IMC Group president outlines global cutting tool trends

So said IMC Group president Jacob Harpaz at a recent seminar held at IMC Group company TaeguTec's world headquarters in Daegu, South Korea as he gave an overview of global cutting tool trends . The global use of cutting tools is changing; not only by marketplace and industry sector, but also the use of tooling materials, he said. “Between 2000 and 2005, the global market for PCD usage has increased from $230 million to $460 million, prompted by the overwhelming growth in the automotive sector and the use of cast iron and hard ferrous materials in this industry. This growth is also reflected with CBN usage rising from $190 million to $380 million and PVD tooling now being responsible for 56 per cent of global cutting tool consumption as opposed to 20 per cent in 2000.” Reflecting upon this market growth, Mr Harpaz said: “Uncoated cutting tools are set to disappear as there is now no real need for them. Why do customers still use HSS? Carbide tooling used to be very brittle, but now with sub-micron carbide grades, the brittle nature is reduced and the increased productivity and speed leaves no need for HSS tooling. “Modern machine tools now operates at anything from 10,000 rpm to 70,000 rpm – this is far too fast for HSS to operate. The new generation of machine leaves no need for HSS. There are also new generations of coatings that can be PVD applied to maintain sharp edges on tooling – this leaves no excuses,” continues Mr Harpaz. Specifically on drilling, Mr Harpaz had this to say: “TaeguTec now has the best indexable drills on the market. With 25 per cent of the world cutting tool demand being for hole making, TaeguTec is in an excellent position. As an average, 36 per cent of processing time is consumed in hole making.” IMC Group growth in 2003, 2004 and 2005 has been 39, 32 and 43 per cent, respectively. The IMC Group declared an annual turnover of $1.2 billion in 2005; 6 per cent of turnover is invested in R&D and 10 per cent of employees are involved in the R&D process. "We are innovators of the highest level and this can be seen from our new products,” Mr Harpaz underlined. Indeed, TaeguTec announced the launch of over 20 new products for 2007 at the event - details to be made available soon.