Regrinding & Recoating
Regrinding is the process of resharpening a used carbide cutting tool to a like new condition. You may be more familiar with drill sharpening or regrinding but that is only one step in the process of reconditioning. Properly sharpening a carbide drill involves the four steps listed below:
Tool Identification:
Today there are a multitude of drill point designs, which creates myriad opportunities to misidentity a drill point. At ITG, we are highly trained on correctly identifying all major brands of drill points and the various coatings that are used.
Regrinding:
When carbide drills are resharpened, a new point is ground onto the end of the tool. At ITG, we take great care to assure that the new point meets the OEM standards. We also thorougly examine the tool for thermal cracks and other types of demage that may cause a field failure. If we find such damage we continue to grind until a quality point is achieved.
Edge Preparation:
Carbide drills generally do not perform very well if the cutting edges are left sharp. At ITG, we are highly trained on applying the right edge preparation to each drill. This may consist of a T-Land or a hone or both. We do whetever the OEM specifies or we can even modify the edge prep to improve performance.
Recoating:
Most high performance carbide drills have a PVD coating which increase their tool life. At ITG, we recoat nearly 95% of all the drills we receive.