Chip control redefined
“Laser machining is not an end in itself – it’s a question of benefit”

Source: Simtek 4 min Reading Time

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Laser machining opens new design freedoms for chip control and process stability. Simtek’s Norbert Seifermann explains where it makes sense, where it doesn’t, and how customers benefit from smarter geometries.

Thread turning with a laser-machined chip-breaker geometry produces chips that can be guided out of the machining zone in a controlled manner while maintaining the same cutting parameters.(Source:  Simtek)
Thread turning with a laser-machined chip-breaker geometry produces chips that can be guided out of the machining zone in a controlled manner while maintaining the same cutting parameters.
(Source: Simtek)

Since the Swabian tool manufacturer Simtek presented its first laser-machined chip-breaker geometries for carbide tools at AMB 2024, demand has risen significantly. Many customers now order laser-machined geometries for their special tools. The advantages are obvious: optimal chip control and high process reliability in chip formation, combined with improved cutting performance. In many cases, several machining steps can even be integrated into a single geometry, making entire tools unnecessary. But when is the additional design effort actually worthwhile? We discussed this with Norbert Seifermann, Board Member of Simtek.

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Mr. Seifermann, laser-machined chip-breaker geometries have now become firmly established at Simtek. What triggered this development?