One man, one project, and a will to succeed: DC

Founded in the year 1940, while most other local Swiss companies of this period were concentrating their efforts into watch making, Daniel Charpilloz decided to pull away from this type of industry and to concentrate his efforts into specialist threading tools. This led to the product that established the DC name the “TAP”.

In spite of the premature death of the founder in 1955, the industrial adventure continued. DC became a limited company, but consciously retained its strong family roots.

In 1962 the factory grew to employ 90 employees, the latest state of the art machinery was added and DC continued to strengthen.

1990 marked the Golden Jubilee. To celebrate this fact and to support the continuation of growth, a new factory was built, which offered an additional 1500 square metres of workspace, and at the same time a new research and development department was added.

Over the last few years a complete renewal of the plant has occurred with conventional grinding machines being replaced by flexible high precision CNC machines, the result of this has not only improved the standard of the finished product but has increased our production capacity.

One of our latest innovations introduced in the year 2000 was solid carbide thread milling cutters. Although an indispensable tool in its own right, it was deemed as the perfect compliment to our current program, offering a solution to almost every type of cut thread application.

In addition to DC's large standard program DC has recognized the need to develop specific tools to operate on the latest generation of machining centres. For these applications higher performance and longer tool life are among the main demands.

DC also produces taps manufactured from HSSE-PM. This offers a range of tools suitable for tapping the most demanding of "exotic" materials like Titanium and Inconel.

DC has evolved over the years and has become arguably one of the leading forces in the field of THE THREADING TECHNOLOGY.

The DC precisely specified, repetitive and efficiently managed manufacturing methods provide your guarantee of a constant and repeating quality of all their products. In addition to a complete program of threading taps, threading dies, thread milling cutters and thread gauges, DC can also deal with all questions relating to special thread cutting tools.

The chart below shows the different available taps, drill/taps and thread milling cutters, depending on the material and application:

DC solid carbide thread milling cutters

Thread milling now enjoys an important part of thread cutting technology. Due to the constant development of CNC technology virtually all modern machines have this capability.

Current users have benefited from consultation between themselves and DC's distributor Machinery Canada, in order to select the correct tool for the application.

Technical help and the ability to write CNC programs for our customers has helped both DC and our customer, and the thread milling process gains new support.

The GF thread milling cutters are made for threads down to the bottom of the core hole, without a chamfer.

The GFM thread milling cutters are made for multiple threads with a wide range of diameters with the same pitch.

The GFS thread milling cutters are made for threads with simultaneous countersinking.

INOX - for tough materials

The use of Inox or stainless steels is still expanding. Many kitchen appliances and other household items are made of rust and resistant steel alloys.

Stainless steels are most commonly used in applications which must be resistant to steam, heat and corrosive fluids - therefore the components tend to be of high value. These components can be found in a wide variety of industries from medical to hydraulic, chemical, oil and petrochemical, as well as in the automotive, aerospace, watch-making, food and textile industry.

For this important application DC has developed a complete range of threading taps, type Z, for through and blind holes. This type of tap has a specific cutting geometry, which has been perfected for use in these tough materials which have a high percentage of elongation (elasticity). This type of tap therefore ensures success when tapping this valuable material.

Thanks to their mechanical characteristics stainless steels are very suitable for thread forming. For further information about this application please ask for the specific technical brochure "FN Thread Formers".

The S taps are the optimal solution for tapping in special materials, high alloy steels, hardened steels, ferritic and martensitic stainless steels, nickel alloys, tensile strength > 850 - < 1150 N/mm2, as well as in various micro-grain steels.

The new generation of performance class S tools offer a totally new cutting geometry and a tool wear protective surface "VS", specially developed for specific working conditions and machining centres and CNC machines using standard emulsion type coolants. They are conceived for supporting cutting speeds adapted to new working methods.

The H taps are the optimal solution for tapping materials with a high tensile strength (approximately 850 N/mm2 to maximum 1400 N/mm2) at low elongation. These materials generally produce short to medium length cutting chips.

H320 / H420 for through holes

We recommend these taps with titanium carbonitride coating (TiCN) for increased performance. Class "H" taps with TiCN coating are available as standard in M and on request in the other types:

H320TC / H420TC for through holes

Under economical pressure the production time must be permanently optimized. It is the main target to produce faster and with the highest process control. For controlling the manufacturing processes the reliability of the threading process often depends on the swarf evacuation. Therefore the thread forming is an economical and safe alternative.

This swarf free working method was principally used in the sheet metal industry for creating threads in large batches. Today this method of tapping is becoming very popular, mainly thanks to the improvement in tool coatings.

The range of application covers all steels with a minimum of 10% elongation and a tensile strength of up to 1150 N/mm2 (steels, stainless steels), as well as non-ferrous metals with a good ductile feature (pure titanium, aluminum, copper, long chipping brass etc.).

Advantages:

* removal of swarf is eliminated

* incomplete thread profile and deformation of material structure

* for conventional thread ~ cutting tap, open form

Requirements:

* accurate and concentric core hole diameter

The aerospace and aeronautical industries have been the main users of exotic materials. However, many other industries have adopted these materials for use in their own fields. Motor racing, medical, pump & valve and the gas turbine industry now commonly use these materials.

DC Swiss has developed a new range of standard taps to perform in these exotic materials:

SA320-4 ~ SA420-4 AERO