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Rotary Whirling A presentation on rotary whirling by Mr. Foschaar was another item on the technical agenda during my visit to Horn in May. "Rotary whirling is a new thread production process being developed in the context of the read Project by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)" he says. Participants in the BMBF project, along with Horn, are Index/Traub medical device manufac- turer Smith & Nephew, and the research institute WBK Karlsruhe. is project began in 2014 and is slated for comple- tion at the end of 2017. e idea behind rotary whirling is to reduce the amount of material the thread whirling tool needs to remove, resulting in higher production rates. is is accomplished using a single-point turning tool that traverses the blank part ahead of the whirling cutter. In effect, the turning operation takes the blank down to the major diameter of the thread to be cut. As the whirling tool engages the workpiece blank, it needs to only remove the material necessary to take the part down to the minor thread diameter and generate the thread geometry. is new process, which Mr. Foschaar refers to as parallel turning, results in significantly less metal volume to be removed by the whirling tool and significantly higher cutting speeds, overall. e plan from the development group is to have the single-point turning tool mounted on one of the gang tool stations of the Swiss-type and is then fed into the work independently of the whirling attachment. A difference in this new process is that with the single-point turning tool engaged, the speeds and feed for the thread whirling attachment are accelerated from the relatively slow rpm requirements for conventional and even Turbowhirling to significantly higher rotation for efficient turning. According to Mr. Foschaar, "This speed differential can be in the ranges of 9 to 20 rpm for conventional whirling and as much as 2,000-3,000 rpm for rotary whirling in order to efficiently use the single- point cutter." In the rotary whirling process, the whirling attach- ment is synchronized with the spindle speed so that the workpiece rotates once, or 360 degrees, per insert in the whirling cutter. Part of the development work of the BMBF project is to develop whirling attachments that can generate sufficient rotational speed to take advantage of the accelerated cutting capabilities of the process, as most currently available whirling attach- ments are not capable of these higher speeds. e rotary whirling project is being tested under real shop conditions with results being analyzed. Experience teaches us that if there is a better way, it will find a home in metalworking shops around the world. Always Moving Forward Turbowhirling is ready for prime time. It is a step forward that brings advantages to conventional thread whirling and is commercially available for the right applications. e results from the rotary whirling project are encour- aging thus far. Rotary thread whirling is a significantly more sophisticated process than conventional and Turbowhirling. Calculations to produce the desired thread geometry are unique to each thread, and part of the devel- opment process is to generate software for performing these calculations. It's a team effort among the participating compa- nies and institutions with each bringing a specialty to the group. Metalworking is moving forward into areas that were not conceivable only a few years ago, and it's through development programs such as BMBF that devel- opment work continues to improve how our industry does its work. Looking at these two new approaches to thread genera- tion, based on a whirling process that dates to the 1940s, makes one wonder how much more is in the near future as mechatronics (blending mechanical and electronics) continues to march forward. It's a good time to be in manufacturing. For more information about thread whirling and the full line of cutting tools from Horn USA, call 615-771-4100 or visit hornusa.com. Here's another article on this topic: Take this Tool for a Spin Turbo whirling is a newly developed process from Horn USA that optimizes machining during thread whirling, boosting both productivity and cost effectiveness. LINK :: short.productionmachining.com/turbowhirl The idea behind rotary whirling is to reduce the amount of material the thread whirling tool needs to remove, resulting in higher production rates. Two New Twists on Thread hirling productionmachining.com :: 33