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Ultrasonic Technology Takes Tool Cutter beyond the Same Old Grind New agitation pre-cleaner helps remove more oil and dirt while shortening cycle time. Tru-Edge Cutting Tool Services designs and manufactures custom round cutting tools and provides regrinding and coating services for customers in the aerospace, automotive, medical, foodservice and mining industries, among others. Failure to remove oils and dirt from tooling prior to batch coating leads to contamination of an entire vessel of coating materials, but at Tru-Edge, a new agitation pre-cleaner is helping to remove more of the oils and dirt while signifi- cantly shortening the cycle time. This combination yields a short payback for this west-central Ohio manufacturer. Streamlining the Process Established in 1996 as a tool regrinding and reconditioning service, the company has expanded to provide turnkey engi- neering and tool designing solutions, custom and modified tool manufacturing, and a complete in-house coating system. The company grinds and refurbishes solid carbide, coolant- fed carbide, carbide-tipped, high-speed steel, and cobalt high-speed steel cutting tools. It services tooling for end mills, drills, taps, gun drills, reamers, port tools, multi-function tools, and modified and custom-manufactured tools. Whether manufacturing custom-designed cutting tools or re-sharpening existing ones, the process is dirty. Tooling gets covered with dirt, oils and shavings. Products that are headed for the coating process must have all of the oils and dirt removed prior to coating, or the stray dirt will contaminate the entire vessel of coating material. Since Tru-Edge coats with a variety of substances—many of them high-value materials—a contaminated batch can cost between $500 and $5,000. Uncoated products must also be cleaned before being shipped to customers, requiring the pre-cleaner and the finish cleaner to operate continuously throughout the day. While the company had been using a traditional ultra- sonic cleaner as a pre-cleaning step, this machine had limited success removing the penetrating oils. Most of the burden was on the heated vacuum ultrasonic cleaner. Seeking to make the task easier for this $80,000 piece of equipment—and its very expensive cleaning f luids— Tru-Edge Director of Manufacturing David Balster began researching options. "We looked for over a year at 15 to 20 different brands until we found an ultrasonic cleaner that was different," recalls Balster. He purchased a model Ultra 2400FA from Cincinnati-based UltraSonic LLC in August, 2015. "These PARTS CLEANING EDITED BY CHRIS FELIX SENIOR EDITOR The company manufactures custom round cutting tools and provides regrinding and coating. All oils and dirt must be removed prior to batch coating. 28 NOVEMBER 2016 — PFonline.com THE VOICE OF FINISHING 80 YEARS