With more organizations finding ways to become eco-friendly, the use of plastic for returnable transit packaging (RTP) has emerged as an ideal solution. Earlier wood and metal was in use for such packaging in several industries across various verticals. However, deep hole drilling inserts plastic has several properties for which it is preferred now by most businesses dealing with the logistics. It is not that RTP only contributes to making business greener but also in substantial savings in the long-run. Let's have a view of the five top reasons behind this shift.

High ROI

Every business looks for a high return on its investment and plastic pallets and crates ensures the same. These packaging solutions can be used repeatedly years after years without experiencing and wear and tear. Once its life span is over, it can be recycled by finding a reliable plastic recycling partner. Moreover, collapsible plastic returning packaging solutions are also available that occupies less space during return transit and help in substantial savings during return shipping.

Robust and Durable

Even after repeated use, plastic does not break or get damaged like wood which is once the traditional material for returnable transit packaging. There are manufacturers who offer foldable plastic boxes or crates made by injection moulding as packaging solutions. Plastic has an incredible mechanical strength because of which it is not just used as a material for manufacturing various products and packaging solutions but has also found widespread application in the construction industry as a building material.

Hygienic

As a packaging material, high-grade plastic exhibits efficiency because it is extremely hygienic for various types of products within the field of industrial logistics. Plastic boxes could be washed easily using both mechanical and automated cleaning processes. Also, the water repellent property comes in handy and ensures quick reuse of returnable transit packaging made out of plastic.

Improved Safety

The surface of packaging solutions made by plastic is smooth. A box, pallet or container made up of plastic has no protruding nails and hidden corners where dust can accumulate. Thus, plastic is the best material for packaging because it ensures minimal workplace injury during material handling and at the same time eliminates any possibility of contamination of packaged goods. When it is not possible for dust to accumulate, the growth of bacteria is also thwarted.

Custom Solutions

For manufacturers who are looking for customized solutions, plastic again triumphs as a material. With cutting-edge technology, it is possible to deliver packaging solutions in custom design and colour. In many companies where there is an automated system for handling Cemented Carbide Inserts for goods packages, custom solutions help in smooth handling and easy identification of goods inside the packaging of specific colours and types.

Moreover, high grade plastic is also a corrosion and chemical resistant material due to which it is safe to use the same in returnable transit packaging for various industries. Its thermal conductivity is also low. The lightweight and versatile nature of plastic in comparison to other packaging materials also serve as a bonus point which has attracted several manufacturers in the business of manufacturing RTP.

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The promise of additive manufacturing will be found in products that are designed for additive manufacturing—that is, products that take full advantage of the geometric freedom that 3D printing can realize. A recent successful example of this relates to milling cutters. Komet’s "Revolution” line of milling tools includes tool bodies made through metal additive manufacturing to realize design features including a flute density higher than what is practical to achieve on conventionally manufactured tools. When it comes to cutting edges made of PCD (polycrystalline diamond), more flutes on the tool translates directly to faster feed rate. Thus, Komet is actually using additive manufacturing to make subtractive manufacturing more productive.

Company director of production Cullen Morrison sees making tool bodies through 3D printing as being the way of the future, at least for PCD. This cutting tool material often can take advantage of all the flutes it can get, he says. It is capable of such high material removal rates in the materials it typically cuts—aluminum and carbon fiber composite—that the number of flutes can be the limiting factor on feed rate and productivity. This is increasingly true as facilities using this tooling adopt modern machine tools with high acceleration rates. However, obtaining a high number flutes is problematic in cutter bodies made through machining, because the small pockets resulting form high flute density have to be milled out painstakingly using light cuts with small tools. Additive manufacturing offers a more efficient option.

Now, high-flute-density bodies are grown several at a time at Komet’s headquarters in Germany on a selective laser melting machine from Renishaw. After these bodies are separated via EDM from the build plate used in the additive process, they are ready for the PCD edges to be brazed on. Komet grows only the heads of the tools this way, laser welding them onto the shanks, because the shanks can be manufactured more economically in conventional processes.

Mr. Morrison says the advantages of additive manufacturing for the cutter heads go beyond flute density. There is also the flute pitch. Previously, a pitch of 4 to 5 degrees is the best the company could efficiently achieve, because the clearance challenges of reaching a cutting tool past the flute in order to mill out the pocket precluded a steeper angle than this. But in this case as well, the geometry consideration poses no challenge for additive. On the new tools, Komet has produced flute helix angles up to 20 degrees.

The 3D printed tools likely will also realize longer life, he says. The reason is coolant delivery. With additive, coolant channels can be grown inside the tool along snaking paths that exit precisely where the fluid can be most effective. On previous tools, the positioning of coolant channels was always a compromise Cutting Carbide Inserts resulting from the need to drill a straight hole past the clearance obstacles in the way of this drilling.

One other advantage of additive manufacturing might be the most transformative of all, he says: It will permit faster lead times for special tools. This advantage is particularly apparent to the Schaumburg, Illinois, Komet facility where Mr. Morrison works, because nearly all of the manufacturing here relates to specials. With 3D printing, the range of design options for these special tools increases, and unusual designs specified by special-order customers can move into production practically as soon as they are modeled.

It will take more additive manufacturing capacity to fully realize the promise of the capability for special orders, he says. The company is exploring how far to advance with this means of production, VBMT Insert and how quickly. As yet, there is 3D printing capacity only in Germany. But even so, the lead time for 3D printed tool bodies made here is so fast that the distance is potentially no obstacle to serving customers in the U.S. efficiently. He says one possible scenario being discussed for custom tools is this: While the U.S. customer’s special cutter head design is grown additively in Germany, the Illinois facility can simultaneously machine that tool’s shank. The 3D printed head would then be sent to the U.S. and welded to the shank there, ultimately still allowing the tool be delivered within a much tighter window than today’s manufacturing methods make possible.

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BIG KAISER has released a new set of insert grades for its indexable tools—C-Cutter Mini, C-Centering Cutter and Fullcut Mill. The new inserts are optimized to extend tool life in stainless steel or aluminum.

Suited for peck-drilling,Carbide Grooving Inserts ramping, helical and shoulder milling, the Fullcut Mill is now available with the PVD-coated carbide ACP300 with nanometer-level thickness and ultra-multilayered TiAIN and AICrN film, replacing the ACZ350S for general steel applications. The new ACM300F is designed specifically for stainless steel work. The ACM300F boasts excellent fracture and welding resistance and has demonstrated a lifespan 1.5 times of conventional inserts in testing.   

The WCMT Insert new ACM250F stainless steel grade can be used for chamfering and spot drilling with the C-Cutter Mini or C-Centering Cutter. PVD-coated carbide with excellent smoothness, the new grade resists welding and chipping due to the ultra-multilayered thin film structure made of AlTiN and TiAlCrN. The ACM250F replaces the ACZ150 used with the C-Centering Cutter.

The DS20 for aluminum/nonferrous metals is available for the first time for the C-Centering Cutter. Its diamond-like DLC coating is ultrasmooth with a low wear coefficient and superior welding resistance, and effectively prevents burrs.

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