ANCA Tool of the Year Award 2019 celebrates the knowledge and imagination of cutting tool craftsmen, creating tools with the perfect geometry, profile, and finish that shape and build the world.
ANCA’s industry-first competition is back, with the 2019 winner to be announced live at EMO, Germany, September 16-21. Last year, the industry welcomed the opportunity to show off its skills with almost 30 entries received from across the world being seen by more than 122,000 fans generating 3,000 comments and reactions on social media.
Pat Boland, ANCA co-founder, said, “I have great respect for our customers’ knowledge in designing and grinding quality cutting tools. Their skills drive our industry forward and most of ANCA’s new technology is born from a customer’s need to achieve something new.”
“We should celebrate the collective acumen of our industry and showcase the fantastic work that is conducted every day to build our world. I encourage all cutting tool makers to enter our competition and show off your talents,” he said.
The cutting tool industry has cultivated and refined its craft over the years to design beautiful tools, applying science to achieve a sub-micron surface finish and superior cutting performance. With 2,200 exhibitors and 130,000 visitors, EMO remains a key event in the cutting tool makers calendar and is the perfect opportunity to showcase the legends who are creating superior cutting tools.
Ralph van Hoorn, managing director at Van Hoorn Carbide and first-time judge, said, “Technology is moving forward faster than ever, demanding more and more of the tool grinders of today. Designing and grinding these great products demands for a combination of great ideas combined with technical knowhow and top-class machinery. Thanks to ANCA and their customers, revolutionary new ideas have come to practice making our technology move forward.”
ANCA will also launch the ToolRoom RN34 software package at Hall 6, Booth J35. ToolRoom plays a crucial role in enabling tool grinders to design and execute high-quality cutting tools. Specializing in complex cutting tool geometries for the aerospace, die mould, and power generation industry, the latest package can design and manufacture complex tool geometries as well as balance them for optimal cutting conditions. New is the endmill cycles for ballnose and corner radius, tool balancing, and next-generation fluting cycles.
“All finalists from last year were of a very high standard and demonstrated a deep understanding for tool geometry as well as taking full use of ANCA’s software. We congratulate the winner, Contour360, and other finalists Daily Grind Industrial Tool, Acu Twist, Miltera, SAN Engineering, and Kazimieruk for their efforts,” ANCA’s Boland said.
Charles R. Day, vice president and general manager at Contour360 and winner of 2018’s competition said, “In the two years I’ve been with the Contour360° organization, I have told everybody who would listen (and even some who wouldn’t) how over-the-top this company’s toolmaking ability is! Steve Hutchins and Mario Ercolani are responsible for the submission and two of the most talented and capable toolmakers I have ever met. And they represent an entire organization of others just like them.”
To find the Tool of the Year, ANCA will hold a competition for customers to submit their favorite tool with the winners judged and announced live at EMO. The prize is a trip for two to ANCA headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, to see firsthand how the technology is created at ANCA and meet the team who are dedicated to finding even better solutions for our customers. The winner also receives a copy of the latest ToolRoom RN34 software release.
The competition will be based on the passion and the craft of tool making and celebrate the highly skilled tool grinding community.
Judging panel:
- Pat Boland, co-founder and managing director at ANCA.
- Ralph Van Hoorn, managing director at Van Hoorn Carbide.
- Thomson Mathew, product manager at ANCA.
- Alicona – measurement of surface finish.
- Zoller – measure profile and diameter .
At EMO, the top five tools will be judged on the following criteria:
Best surface finish in Ra (roughness average) value on the flute or gash surface.
The tool that is closest to the nominal tolerance as stated on the drawing in terms of diameter and profile (i.e. if the tolerance on diameter is +/- 0.010mm and the tool is measured to 0.005 then this will rank favorably).
Tool that has been ground to the tightest tolerance as per the drawing (i.e. the tool with the lowest tolerance will rank favorably).
Level of complexity (i.e. in terms of the number of steps, profiles will rank favorably).
MORE INFO machines.anca.com/Tool-Of-The-Year
