Tru-Edge Blog

When Carbide Gets Expensive, the Cheapest Tool Is Often the Costliest Choice

Dave Beronich, President — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:38:54 GMT

The tooling conversation is changing. For years, many manufacturers could make a simple economic choice: use several lower-cost tools in sequence, accept the longer cycle time, and reserve engineered multifunction tools for the highest-volume programs. That model worked when carbide pricing was more forgiving. It becomes much harder to defend when every solid carbide tool in the sequence costs more to buy, more to replace, and more to carry in inventory.

Quality at the Core: Answering the Questions That Matter to Tooling Customers

Marc Steimer, President — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:50:35 GMT

Quality is at the center of everything we do at Tru-Edge. But for our customers, quality is not an abstract concept—it’s measured in uptime, performance, cost savings, and confidence.

When 0.1% Tool Failure Impacts 100% of Your Throughput

Marc Steimer, President — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:45:45 GMT

In high-performance machining environments, tooling reliability is not a nice-to-have—it is a core driver of throughput and process reliability, delivery performance, and profitability. While many shops accept tooling variability as part of the cost of doing business, even a single tool failure can disrupt an entire production schedule. Some providers accept 1%-2% scrap rate on tools as normal.

We don’t…

Set the Standard for Custom Tooling Design & Manufacturing

Rick Brunswick, Engineering Manager — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 12:26:35 GMT

The demand for precision and efficiency remains high in today's competitive manufacturing environment. Because standard tools often fail to address the unique production challenges of specific applications, manufacturers request custom carbide tooling and other kinds of tooling, including specialized drills and cutters, to optimize productivity and meet their customers’ specifications and delivery requirements.

Combining Machining Operations into a Single Tool Cuts Machining Costs and Improves Process Control

Rick Brunswick, Engineering Manager — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 17:19:27 GMT

Making the change to multi-function cutting tools has benefits far beyond the savings generated through reduced manufacturing time. Here are some benefits and how they add to making your machining operations faster and more efficient.

Meeting Your Tooling Needs Under One Roof Has Its Advantages [4 Capabilities, Many Benefits]

Brian Hackman, Vice President — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 16:02:36 GMT

With profit margins continuing to get squeezed, efficiency and productivity are becoming more important than ever to manufacturers across a wide range of industries, including Automotive, Aerospace, Medical, and General Manufacturing.

Repaired Tools Provide Like-New Quality at a Lower Cost

Brian Hackman, Vice President — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

You need the right partner when you have damaged indexable cutting tools that must be restored to 40RC in like-new condition with strong, non-porous, and flat surfaces.

Our TE-K Program [6 Elements] Helps to Make Your Tooling A-OK

Brian Hackman, Vice President — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 21:12:37 GMT

Our customers spoke and we listened. To help ensure that our customers always have enough of the right tooling on-hand, we created a flexible regrind and stocking program that we call TE-K, as in Tru-Edge-Kanban. At its core, TE-K is a just-in-time (JIT) inventory management process controlled through a min./max. system that uses a lean workflow management method (Kanban) developed in Japan decades ago.

PVD QUAD Coating Improves Tool Life in Iron-Based Machining - Outstanding Results

Marc Steimer, President — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 13:40:52 GMT

Outstanding results are happening when machining iron-based materials. Special tools designed and manufactured by TE as well as tools reground at TE have proven results. Our TIXCO3 PVD coating is a key driver of success and a real winner when machining cast iron, nodular iron, and compacted graphitic iron (CGI). Tool life results are exceeding expectations. The TE Tech Team is being asked to look at additional process applications. Here are a few examples.

Engineering Manager Rick Brunswick Wins Emerging Leader Rising Award

Marc Steimer, President — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:39:30 GMT