With a name meaning “I cut” in Latin, gear manufacturers know they’ve come to the right place when purchasing their cutting tools for milling, turning, and holemaking from Seco. A global entity with gear excellence centers in Italy and France, Seco Tools entered the North-American market with its purchase of Carboloy in 1987, spending the intervening years launching new cutting tools designed to help its customers increase production and realize their true manufacturing potential.
“Carboloy was such a well-known name here in the States that it took us about 10 years to transition to Seco Tools, which was finalized in 2006,” according to Todd Miller, milling product manager. “But what we brought to the table was a global perspective and presence that assured customers that no matter where they were working, whether that be in India or the United States, they could depend on Seco to be there to help them overcome the challenges they encounter in the manufacturing environment. We’ve been involved in gear manufacturing for more than 20 years overseas, in fact, so we wanted to offer that expertise to our customers throughout North America.”
As an indexable tooling company, Seco has traditionally focused on milling, turning, and drilling, but the specialized nature of the high-precision gears being produced these days have opened the door for targeted solutions. “All gear teeth are different, when you think about it, and each profile needs a special cutter to achieve near-net shape, so that’s where we come in,” he says. “We’ve designed specialized cutting tools that are helping gear manufacturers reduce costs and improve productivity, and we’re continuing to launch new products as we learn more about our client’s specific needs.”
In addition to proprietary designs, Seco’s benefits include carbide grades and coatings that prolong tool life, and it advocates indexable tooling to those working with high-speed steels and powder metal who haven’t yet embraced the technology. Seco has also introduced indexable hobbing, allowing one if its customers to reduce the time it takes to generate a particular gear from 525 to 25 minutes. Seco also helps gear manufacturers and others match their machines to their tooling in order to ensure maximum productivity and efficiency.
Increased competition, shrinking profit margins, and a depressed economy have led companies to express interest in new technologies that will allow them to improve their products and processes. Smart manufacturers are embracing innovation and doing all they can to streamline operations, partnering with suppliers who are taking a cohesive approach to serving their needs. Seco Tools excels in this area, learning all they can about a customer’s particular application, which is reflected in a constant flow of new product offerings. “No matter what type of business our customers are involved in, it’s our philosophy to partner with them and work together, showing them our latest technologies and discussing process improvements we can help them to achieve,” Miller says, adding that its target markets include power generation, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, medical, and transportation, among others. “That personal approach is just one of the things that differentiates us from the competition.”
Another is the company’s attention to supply chain issues, with its distributors and representatives in more than 45 countries positioned to assist customers in this area, and also its devotion to continued education, providing training seminars both in-house and at its customers’ facilities at no charge. “We’ve heard so many manufacturers describe how difficult it is to find experienced employees,” Miller says, “so we can help by providing even entry level workers with the knowledge they require to get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
He goes on to explain that the companies that are thriving and growing are the ones looking at newer technologies and training their workers to use them so they can increase production and work more efficiently with higher-quality results. “Seco Tools is here to help them achieve all of that, and more.”
MORE INFO Call 248-528-5200, e-mail secotools.us@secotools.com, or go online to www.secotools.com/us.
