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OSG had a ROARIN’ good time yesterday at the Brookfield Zoo 5k, Zoo Run Run, to benefit the Chicago Zoological Society’s Conservation Fund.  Twenty-one runners strong, this is the third 5K run/walk of the season for the OSG Runners Club.

Instituted over two years ago, the Runners Club has been growing in popularity among OSG employees with about 70 employees and their family members participating this year alone. This is the largest group since the club’s inception.

As part of the OSG Wellness Campaign, OSG covers the cost of registration for up to four running events per year. The group holds a meeting at the beginning of each year to choose which races to participate in, doing their best to include some local races, races that support a charitable cause and races that allow you to run or walk.

We have introduced our highly anticipated 2014 Cutting Tool Solutions Catalog in print and digital versions.

The latest catalog edition is 1200 pages and features new tap products including the EXOPRO^® CC-SUS, EXOPRO^® WHR-Ni and EXOTAP^® A-TAP^®, the EXOPRO^® PHX End Mills, and many expansions to existing quality lines such as the EXOCARB^® WXL^® and WXS^® premium performance carbide end mills, EXOPRO^® Mega Muscle and EXOCARB^® WDO^® Drills.

A notable addition to the catalog is the new Composites section that lists OSG's top tier of high performance tooling for CFRP and CFRP stacks.

The 2014 Cutting Tool Solutions Catalog can be accessed digitally here or you can request a free hard copy using the Literature Request Page.

Featured employee: Vicki Stevic

Title: Production Control Supervisor

Tenure with OSG: 19 years

If there’s one thing that Vicki’s tenure with OSG has taught her, it is that hard work and dedication do not go unnoticed.  But those things do not stop at the doors of OSG for Vicki. With her main focus being her three children and raising them to stay on the right track, she recognizes how much discipline and organization it requires to neglect neither work nor her family.

Vicki admits that her mom is her true hero, looking to her for inspiration. “She came to the United States at the age of 18 after marrying my father without any family of her own. She learned the language, raised two children and ran the household, always while working a full time job. She is an amazing woman, wife, grandmother, mother and friend.”

Although Vicki’s personal goal is to live a healthier life through food and exercise, her passion will always be her family.

David Whitmire, District Manager

There are many things that can hold job shops back, from tight tooling budgets to non-coolant through machines.  On a recent visit to a customer located in Overton, TX, the owner of a medium sized job shop had expressed a major concern regarding one of his drilling operations.  The OSG solution easily solved both these issues and more.

The customer was trying to drill a 7/16” diameter hole, 9” deep in alloy steel using a competitor’s high-speed steel drill, running at 525 RPM and a feed rate of 0.003 IPR. With that tool, at those parameters, they were pecking every 0.050” to get the chips out of the hole, which added considerable time to the process; it was taking approximately 22 to 25 minutes to drill just one hole.

Based on the cutting conditions and the trouble they were having with pecking, I knew that this was a great application for the OSG HELIOS^® Drill. OSG’s V-Series HELIOS^® drill is a high-speed, cobalt drill designed for deep-hole drilling. The unique design and patented technology of this drill gives it the ability to process deep holes without the use of internal coolant supply. State-of-the-art flute design improves chip evacuation, making it feasible to drill up to 20D without pecking. By utilizing OSG’s WXL^® coating, the V-Series HELIOS^® drill can handle a wide range of materials with up to three times greater wear resistance versus conventional coatings.

Featured employee: Meghan Zimmerman

Title: Marketing Assistant

Tenure with OSG: 2.5 years

Having been with OSG 2 ½ years now, Meghan has learned a great deal from her previous experience in customer service and her participation in continuous training classes offered by OSG.

But when Meghan is not exercising her mind at work, she enjoys small weekend getaways with her husband, especially anything involving the great outdoors.

From horseback riding to long walks and bike rides through the forest preserves of DuPage, Cook and Lake Counties, she delights in the fresh air and tranquility that comes from being one with nature.

“It’s our favorite hobby in the fall months as the leaves turn to brilliant colors of yellow, orange, red and purple.”

Meghan also enjoys drawing natural landscapes as well, finding it has a calming effect, but her other true passion is animals. With a unique infatuation for dogs, cows and horses, Meghan would one day love to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science.

OSG was featured on the cover of the August issue of MoldMaking Technology. National Corporate Product Manager, Roger Goble, provided the corresponding feature article on a new approach to machining deep 3D cavities and cores which dramatically reduces cycle time in comparison to traditional EDM methods.

Read the full article here*.

*This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of MoldMaking Technology. It is reproduced here with permission from the publisher.

Shane Soberg, District Manager

As you may already know, the aerospace industry is constantly evolving, which is why OSG has dedicated a tremendous amount of resource into the development of new technology for this industry. One such innovation is the EXOPRO® UVX-SUS End Mill, designed for maximum metal removal rates in stainless steel, titanium and high nickel alloys.

Unlike traditional geometry end mills that have a difficult time with harmonics and chip removal, the unique 4-flute variable helix design of this UVX end mill allows for chatter-free milling and facilitates excellent chip evacuation, leading to improved tool life.

Recently, one of my customers from Minneapolis, MN was running into some issues with a part they were machining. The 15-5 stainless aircraft part required a 4” long slot at 0.587” deep.  At the time, they were using a traditional 5/16” diameter, 4-flute TiAlN coated end mill from a competitor.  The end mill had a 0.015” corner radius, slotting at 0.0625” depth of cut per pass.  Running at 4,800 RPM with a feed rate of 10 IPM, they were getting 10 passes per part and producing 10,000 parts per year.  Cycle time was 5 minutes and tool life was only 14 parts per end mill, which were disappointing numbers and showed very little profit for the customer. 

I was confident we could reduce the number of passes and decrease cycle time using the EXOPRO® UVX-SUS End Mill, so I explained the benefits to the customer. Striving to improve their machining process, they gave us the green light to begin testing, so we ordered two 5/16” diameter UVX end mills with a 0.015” corner radius.

We changed the CNC program to take three depth of cut passes at 0.150” and one at 0.137”. After decreasing the speed from 4,800 RPM to 3,000 RPM and increasing the feed from 10 IPM to 25 IPM, we let the UVX end mill run its course, milling so quietly that the only sound we heard were the chips hitting the door on their Makino.

I followed up with a visit the next day to see the final results of the test and was greeted by smiles. The EXOPRO® UVX-SUS End Mill was not only able to reduce cycle time from 5 minutes down to 1 minute 47 seconds, but it also increased tool life from 14 parts per end mill to 64 parts per end mill, a more than 400% increase. Based on those numbers, this customer would see $38,000 per year in cost savings and $18,000 in tool cost reduction on just this part alone. The customer said it best, “Wow!”

Since then, they started to run the UVX end mills in other applications as well and have been able to reduce cycle times all around, allowing them to bring in new work, thus providing growth and expansion for the company as a whole.

Although part designs and materials continue to become more and more complex, especially in the aerospace industry, the goal to remain profitable will always remain, as will OSG’s pursuit to develop the innovative tooling to keep up; case-in-point, the EXOPRO® UVX-SUS End Mills.