Sumitomo’s SMDT-NAL Replaceable Drill Tip for Machining Aluminum

Sumitomo is expanding its existing SMD replaceable tip drilling lineup with the SMDT-NAL drill tips, which feature a diamond-like carbon DLC Aurora coating designed for high-efficiency machining of aluminum alloys and nonferrous materials.

SMD holders include deep hole drilling up to 12XD standard. The SMDT drill tip product lineup offers diameters ranging from fractional sizes ¹⁵/₃₂ to 1¹/₄ to suit a variety of applications.

The DLC Aurora coating is an amorphous film whose main composition is carbon featuring lubricity and chemical stability. It is a hard thin film that features high hardness, superior tribology properties and excellent adhesion resistance, the company says. DLC films have been used to reduce fuel consumption of automobiles by reducing friction loss and are also used as a coating of cutting tools for aluminum alloys that have been widely used for aerospace and automobile weight reduction.

Sumitomo’s family of tools for aluminum holemaking include the replaceable tip drilling (SMDT-NAL), solid carbide drilling with DLC coating (MDW-NHGS) and DLC coated indexable inserts (WDX). Key product benefits include an ultra smooth coating surface which results in stable chip evacuation; aluminum welding resistance for excellent surface finish; and hardness of 60GPa for superior abrasion resistance, the company says.

Other advantages include increased penetration rates (feed rate/drill diameter = penetration rate) due to a low friction coefficient. All these benefits are said to enable customers to machine with 2 times to 3 times higher feed rates than uncoated drills, thereby reducing cycle time and cost per unit (CPU).