Chamfering made E-Z
The Bordo E-Z Chamfer represents two years of development work to create a truly innovative product.
The new Bordo chamfering tool, E-Z Chamfer, hit the market late last year and the company has seen huge demand for this unique product. As Cameron Brown from Bordo explained, the reason for E-Z Chamfer’s popularity is that it answered an unmet need in the market. Before E-Z Chamfer, how did people chamfer the end of some threaded rod they had just cut to length? How did they chamfer the end of a rusty bolt they needed to screw a nut on to? How did they chamfer a dowel, some rebar or a section of pipe?
The short answer is ‘not very satisfactorily’. Generally, people used a hand file or grinding disc, which was time-consuming and left an uneven edge. True innovation is about simplification and about finding solutions to problems most people in the market haven’t even identified as needing solving. But a unique new product doesn’t come together overnight. E-Z Chamfer represents two years of development work and plenty of trial and error to get the product just right. Head of engineering development at Bordo, John Lojko, said that getting the cutting rakes correct was critical as E-Z Chamfer needed to be suitable for a wide variety of materials. Bordo consulted widely with end users during the design process. They were unanimous in saying they required a tool that was not just capable of chamfering mild steel, wood and plastics, but also very hard materials, in particular Grade 12.9 super hard bolts. A critical component of the solution was to manufacture E-Z Chamfer from M2 High Speed Steel, the same material Bordo Quicksilver and Delta Point drill bits are manufactured from. And by machining the cutting slots into a pentagon-shaped cone, Bordo was able to create five cutting chamfering slots to increase cutting efficiency and tool life. While advertised as chamfering products up to 18mm, in fact, by using a circular motion, E-Z Chamfer will chamfer round products up to 24mm. To see E-Z Chamfer in action go to: www.bordo.com.au/videos/ezchamfer
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