Mastering high-volume hole making
Overcoming common drilling pain points with CoroDrill® DE10
High-volume drilling requires precision, efficiency and reliability to meet demanding production schedules and maintain cost-effectiveness. For manufacturers, these requirements often pose challenges, such as ensuring tool longevity, achieving consistent hole quality and minimizing downtime. So, what’s required to achieve more efficient hole drilling in an increasingly competitive environment? Here, Mikael Carlsson, Global Product Specialist for Indexable Rotating Tools at Sandvik Coromant, explains how a new drilling innovation could reinvent high volume hole making.
Several shifts in manufacturing trends are increasing the demand for high volume drilling. Producing electric vehicles (EVs), for example, requires drilling thousands of precise holes in battery enclosures and thermal management systems, intensifying the need for reliable, scalable solutions. Similarly, renewable energy sectors, such as wind and solar power, rely on high-volume drilling for producing key components like wind turbine shafts and solar mounting systems, where accuracy and durability are paramount.
In industries where efficiency and reliability are non-negotiable, finding solutions that balance these demands is critical.
Drilling down the challenges
High-volume hole making often reveals challenges that can be underestimated, even by experienced manufacturers. Many already recognize the critical importance of tool wear and cycle times, but it is the hidden complexities of high-speed and high-penetration operations that can profoundly impact productivity and operational efficiency.
Take, for example, thermal and mechanical stresses encountered during the drilling of thousands of holes — especially in typically more challenging materials like hard steels and heat resistant super alloys. These forces can lead to accelerated tool fatigue, burr formation or even deformation of the workpiece.
Such challenges go beyond tool durability. They involve understanding the interplay between the tool's geometry, coatings and material composition with the specific characteristics of the workpiece. Effective heat dissipation, resistance to microfractures and the ability to maintain edge sharpness over prolonged use are all crucial factors for ensuring consistent quality across extended production runs.
Another consideration is the cost impact of seemingly minor inefficiencies, such as setup or tip changes. In large-scale operations, for instance, even a small amount of downtime per shift — whether due to recalibrating machines for a new tool or replacing worn-out tips — can accumulate into substantial productivity losses. These inefficiencies highlight the importance of streamlined solutions, such as systems designed for quick setup, precise alignment and easy tool changes.
Additionally, eliminating unnecessary steps in the drilling process can drive significant time and cost savings. For example, tools that remove the need for pilot holes or pre-setting equipment can drastically reduce cycle times and minimize the reliance on operator intervention, thereby increasing overall process stability and throughput.
Addressing these pain points with thoughtful planning and optimized tooling strategies is essential for manufacturers striving to meet the demands of high-volume production without compromising on quality or efficiency.
A streamlined approach
Introduced by Sandvik Coromant in March 2025, CoroDrill® DE10, an advanced exchangeable-tip drill designed for high-volume hole drilling, aims to address these drilling challenges.
CoroDrill® DE10 is shown to boost productivity while streamlining operations, due to its advanced -M5 tip geometry. This innovative design achieves an ideal balance between high feed rates and precise penetration, enabling the tool to deliver exceptional performance across diverse materials. From steel alloys to stainless materials, CoroDrill® DE10 can ensure consistent hole quality while also minimizing the risks of burr formation or workpiece deformation.
A crucial feature of CoroDrill® DE10 is a patented pre-tension clamping interface, which combines familiar design with enhanced security. The interface enables fast and easy tip changes without spare parts, ensures reliable drilling at high feeds and speeds, delivers superior clamping strength and achieves straighter holes with tighter tolerances. It also extends drill body life, making CoroDrill® DE10 the most robust exchangeable-tip drill of its kind.
Furthermore, CoroDrill® DE10 also eliminates the need for pilot holes to further streamline workflows and reduce cycle times and inventory complexity. Its robust design supports extended tool life, with more tips per tool body, which ultimately drives down the cost per hole.
As a plug-and-play solution, CoroDrill® DE10 integrates effortlessly into existing setups, making it a practical upgrade for manufacturers looking to enhance productivity without overhauling their systems. It also integrates seamlessly with digital machining systems through Sandvik Coromant's CoroPlus® platform. This compatibility provides operators with precise cutting data and real-time performance insights, so parameter settings can be optimized and tailored to specific materials and applications.
Operational and cost-saving benefits
Several success cases have highlighted how CoroDrill® DE10 drastically improves productivity in high volume drilling. In testing conducted in Italy, CoroDrill® DE10 demonstrated significant performance advantages over a competing tool while drilling AISI316L stainless steel.
The case involved 52 mm through and blind holes, using emulsion coolant at 70 bar. CoroDrill® DE10 achieved a remarkable 57% increase in productivity and 43% longer tool life compared to its competitor. The tool also delivered excellent hole surface quality, consistent chip control and sound-level performance aligned with expectations.
The tool’s robust design and advanced -M5 tip geometry ensured reliability and repeatability — and both were key factors for the high-value components in this application. With a higher feed rate, extended tool life and reduced need for downtime, CoroDrill® DE10 proved to be a cost-effective, efficient and sustainable solution for high-volume drilling in challenging materials.
In another case, an automotive manufacturer faced issues with high cutting forces deforming its drill bodies, specifically while machining gearbox housing components from 47CrMo4 alloyed steel. This issue led to tool failures and increased costs. Instead, switching to CoroDrill® DE10 resolved these challenges.
Using a feed rate of 0.35 mm/rev at a depth of cut of 2.5 times the drill diameter, the tool delivered a 17% productivity boost. As in other applications, CoroDrill® DE10's robust design and patented pre-tension clamping interface ensured exceptional accuracy, extended tool life and minimized downtime.
These examples demonstrate how CoroDrill® DE10 meets industry needs while offering significant operational and cost-saving benefits.
High-volume hole-making demands precision, durability and efficiency, making it essential for manufacturers to overcome its challenges to achieve greater productivity and remain competitive. With its advanced features, tools such as CoroDrill® DE10 offer a new perspective on drilling, and a strategic solution for the future of manufacturing.
