No need to ‘tap out’ when it comes time for threading holes

Related Vendors

HASCO Hasenclever GmbH + Co KG

Ramada Acos

YG - 1 Deutschland GmbH

Tapping is performed inside of holes like drilling and reaming. However, the chip space of a tap is extremely limited compared to that of drills and reamers of same size because the thread part of a tap is hidden in the material to be cut while tapping. Even though the flute space of tap looks wide enough, the effective space for chip evacuation is quite narrow.

Unlike other cutting tools, the user cannot alter the speeds and feeds of taps independently for the purpose of obtaining the desired results because the feed rate of tap is decided by pitch per revolution. In turn, the revolution, i.e., cutting speed, depends on the workpiece material, condition and hardness.

Tapping Issues

There are several major issues to overcome when tapping. Unlike other cutting operations, users cannot change the amount of stock removal when tapping because the tap should remove materials in a pass, all of the volume of space in accordance with its standard. For instance, a standard size of M12 (x1.75) tap removes more stock than M12 x1.25 tap. When cutting a full thread profile, a tap enters into a prepared hole which is slightly larger than its end diameter. The tap then lands its first chamfer thread on work material, and goes into material cutting and leaves a specific amount of material for the succeeding chamfer threads to remove. As taps rotate and feed, the second chamfer thread enters the cut to remove material left by the first chamfer thread. The third chamfer thread enters the cut to remove the material left by the second chamfer thread, preparing the pathway for the first full thread which will remove only a small pyramid peak of material to finish the final thread profile. All the other threads along the length of thread – linearly and peripherally - play the pilot but do not cut. Basically, this is why the tapping is considered as a helical broaching.

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