Ceratizit: 3D-printing cutting tools enhances their capabilities

Additive manufacturing provides cutting tool designers greater design freedom. Images: Ceratizit

Additive manufacturing allows cutting tool designers to think in completely new ways, claims Ceratizit, a longtime manufacturer of cemented-carbide tools and an early adopter of 3D printing technology.

According to the company, 3D printing offers the following advantages over conventional toolmaking approaches:

• Allows shapes to be redesigned and optimized more quickly, which is helpful when altering a tool’s weight or size.

• Speeds production compared to traditional powder-metal shaping, because time-consuming steps such as CNC machining often can be eliminated.

• Reduces the time needed to test redesigned tools.

• Wastes less material.

A cemented-carbide cutting tool produced by a conventional technique.