Haimer and Melin Tool Sign Licensing Agreement

Recently the Melin Tool Company (Cleveland, OH), a U.S. cutting tool manufacturer, and Haimer GmbH (Hollenbach, Germany), a market leader in tool holding technology, signed a U.S. licensing agreement. Melin Tool now offers their end mills to the U.S. market with the Haimer Safe-Lock™System.

The unique Safe-Lock™ design in cutting tools and tool holders combines high precision shrink fit clamping with a positive form locking mechanism. This prevents round cutting tools from being rotated or completely pulled out from tool holders during heavy machining. The combination of a symmetrical locking tool design with high concentricity and excellent balance of this system results in a vibration-free machining process. This leads to more efficient metal removal rates, superior to that of conventional milling chucks or Weldon side-lock tool holders.

Melin Tool is headquartered in Cleveland, where it produces an array of high performance solid carbide tools, including end mills. Family owned and operated since 1940, the company began as one of the early manufacturers of end mills. Today they continue to be a leader in offering an ever-expanding product line of high quality end mills and other cutting tools such as countersinks, drills, thread mills, and other high performance and specialty tools. Melin Tool has been an innovator in the market for solid carbide end mills, particularly in respect to variable geometry mills and demanding aerospace applications. Their designs have led to end mills that significantly reduce vibrations during machining, thus enabling greater speeds and improved metal removal rates (MRR) as compared to other more conventional designs.

However, the increased MRR can lead to a potential pull-out of the cutting tool during aggressive machining due to higher helix angles and increased cutting forces. This fact has led the team at Melin to look for a solution that enables full realization for their tools potential cutting speeds. Their research, along with customer feedback, led Melin Tool to partner with the Safe-Lock system technology.

“We are very pleased to have entered into this agreement with the Melin Tool Company,” stated Brendt Holden, the president of Haimer USA, LLC (Villa Park, IL). “The variable flute geometries utilized by Melin in their end mills lend themselves perfectly to our Safe-Lock System. I am confident that their customer base will welcome this technology and its innate ability to increase their productivity on the shop floor.”

Since its launch in 2007, the Safe-Lock System has developed very successfully and excited many international customers. Last year alone, the growth was four times higher compared to previous years. This boom can be attributed to recognizing that the productivity increases resulting from the pull out protection is not restricted to typical aerospace applications, but the cost and time savings can also be used in any typical milling application.

www.haimer-usa.com