Tool Suppliers: the Secret Sauce for Our Precision Machine Shop

At Armstrong Machining, we prioritize customer satisfaction and go the extra mile to ensure you get the most value for your precision machined parts. Sometimes, that means putting our egos aside and calling in outside experts to advise on a particular situation.  

We regularly collaborate with tooling suppliers to determine the optimal tooling for a part—a strategy that improves costs and lead times for customers. 

Tooling Experts Save Customers Time and Money 

Metal cutting technology is constantly evolving, and we rely on tooling experts to help us stay at the forefront of what’s possible in precision machining. 

Common materials like aluminum and various plastics are easy to cut. But hard and exotic materials like L605, Hastelloy, and titanium require specific tooling end mills or inserts for efficient and effective cutting. 

While we’re knowledgeable about the materials we use and the parts we create, tooling suppliers have a unique depth of knowledge in their field. As metallurgists, they know the best way to cut every single material. Their input can save precision machining customers time and money. How? Let us explain. 

Standard tooling can break easily when cutting hard materials. If tooling breaks mid-operation, the part it’s cutting could be compromised, leading to costly rework. Precision machine shops need to run their machines more slowly to mitigate this risk, contributing to higher costs and longer lead times. 

On the other hand, customers enjoy lower costs and faster lead times when we use the proper tooling to cut a part. We’ve decreased a part’s run time from 1 hour and 40 minutes to 50 minutes, thanks to a tooling supplier steering us toward a better tool. These types of savings directly benefit customers.

Once we have a better idea of which end mill or insert to use for a particular material or part type, we can apply that learning in the future. Collaborating with tooling experts is just one of the ways we’re committed to continuous improvement. 

Mini Case Study: Cutting L605 

Recently, a customer asked us to cut L605, a hard metal similar to Hastelloy. It’s a challenging material to cut due to its high work hardening rate and high shear strength. We had never worked with it before. 

We quoted the job based on our projection that it would take us 40 minutes per part. But the customer came back to us and suggested that 15 minutes per part was more in line with what they had expected. 

Committed to providing a quote our customer was happy with, we consulted a tooling expert who helped us understand how to cut the material more efficiently. Although we had plenty of tooling inserts in our precision machine shop that could have gotten the job done, collaborating with a tooling expert allowed us to reduce the run time and provide our customer an optimal solution. 

At Armstrong Machining, we’re never satisfied with simply making parts. We want to make parts better and faster. Request a quote to work with us!