BlueSwarf Customer Support Center

For a number of years, we worked on developing an online configurator for tooling. It had a very complex set of rules and constraints that ensured that the right combination of tool, insert and toolholder was selected for a specific application. It worked great but the problem was we were asking the wrong questions.



The best tool for an application, as selected by the configurator, may not be available.
For example if a tool assembly was made up of five components (inserts would count as one) from three different suppliers and each supplier had a 97% order fill rate, there would be 45% chance that one of the components would be backordered rendering the entire assembly unusable or requiring a substitution or waiting for a backorder. So, the reality is that customers often have to use what they can get, not necessarily what they want, what originally ordered or what is the best possible combination.

The best configured tool may not perform the best in a specific application.
Our configurator used what is called a "parametric search". That is, it was able to search multiple specifications such as tool diameter, number of flutes, cutting length, etc. But as this interactive demonstration shows, the dimensionally proper tool may not perform the best in a specific application.

That brings us to what we now call "dynamic search". Tool assemblies are selected on the basis of their predicted performance, rather than only their dimensions, for a particular application. When a part is being processed, the programmer searches the available tool assemblies for a machine by the function (square end, ball end, bull end, 90, 15 or 45 degree lead), the workpiece material and the tool diameter. Referencing the Dashboard and CAD file, they can find which tool assembly will yield the best performance. Not only that, they will know exactly what speeds, feeds and cutting depths to use from the Dashboard.