Published 5/17/2011

Road Report: Greenleaf Announcement on Eve of EASTEC Opening

Cutting tool manufacturer Greenleaf Corporation shared important news about its Global Productivity Initiative and a new whisker-reinforced ceramic insert grade for high-temp alloys the evening before EASTEC opened in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

Mark Albert

Editor Emeritus, Modern Machine Shop

Bill Greenleaf seems to be a lot like the company he represents: He’s low-key, earnest and calmly competent. Greenleaf Corporation, which Bill’s grandfather founded in 1945, has likewise been a low-key, rather conservative player in the highly competitive cutting tool market, focusing primarily on high-performance carbide and ceramic inserts and advanced toolholding systems. The company rarely holds press conferences or flashy product introductions.

However, last night in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Bill, who is national sales and marketing manager, made a significant announcement about the family-owned company and its products at a dinner and presentation for the trade press. Highlights of the presentation include news of a Global Productivity Initiative that consists of a multi-year plan to roll out new carbide and ceramic cutting tool products, invest in enlarged production facilities, field a larger service team and expand international sales efforts.

Bill Greenleaf announces a new corporate initiative and a new insert grade at the press event.

Bill also announced that Greenleaf is introducing a new whisker-reinforced ceramic insert designed to machine high-strength alloys at speeds ranging to 1,000 sfm or faster. The new grade, designated WG-700, is said to benefit from an optimized whisker load, which improves its crack- and wear-resistant characteristics while increasing its overall strength. According to the company, the insert grade’s “Platinum” nano-layered coating provides low-friction machining in both wet and dry environments, high temperature stability, abrasion resistance, oxidation resistance and chemical inertness. The new grade is the first release under the Global Productivity Initiative.

At the event, Tim Neumann, Greenleaf’s manager of R&D, explained that the new grade features a novel microstructure of the single crystal silicon carbide within the substrate that creates extraordinary resistance to cracking, among other benefits. Dale Hill, applications engineer, presented several case histories that detailed remarkable productivity gains from using the new grade at double the feed rates and 40 percent higher cutting speeds applied to other silicon-whisker inserts doing the same work.

WG-700 is Greenleaf's new whisker-reinforced insert grade designed for machining high-strength alloys.

In his concluding remarks, Bill explained that the WG-700 grade has been released to selected customers for testing in applications primarily involving turning high-temperature alloys, with outstanding success. Milling applications, he said, are in the early stages of exploration but showing great promise. “The new grade will appeal to users who are really dedicated to squeezing out the most of their machine tool capability,” he said.