“Investing to enhance our microhole drilling capabilities continues to pay dividends for our customers seeking cost-effective solutions to their small hole challenges,” according to Stark Industrial LLC vice president Sam Wilkof.
Stark Industrial LLC has been machining parts for just over 50 years, but it is its expertise in the “hot” market for microhole drilling that is drawing attention. Microholes are the exceptionally narrow diameter cuts required in a wide range of materials, for component parts supplied to some of the most demanding customer segments. These include vents, welding nozzles, ink-jet nozzles, catheters, gauze, sieves, fuel-injection nozzles, airfoils, bearings, and gas analysis equipment. Stark Industrial says now that its decision to invest in the best available microhole drilling technology, and in training its technicians to carry out the process effectively, has paid off.
The North Canton, Ohio shop specializes in electrical discharge machining (EDM), which is its critical advantage in cost-effective microhole drilling. EDM uses electrodes and dielectric fluid to coordinate precision-controlled electrical discharges, which generates a reaction with the material being machined, and carefully removes the material to create the desired finished shape.
Stark Industrial operates five EDM systems, and uses them to produce precision parts for customers in aerospace, automotive, medical, and power generation markets, among others. The programmable systems allow the operators to drill multiple holes in one automated set-up, for process efficiency as well as precision.
All of the shop’s EDM operators are certified in microhole drilling, too, and the combination of advanced engineering and well-trained, experienced technicians results in consistent, precision microhole drilling to the tightest of tolerances.
“Investing to enhance our microhole drilling capabilities continues to pay dividends for our customers seeking cost-effective solutions to their small hole challenges,” states Stark Industrial LLC vice president Sam Wilkof. “This is vital as we fulfill our ‘precision delivered’ pledge on each and every job.”
Stark Industrial produces precision parts for aerospace, automotive, medical, and power generation customers, using programmable EDM systems that allow the operators to drill multiple holes in one set-up.
Applications requiring hard metals and deep depths are no problem for Stark Industrial’s EDM team, and the company develops microhole drilling programs for a wide range of metals, from alloy steels to more “exotic” metals and non-metallic material that may be uncommon for microhole drilling.
Understanding how various metals will react to the technology is a critical aspect of expertise in EDM microhole drilling, according to Wilkof. “Whether we are working with challenging geometries or achieving deep depths, our team understands materials and how they react during EDM hole drilling,” he states. “We believe this gives Stark Industrial an advantage over the others.”
