CHICAGO — ANCA is holding a competition for their customer to submit their best tool. With optical measurement provider Alicona as a member of the judging panel, finalists are being judged live at IMTS by state-of-the-start measurements of surface finish, profile and diameter of their tools.

To find the #ANCATooloftheYear, ANCA is holding a competition to celebrate the craft of tool making with customers invited to submit a photo of their favorite tool with the winners being judged and announced live at IMTS. The prize is a trip for two people to ANCA’s headquarters in Melbourne, Australia to see firsthand how the technology is created at ANCA and meet the team who are dedicated to finding even better solutions for our customer. The competition is open to all ANCA customers globally who can enter here: www.anca.com/tool-of-the-year-2018

Top finalists will have to undergo strict measurements and evaluation following criteria such as best surface finish (Ra values) and closeness to tolerance. With Alicona, ANCA has won a leading supplier of optical tool measurement to be part of the judging panel. Here, Alicona is the partner for surface roughness measurement.

Simon Richardson, MX Machine product manager at ANCA CNC Machines, said, “Alicona was chosen as a partner in the Tool of the Year competition due to their excellent metrology equipment for high accuracy measurement of surface finish on cutting tools. ANCA are a user of Alicona equipment and by using their technology we are confident in the quality of tools our machines produce. Essentially Alicona helps our customers succeed and that is what is most important to us.”

Today manufacturers face the increasing demand for tools with a superior surface finish. “As well as pleasing to the eye, it is recognized that highly polished flutes and gash surfaces improve chip evacuation and aid tool performance during machining. Polished flutes have a smoother surface and the swarf or chips can exit more freely from the flute. A smooth surface on the flute prevents chip packing and material build up," Richardson says. At ANCA, surface finish measurements are performed with Alicona, and measurements results show that tools with a surface finish roughness average lower than 0.2 Ra (8CLA) can be achieved.