THE MICROTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION PORTAL / THE TRADE SHOW
14.05.2025
A - Machines
The future of the cutting tool industry
As ANCA celebrates 50 years of advancing tool manufacturing technology, Edmund Boland, General Manager of ANCA CNC Machines, (Bayswater North, Australia), looks ahead 5 to 10 years.
The old story about the factory of the future being populated by one human and a dog—the human’s role limited to feeding the dog, while the dog is charged keeping the person away from the machinery—will be close to reality for tool grinding.
At a minimum, said Boland, the entire production process will be linked digitally, “from the intake of the raw material, to palletizing, laser etching, and blank preparation…to the tool and cutter grinding, edge prep, coating, and right through to shipping the finished goods.” So, for example, when a particular job transitions from OD prep to the 5-axis grinders, the machines will automatically call up the correct program to finish grind the tools. Everything will also be linked to a company’s ERP and MES system, providing “very good data analytics, to help make the right decisions and improve your processes.”
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