One of the issues that all the parts manufacturing companies face is the breaking of thread taps. When you break the thread taps you are not only losing money on replacing thread taps but you are also required to deal with the challenges in the removal of the broken tap material from the parts that you are manufacturing.
Tapping in most cases is one of the last steps in the manufacturing process. So if your metric thread taps or the other thread taps that you are using breaks while you are making the threads then there are chances that you damage the parts you are manufacturing in the process of removing the broken taps and the residual tap material. You may even end up scrapping the entire part because of these damages. This could lead to huge loss to the manufacturing units. Here are few tips on avoiding the frequent breaking of thread taps.
First, we need to admit that breaking of thread taps is not 100% avoidable but you can certainly reduce the chances of breaking your ACME thread taps by taking certain precautions.
Select your thread taps supplier regardless of whether you are using ACME thread taps metric thread taps with extreme care. If the quality of the thread taps that you are using is key to reducing the taps. This will help you bring down the breakage rate considerably.
Secondly, make sure that only experienced and well-trained technicians are engaged in the process of tapping the thread. One should know what exactly they are doing. Mistakes on the part of the technicians could prove to be very expensive.
Thirdly select the right hole size. Strike a balance between the thread strength and the thread percentage. Higher the thread percentage greater the chances of breaking the taps. By bringing down the thread percentages to 80% or 75% will help you reduce the tap breaking scenarios considerably without really experiencing any major difference to the strength of the threads.
Constantly wash the chips created by the taps. One of the most frequent causes of tap breaking is the taps getting caught in their own chip material. This sounds too simple but you would be surprised to learn how many taps are broken because of the oversights in this regard.
Never try to cut corners on tapping lubricants. Using the right tapping lubricant will help you get the best results and it will also reduce the chances of tap breaking considerably. It is therefore worth investing in the right tapping lubricant. You need to ensure that you have adequate supply of tapping lubricant so that you do not end up breaking the taps just because you have run out of the lubricant.
Despite taking all these measures, it is still possible for one to break the thread taps. You should make sure that you have enough supply of good quality thread taps in your tools room so that your work is not stalled for the want of thread taps.
