This year’s competition was particularly hot with impressive entrants pushing what was possible by applying exceptional skills to create complex tools that provide meaningful grinding benefits.
Turcar, a winner of the virtual tool category in 2020, takes home the #MadeonANCA and Most Innovative Tool categories this year, demonstrating their strength in both expert practical design and manufacturing of a cutting tool, and the imagination and skills to push the ANCA software to design a fighter jet.
Rauf Ötzürk, managing director of Turcar, said: “This competition has really been a defining experience for many people at Turcar. After last year’s success and learning experience, we really wanted to take a step further this time. We collected ideas from all over the company and received many ideas for both categories.
"We went through the stages that define our company’s philosophy: from creative ideas to design, process realization and – in case of #MadeonANCA – also production. We profit not only from the strong message in this contest, but also the joint learning experience. We will definitely be back to defend this victory.”
A very close second in the #MadeonANCA category was Fanar and third place went to ARCH Cutting Tools from a field of exceptional winners who demonstrated very good use of software and machines to produce functional tools with good surface finish, runout and grinding accuracy.
Pat Boland, ANCA Co-Founder commented: “The excitement at ANCA has been intense in the lead up to the winner announcement and I have enjoyed a fantastic feeling of pride when evaluating the entries. The aim of the award is to recognise the incredible creativity in our cutting tool industry that underpins all of manufacturing.”
“On the virtual tool the creativity, innovation and extending the use of ANCA CIM3D Turcar demonstrated was extraordinary. And on the physical tool, the complexity but also productivity through eliminating tool changes by combining operations makes a substantial reduction in cycle time for their customers. And with this tool they again pushed our software capabilities to the limit.”
Led by their creativity and imagination in the Most Innovative Tool category, Turcar were first again with a fighter jet; Japanese tool maker Kojima won second prize with a colourful Tokyo Sky Tree and Turkish company Rtech placed third for their simulated image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. All three managed impressive scalability of their tool without any drawings, instead letting their imagination create the works of art.
Ivan Cuscov, plant director at the renowned Italian tool manufacturer Cerin and longstanding ANCA customer, joined the panel of judges for good reasons: “ANCA is part of our own success since we bought the first machine in 1992! So, we knew that the possibilities ANCA is offering are a perfect base for creativity and innovation. Being a judge in this competition really was a rewarding and exciting experience. The ideas and skills applied were really overwhelming.”
Turcar - winner of ANCA Tool of the Year
Thomson Mathew, an ANCA expert and judge shared his thoughts on the winners: “Turcar was recognised for its fully functional tool with axial and radial cutting features to machine five independent operations. An exceptional tool design that can produce its part in a single setup on the machine.
"The latest iGrind software and its flexibility is clearly on display with 27 different operations, advanced iGrind functions, Tool balance, Profile editor and Ripper form relief generously used to create this well-balanced tool. It was also impressive to see that the tool is completely ground in two hours with exceptional runout and surface finish.”
“Fanar came a close second with an interestingly designed tool that combined an ultrasonic knife with a specially designed blade tip radius, spline cutter and double-sided chamfer. Again, Fanar applied the iGrind software with sophistication with multiple tool segments and use of tool offsets.”
“In third place was previous Tool of the Year winner ARCH Cutting Tools, whose multi-functional tool showed complexity with combinations of trepanning and threading. Of note was its thirteen operations used with two profile segments.”
Turcar - winner of ANCA Virtual Tool of the Year
Thomson continued, “Turcar was first in this category for their brilliant display of creativity by manipulating ANCA's iGrind tool grinding software and CIM 3D tool verification software. A total of 61 operations were used to simulate a fighter jet model, effective use of advanced functions with latest version ANCA iGrind software with combining different TOM files.”
“Japanese cutting tool maker Kojima had an exceptional entry that saw them come second for the use of the colour mapping function in the CIM 3D software that lit up the Tokyo Sky Tree. The iGrind software was also used to profile and ripper relief software to create this model.”
“Rtech, a Turkish cutting tool maker thoughtfully simulated the image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – the founding father of the Republic of Turkey. The end face was created using the profile and the notch software features.”
