HORN: New Six-Edged Inserts with New Grooving Depth

Six-Edged Inserts with New Grooving Depth

With the 66T grooving system, Horn is expanding its tool portfolio in the area of six-edged indexable inserts. With six cutting edges, the insert offers an attractive price per cutting edge. The maximum grooving depth is 9.5 mm (0.374″). This is around 4 mm (0.157″) more than the sister system, 64T. Depending on the application, Horn offers inserts with two geometries and a version without geometry. The available geometries ensure reliable chip removal during machining. The IG65 carbide grade is used for machining stainless materials and difficult-to-cut materials. For general steels, Horn recommends the EG55 carbide grade for the 66T system.

The available cutting widths are 2.5 mm (0.098″) and 3 mm (0.118″). The corner radius is 0.2 mm (0.008″). The 1A geometry is suitable for pure groove turning operations, while the DL geometry is suitable for longitudinal turning in addition to grooving. The DL geometry is therefore also available with a corner radius of 0.4 mm (0.016″). The effective chip control of the chip breaking geometries ensures high surface quality on the groove flanks and the straight main cutting edge produces a cleanly finished base. Designed as neutral grooving inserts, they can be clamped in square shanks with internal cooling on both the left and the right side. Holder dimensions are 20 x 20 mm (0.787 x 0.787″) and 25 x 25 mm (0.984 x 0.984″). A clamping screw fixes the grooving insert precisely and securely in the central insert seat. Horn also offers type 220 clamping cassettes for the modular holder system.

HORN at EMO Hannover 2025

HORN at EMO Hannover 2025 (Hall 5, Stand A32)

Since its inception in 1975, EMO has stood worldwide for innovation, internationality, inspiration and the future of metalworking. In 2025, the exhibition will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

As the world’s leading trade fair for production technology, EMO in Hanover offers a unique platform every two to four years under the motto “Innovate Manufacturing” to make international contacts, open up new business opportunities and gain a comprehensive overview of the industry’s worldwide offerings. The last event in 2023 attracted over 92,000 visitors from 140 countries and around 1,850 exhibitors to this industry highlight.

HORN will be showcasing pure machining on 580 square meters in Hanover. Four machines, four exciting components, a wide variety of tool solutions – live in action and cutting chips throughout the entire exhibition. The following will be on display: the DMU65mB from DMG, an Index G220, a Citizen L12 and a GROB G150. In addition, we will be displaying numerous exhibits and tool solutions and presenting our innovations for 2025.

Markus Horn, Managing Director of Paul Horn GmbH: “I am convinced that a visit to EMO will be worthwhile for our customers and interested parties – we will be presenting machining at the highest level. On the four machines, we will be demonstrating the topics of finishing, machining lead-free materials, aluminium machining with rotating PCD tools and technology components with ” ” numerous turning operations. Horn continues: “In my opinion, the best results are achieved through dialogue, and EMO offers the ideal platform for this. Visit us in Hall 5, Stand A32.”

New Mini System with Sintered I Geometry

In addition to live machining, Horn will be presenting numerous innovations. Among them is the Mini system with sintered chip breaker geometry, which was unveiled for the first time at the Horn Technology Days in May 2025. The sintered I-geometry is particularly aimed at machining materials with poor chip formation properties. It is suitable for copy turning, longitudinal turning, back turning and facing. Especially with shallow depths of cut in steel and stainless steels, the tool system with this geometry demonstrates its strengths in chip control. It leads to higher process stability and longer tool life. When developing the I-geometry, HORN also took into account the machining of lead-free materials. As these materials will pose a challenge in the future due to their inferior chip formation, the tool manufacturer offers inserts with small corner radii starting from 0.05 mm for small lateral infeeds. Corner radii from 0.05 mm to 0.2 mm are available from stock.

HORN: Technology Day 2025

Two open plants, Six Specialist Presentations and over 60 Exhibits:  HORN Technology Days 2025

From 14th to 16th May 2025, Paul Horn GmbH opened its doors for the ninth time to around 3,300 visitors from a total of 33 countries.

Mastering processes in theory and practice: Visitors were able to expand their knowledge during six specialist presentations combined with live machining. Topics included machining aluminium with PCD tools, machining small bores, grooving, parting off, form grooving and turn-milling as a solution for long-chipping materials. Those who wanted to delve even deeper were able to take part in moderated demonstrations in three live production areas. In addition, two presentations focused on Horn’s internal product configuration and the integration of AI. Visitors were able to see, test and experience these on-site.

From a pasta machine and a braking system for an intercity express train to the combustion chamber of an Ariane engine: throughout the production area, the tool manufacturer displayed over 60 impressive exhibits that had been machined using Horn tools. In all, 20 demo components were machined live on various machines. In addition to extensive freedom of movement around the open production facilities in the two plants at the Tübingen site, visitors were given an insight into the process from powder to the finished blank for an insert at a special exhibition organized by HORN Hartstoffe GmbH.

Two final presentations from the TransKI and MetaLearn projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) also took place as part of the Horn Technology Days. A total of 50 partner companies rounded off the event.

 

 

 

 

Markus Horn, Managing Director of Paul Horn GmbH, summarizes: “The Horn Technology Days 2025 were a complete success. The feedback from our guests not only confirmed this, but more than exceeded our expectations. We are already looking forward to 2027, when it will be time to welcome visitors again to the Horn Technology Days.”

Horn Technology Days is an Open House Event where customers from all over the world are invited to Tubingen to see for themselves what lies behind the scenes.  Please contact us if you would like to be a part of the next Technology Days. 

JBO: GFM Shark Thread Milling Cutters

JBO GFM Shark Thread Milling Cutters - Rotary Transfer Machine

Tool Life Tripled!

The turned parts manufacturer Schauerte machines threads in high-alloy, corrosion-resistant Cr-Ni steel much more economically with GFM Shark thread milling cutters from Johs. Boss GmbH & Co. KG, brand JBO.

Wilhelm Schauerte GmbH & Co. KG in Lennestadt employs 140 skilled workers to manufacture turned parts for the automotive industry, general mechanical and apparatus engineering and sanitary engineering. Among other things, tapered Whitworth pipe threads Rp ½″ (14 threads per inch) have to be inserted into components made from the corrosion-resistant, high-alloy steel X2CrNiMo17-12-2 (material no. 1.4404) over a thread length of around 15 mm. Rotary transfer machines produce these components in large series. In the past, the contract manufacturers in Lennestadt used thread milling cutters from different tool manufacturers to mill the threads. However, the tool life and tool life proved to be insufficient. After just under 12,000 threads, the tools were worn out and had to be replaced. This caused frequent downtimes of the highly productive rotary transfer machines.

Optimized Cutting Geometry

The contract manufacturers in Lennestadt now machine much better and more economically with GFM Shark thread milling cutters (D16x41xG14 IK) from JBO (Johs. Boss GmbH & Co. KG). The tools are held in TENDO Turn hydraulic clamping systems (Schunk). The threads are cooled and lubricated with oil during milling.

The cutting edge geometries of the GFM Shark thread milling cutters are carefully matched to hard, corrosion-resistant steel alloys and now ensure significantly longer tool life. The thread milling cutters machine around 30,000 threads at a cutting speed of Vc=100 m/min and a feed per tooth of fz=0.08 mm up to the wear limit. This means that they achieve almost three times the tool life. On the other hand, they reduce the possible cycle time, as they work more productively than the previously used threading tools.

GFM Shark Thread Milling Cutters
GFM Shark Thread Milling Cutters from JBO with specially optimized cutting edge geometries achieve three to six times the tool life. The picture shows a thread milling cutter with worn cutting edges.

Multiple Use

A special feature of the thread milling cutters from JBO ensures that the tools also optimize efficiency when milling threads in components made from high-alloy steels. They have a total usable cutting edge length of 41 mm. This means that they are only partially stressed when milling threads over 15 mm in length. They can therefore be shortened (halved) by around 20 mm (once the wear limit has been reached on the utilized part of the cutting edges). With the remaining part of the usable cutting edges, they then machine a further 30,000 threads until the wear limit is reached. This means that the production technicians at contract manufacturer Schauerte can use GFM Shark thread milling cutters from JBO for a total of 60,000 and sometimes even up to 80,000 threads on their rotary transfer machines. As specialists at Schauerte confirm, this is done reliably and with process security. With these six times the tool life – compared to conventional thread milling cutters in the past – the GFM Shark thread milling cutters from JBO prove that they can produce much more economically with high process reliability. The contract manufacturer in Lennestadt can now reduce its demand and procurement for thread milling cutters to around a third or even a sixth of the quantities previously required.

Please contact us for more information on JBO GFM Thread Milling Cutters for your applications.

HORN: CBN Tooling for High Surface Quality

High Surface Quality at High Speed

Nickel-based alloys, titanium, cobalt-chrome: Reliable machining of these problematic materials requires a high level of expertise on the part of the user. If the workpieces also require high surface quality, the use of specialized tools is essential. HORN addresses this need with a CBN tool system that is unique on the market. Geometries specially developed for finishing ensure high surface quality, tight tolerances and high process reliability when machining the material groups P, K and S. Moreover, HORN is pushing the boundaries of machining speed with this system.

In operation, the tools achieve speeds of 350 m/min (1,148 ft/min) when cutting Inconel and 300 m/min (984 ft/min) when cutting titanium alloys, for example. The tools produce surfaces with an almost mirror-like finish. The combination of cutting material, quality of the tool edge grinding, coating and coolant supply enables the high performance. The reliable process is enhanced by the linear wear behavior of the CBN cutting material. Wear rate is therefore predictable. The finishing system is available as standard in numerous HORN tool systems. In addition to various ISO inserts, HORN offers CBN inserts for the Supermini, Mini, 229 and 315 systems, as well as for the DTS milling system.

Please contact us for more information on CBN Tool Systems from Horn!