear-resistance in extreme temperatures and applications.
A global manufacturer and provider of alloy-based critical-wear solutions for extreme environments involving high temperature, corrosion, and abrasion, Kennametal Stellite employs approximately 1,300 people across seven primary operating facilities globally, including locations in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, India and China. It combines proprietary metal alloys and materials expertise with specialized engineering design and fabrication capabilities to deliver value-added, tailored wear solutions for customers in oil and natural gas, power generation, automotive, aerospace/defense, medical/dental, and process and general engineering segments.
“Deloro Stellite has a longstanding history of providing exceptional value to customers in demanding environments and we are pleased they have agreed to join the Kennametal team,” commented Carlos Cardoso, Kennametal Chairman, President and CEO. “The addition of this world-class surface technology and materials science expertise will enhance the range of productivity solutions provided to our customers in extreme wear environments.”
History Stellite is recognized around the world as being synonymous with cobalt-based alloys. In 1907, Deloro Smelting and Refining Company was set up by Michael John O'Brien and Elwood Haynes in the small Canadian cobalt mining village of Deloro. When Haynes left in 1912 to focus on nickel-based components, O'Brien formed Deloro Stellite to produce cobalt-based Stellite alloys.
Stellite products include:
Stellite™ Cobalt-based alloys with the best ‘all-round’ wear properties. They combine exceptional wear and heat resistance and are used across a wide range of applications.
Deloro™ Nickel-based alloys which cover a broad range of hardness'. They tend to have lower melting points which make well suited for powder welding or spray and fuse.
Tribaloy™ Intermetallic-phase alloys which can be either nickel- or cobalt-based. They perform exceptionally well in metal-to-metal wear at high temperatures.
Nistelle™ Nickel-based, corrosion-resistant, high-melting-point alloys. Developed for protection against aggressive chemicals or other corrosive media.
Stelcar™ Nickel or cobalt-based alloys with carbide particles. Only available in powder form for coating applications.
Jet Kote™ Carbide and metal combination powders specifically designed for thermal spraying.
Delcrome™ Iron-based alloys designed for abrasive wear resistance at lower temperatures.
Kennametal Stellite also provides such value-added services as rapid product development of cast components, final assembly of power generation steam valves, fully machined parts, and coating services. Parts are produced through different processes such as investment casting and finish machining, and are custom-engineered to meet individual customer needs. In addition, Kennametal Stellite offers its expertise and experience in coating services in the form of HVOF (High-Velocity Oxy Fuel) coatings and weld hardfacings.
Keeping Power Flowing
Recently, a major US-based power company experienced new challenges with their supercritical steam drain and vent lines in one of their plants. Kennametal Stellite together with Velan (Montreal, Quebec), a world leader in valve design and engineering for a broad range of industrial applications, were engaged to resolve the issue. MSBVs (metal-seated ball valves) were being used on drain and vent lines to extract large quantity of condensate during plant startup in order to get dry superheated steam rapidly. MSBVs must remain steam-tight to prevent energy loss and maximize plant efficiency. This particular fossil-fuel power station runs continuously from May to October due to high power demand to run air-conditioning systems. For the balance of the year, the plant only runs when the demand called for more power during peak usage times.
This presented a unique situation. As the plant operation changed from continuous production to production on demand during peak hours, every time the plant shuts down or starts up, MSBVs are operated and exposed to supercritical steam operating conditions. The MSBVs in question were of a floating ball design with a fixed seat, manufactured from forged Inconel® 718 PH and coated with a HVOF 80% Cr3C2 + 20% NiCr coating. On balls exposed to supercritical steam, valve coatings were failing after 1 year and less than 500 mechanical cycles in service, with deterioration extending to regions where there is no contact between ball and seats. Visual examination of damaged components revealed minor frictional wear and typical stress/fatigue pattern.
Testing revealed the dominant failure mechanism to be coating embrittlement due to chrome carbide precipitation in-service across the coating binder. Brand new samples were produced with three new Kennametal Stellite coatings. A battery of tests were performed to assess their behavior for this specific application.
Once the cause was known, further tests revealed a spray- and-fuse NiWCrBSi coating more suitable to support high bearing loads when facing thermal shock. This coating is less sensitive to ageing at high temperatures and therefore more durable under these very specific conditions.
An enhanced HVOF coating, produced from a mixed (W,Cr)C and WC carbides in a nickel matrix, also emerged successful from the tests. While it showed similar ductility compared to the original HVOF Cr3C2-NiCr coating, it consistently provided longer in-service life in service under 540 ºC (1,000 ºF).
Armed with these new coating technologies, new valves were installed in the plant. They have worked flawlessly for the past year. As a result, Velan’s MSBV line for the power industry now features two coatings: one designed for regular service – HVOF (W,Cr)C-Ni and one specially designed for applications involving severe thermal shocks – S&F NiWCrBSi – all in keeping with Velan’s motto: “Quality That Lasts.”
For more information, visit http://stellite.com.
Kennametal Inc. Celebrating its 75th year as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers seeking peak performance in demanding environments. The company provides innovative wear-resistant products and application engineering backed by advanced material science, serving customers in 60 countries across diverse sectors of aerospace, earthworks, energy, industrial production, transportation and infrastructure. With approximately 13,000 employees and nearly $3 billion in sales, the company realizes half of its revenue from outside North America, and 40% globally from innovations introduced in the past five years. Recognized among the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” (Ethisphere); “Outstanding Corporate Innovator” (Product Development Management Association); and "America's Safest Companies" (EHS Today) with a focus on 100% safety, Kennametal and its foundation invest in technical education, industrial technologies and material science to deliver the promise of progress and economic prosperity to people everywhere. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.kennametal.com.
Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA; 800.446.7738 High-res images available upon request.
Email Ray Chalmers at ray@chalmersindustrial.com
New Beyond EADE™ Solid Ceramic Endmills from Kennametal Set New Speed and Tool Life Benchmarks Machining Nickel-Based High-Temperature Alloys Industry first shows outstanding reductions machining turbine blades and other energy/aerospace components
LATROBE, PA – Perhaps the most basic assumption in machining is that cutting high-strength materials takes higher-strength tools. Proprietary nickel-based alloys used in gas and steam turbines, for example, are among the world’s strongest materials, continually being developed to allow power plants to run at much higher temperatures. This not only provides more power to those that need it, it increases plant efficiency and reduces or eliminates harmful emissions. Superalloys such as Inconel®, Waspaloy®, Rene®, and others come into play in turbine blades and other parts that require high strength, excellent high temperature creep resistance, phase stability, and resistance to oxidation and corrosion.
But machining such materials can be a slow, laborious, and cost-intensive experience. In general, solid carbide tooling commonly runs at speeds between 65 and 200 SFM (20 to 60 m/min) in such materials with limited tool life. New Beyond KYS40™-grade solid ceramic endmills from Kennametal, however, are presenting orders-of-magnitude improvements in machining high-strength nickel-based alloys, roughing at cutting speeds up to 3,300 SFM (1000 m/min) with tool life two to three times longer than comparable solid-carbide tools.
Industry First
Cutting tools made of ceramics, mainly aluminum oxide (Al2 O3) have existed since the early 20th Century. Patents on ceramic cutting tools were issued in Germany in 1913 and were commercially available in the US in the 1950s. Ceramic indexable inserts have their place today because they can operate at higher speeds in selected applications, but solid ceramic end mills were rarely seen because such tools were more brittle than carbide and did not perform well. In fact, many turbine manufacturers have taken to producing their own solid carbide end mills in house due to the high consumption of these tools.
Kennametal’s new SiAlON KYS40 ceramic grade and the overall design of the solid ceramic endmill now offers the most effective way to rough nickel-based high-temperature alloys. “Cutting speeds on nickel-based superalloys can be up to 20 times higher compared to solid carbide end mills, and due to ceramic’s outstanding heat resistance and stronger cutting edges (negative rake), tool life can last five times longer or more,” says Thilo Mueller, global product manager at Kennametal.
Two types of KYS40 solid ceramic end mills are available, a six-fluted version for face milling and profiling; and a four-fluted, necked version for slot milling and pocketing. Both product lines allow ramping, helical interpolation, and trochoidal machining strategies as well.
The wear mechanisms and wear indication on the solid ceramic end mills is completely different from carbide, allowing running ceramic end mills far beyond the point where carbide tooling would need to be replaced. That’s also the reason that this new KYS40 grade end mill is a throw-away type of tooling to allow usage beyond regular type of wear.
Turbine Blade Machining
Whether powered by fossil fuels, hydro, or nuclear power, almost all electrical power on earth is generated by a turbine of some type. Producing, managing, and maintaining these critical components are vital to keeping the power flowing.
This puts a lot of pressure on manufacturers to continually update their machining strategies. Many factors affect this: are large numbers of similar blades required or small volumes of different blade designs? Are multiple setups and machining centers involved or single multi-axis multitasking machines? What is the CAD/CAM system being used and what is the expertise of the operators?
And, of course, what are the best tooling choices for the machining operations? Recent test results involving the new KYS40 solid ceramic end mill are insightful.
First of all, the KYS40 Beyond grade ceramic in both the four-flute and six-flute versions features an enlarged core design that improves tool rigidity and reduces deflection at high cutting speeds. Optimized end geometry and a 40-degree helix angle increase shearing action and chip evacuation.
In roughing the profile of a small turbine blade made of Inconel 718, machined dry, the EADE four-flute end mill was run at 645 m/min (2116 SFM), fed at 0.03 mm/z (0.0012 IPT). Depth of cut (ap) was 0.5 mm (0.0197 inches) and width of cut (ae) was 11.4 mm (0.866 inches). Compared to a conventional solution, the EADE four-flute mill lasted three times longer doing the roughing in less time. This application resulted in three times more parts being produced per mill.
The six-flute EADE solid ceramic end mill was tested profiling a blisk (blade integrated disk) made of Inconel 718 and run with compressed air for chip evacuation. Unlike conventional carbide tooling, roughing to near net shape creates chips closer to dust than traditional curled chips, requiring only compressed air to blow them out of the cut. Test conditions were cutting speed of 679 m/min (2228 SFM), feed of 0.03 mm/z (0.0012 IPT), and the depth of cut varied up to 0.5 mm (0.0197 inches).
The results were two blisk segments machined with one tool at a 12-minute machining time per segment, which test personnel deemed “unprecedented.”
The new EADE solid ceramic end mills are also featured in the new, easy-to-use “Kennametal Innovations” iPad app, free to download from the iTunes™ App Store. The app’s simple navigation makes it easy to search via keywords to find specific tooling solutions and product groups. Among key features:
Product animations provide clear visual representations of processes with direct links to detailed information.
A navigation map offers drop-down menus with supplemental information, including expandable and customizable, charts and graphs.
User-driven navigation with selectable data provides quick, convenient comparisons to complimenting and competitive products.
Demonstrations and application videos provide valuable, real-world experience of the tooling technologies in actual use.
Kennametal is offering the new KYS40 ceramic end mills in the range of 3/16 – ½ inch (4 – 12 mm). Running the tool does not require use of special clamping, the use of common high performance collet, power, or hydraulic chucks is fully sufficient, although the chuck must be able to run at the high speeds necessary for superalloy machining. To ensure highest tool life, final balancing is recommended. More information is available at www.kennametal.com.
Kennametal Inc.
Celebrating its 75th year as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers seeking peak performance in demanding environments. The company provides innovative wear-resistant products and application engineering backed by advanced material science, serving customers in 60 countries across diverse sectors of aerospace, earthworks, energy, industrial production, transportation and infrastructure. With approximately 13,000 employees and nearly $3 billion in sales, the company realizes half of its revenue from outside North America, and 40% globally from innovations introduced in the past five years. Recognized among the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” (Ethisphere); “Outstanding Corporate Innovator” (Product Development Management Association); and "America's Safest Companies" (EHS Today) with a focus on 100% safety, Kennametal and its foundation invest in technical education, industrial technologies and material science to deliver the promise of progress and economic prosperity to people everywhere. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.kennametal.com.
Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA; 800.446.7738 High-res images available upon request.
Email Ray Chalmers at ray@chalmersindustrial.com
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