Flowdrill - thermal drilling
Already in 1923, Jean Claude de Valliere tried to develop a tool in a small barn in France that could drill into thin steel sheets using frictional heat instead of conventional drilling.
However, after 60 years, problems with the use of the flow drill (inaccurate tooling, more durable tools, complex manufacturing of complex tool edges, etc.) were successfully resolved.
Flow drills are polygonal ground carbide tools. Pressed onto a thin-walled metal workpiece with relatively high speed and force, the frictional heat produced is well moldable, so that the flow drill can be passed through the material. This creates a hole or a hole. a flowable sleeve of material which is mainly discharged from below. The thickness of this sleeve is three to five times the original thickness.
Flow-drilling or thermal-drilling technology allows the production of high-strength threaded holes for sheets and thin-walled pipes without the need for material addition or removal.
The procedure has long been used successfully.
From the autumn of 2019 SáriMetal Ltd.