Poor chip breaking, severe workpiece deformation and low processing efficiency?! Achteck Tools brings breakthrough solutions for cutting hard-to-machine materials to Hohhot.
China's aerospace manufacturing industry is accelerating its advancement toward high performance, lightweight design and high reliability. Typical components such as aero-engine turbine disks, casings and blades are extensively made of superalloys and titanium alloys, while core parts including solid rocket motor shells and nozzles widely adopt ultra-high-strength steel and carbon fiber reinforced composites. The machining of these difficult-to-cut materials has long been a technically challenging frontier in the machinery manufacturing sector.
As a dedicated player in the field of difficult-to-cut material machining, ACHTECK Tools was invited to the Advanced Manufacturing & Equipment Upgrade Technology Sharing Session – MICA 2026 Aerospace Machining Technology Innovation Forum held in Hohhot from July 24 to 25. The forum gathered over 150 technical experts and key personnel from core entities including the China Aerospace Science and Industry Power Technology Research Institute and its subordinate Institutes 41, 46, 601, as well as Factories 359 and 389, serving as a high-level technical exchange event in the aerospace manufacturing field. At the forum, Xiong Qinghua, Aerospace Industry Manager of ACHTECK Tools, delivered a keynote speech, systematically sharing high-efficiency cutting solutions and practical cases for typical aerospace component machining.
Deep Dive into Difficult-to-Cut Materials: Full Range of Aerospace Solutions Unveiled
In the speech, ACHTECK Tools highlighted its complete solutions covering various typical aerospace components:
🔺APM00 Series Round Inserts
🔺AHM10 Series High-Feed Milling Cutters
Starting with milling operations. For 5-axis contour milling of complex profiles such as aerospace structural parts, the APM00 series round insert profile milling cutters deliver stable performance. Paired with the AP403S grade, they achieve a balance of high feed rate and cutting stability when machining difficult-to-cut materials.
For high-efficiency roughing of turbine disk and casing cavities, the AHM10 series high-feed milling cutters feature a variable entering angle design that adjusts with cutting depth, effectively reducing cutting resistance while boosting metal removal rate.
🔺 D151 Series Solid Carbide Through-Coolant Drills
Moving to drilling operations. The D151 series solid carbide through-coolant drills adopt a composite nano-coating, combining excellent wear resistance and high toughness, and deliver reliable performance in deep hole machining such as engine main cylinder bores and mounting seat holes.
🔺 Turning Products
🔺 Grooving Tools
For turning and grooving operations, the full range of ISO turning products provides a wide selection of chip breakers for outer diameter, face and inner diameter machining of turbine disks, casings and shaft parts. Outer diameter grooving tools, face grooving tools and high-pressure through-coolant design readily handle various grooving scenarios, including special-shaped face grooves for aircraft engine ring components.
🔺Disc-Shaft Machining Tools 🔺Disc-Ring Cutting Tools 🔺Special-Shaped End Face Grooves of Aeroengine Ring Parts
In addition, ACHTECK Tools provides custom non-standard tooling solutions tailored to customer requirements, covering self-developed interfaces, high-rigidity design and high repeatable mounting accuracy.
Arowana Series AP130S Grooving Tool for Difficult-to-Cut Materials Becomes Highlight
Grooving tools for difficult-to-cut materials have long been dominated by imported brands. The Arowana series AP130S grooving tool grade for difficult-to-cut materials injects new domestic strength into this field, and was one of the core highlights of the forum speech.
Specially designed for parting, grooving, turn-grooving and profile machining of superalloys, titanium alloys and stainless steels, it addresses key industry pain points with three core technological breakthroughs:
Substrate material: The self-developed substrate strengthening process enhances the bonding strength between tungsten carbide and cobalt, significantly improving the tool's resistance to thermal fatigue and chipping during superalloy machining, and extending tool service life.
Coating technology: Adopting coating technology specially developed for difficult-to-cut materials, combined with self-developed coating toughening process, it greatly improves coating adhesion and peeling resistance. The new nanostructured coating is dense and smooth, effectively blocking cutting heat conduction.
Structural design: Multiple groove geometries are available, including CS/CM (parting & grooving), TS/GS (turn-grooving) and RM/RS (profile grooving), to meet diverse working condition requirements. The newly added RS geometry features a sharp cutting edge and low cutting force, delivering excellent chip control performance in finishing to semi-finishing operations.
Booth Exhibition & On-Site Technical Exchange: Addressing Frontline Needs of Aerospace Manufacturing
In the forum exhibition area, the ACHTECK Tools booth attracted wide attention. A full lineup of representative cutting tools and typical aerospace machined samples were neatly displayed, drawing numerous industry technical experts to stop and observe. Focusing on core pain points in frontline production, such as chip breaking control in turning ultra-high-strength steel shells and efficiency improvement in superalloy grooving, the ACHTECK technical team held in-depth discussions with experts, and multiple domestic tool solutions received high recognition.
On the afternoon of July 25, the ACHTECK Tools team was also invited to visit the customer site – Factory 359 (Inner Mongolia Aerospace Honggang Machinery Co., Ltd.). Founded in 1965, it is one of China's earliest entities engaged in the development and manufacturing of solid rocket motors, with complete manufacturing capabilities including machining, welding, spinning and special processing.
During the thematic group discussions, technical personnel from Factory 359 raised multiple pain points in actual machining, to which the ACHTECK team responded one by one, sharing successful experience based on similar cases from other aerospace customers. Through face-to-face in-depth communication, we gained a deeper understanding of the practical needs of frontline aerospace manufacturing, laying a foundation for targeted services and in-depth cooperation in the future.
One-Stop Service: From Process Optimization to Unit Cost Control
The core advantage of ACHTECK Tools lies not only in the tool products themselves, but also in its full-chain technical service capabilities.
Taking a low-pressure turbine disk as an example: the component is made of GH4169 superalloy with a blank diameter of Ø630 mm. Based on the part drawings and machine tool & fixture conditions, ACHTECK engineers designed a complete machining process route, providing an integrated solution including the Arowana series AP130S grooving tool for difficult-to-cut materials, AP100S/AP010S turning inserts, D151 drills, M150 solid carbide milling cutters and non-standard cutter bodies, and participated in the entire first-article machining process. Ultimately, the machining time was reduced from 45 hours to 37.5 hours, representing a 20% efficiency improvement.
This is the foundation of ACHTECK Tools' commitment to becoming an "expert in difficult-to-cut material machining": we provide full-process technical support, from part drawing analysis and machine tool & fixture evaluation, to tool solution design and machining process planning, as well as cycle time calculation and unit cost accounting.
Looking ahead, ACHTECK Tools will continue to deepen its presence in the high-end aerospace manufacturing sector. With innovative coating technology, precision tool design and systematic machining solutions, we will support customers in overcoming more machining challenges and contribute to the localization of critical cutting tools.
