The lollipop for electrodes with outstanding surface quality
Bobingen, August 14, 2026 – Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme has expanded its portfolio of graphite machining tools with the Hexator®. This is a six-flute tool with a lollipop geometry and a specially developed diamond coating. The Hexator allows for high feed rates at spindle-friendly low speeds. Its shape ensures consistent performance and surface finish across all tool contact points, as the contact area between the tool and the workpiece remains constant. This is particularly advantageous when machining 90-degree angled surfaces.
Many companies that manufacture graphite electrodes already benefit from the specialized roughing and finishing tool Graftor®. A customer project highlighted the need for an additional high-performance finishing tool. The completely redesigned Hexator® tool is characterized by extremely long tool life, significantly reducing tool changes, setup, and downtime. With the tools from Hufschmied By incorporating the new high-feed finishing tool, the customer was able to reduce production costs by over 60 percent and cut manufacturing time to a third. Overall, this resulted in significantly lower component costs.
Coating in-house
Thanks to its lollipop geometry, the tool's contact surface remains constant even during 90-degree wall machining. Recutting, which occurs even with very short-edged tools with a straight cutting edge runout, is completely eliminated. The Hexator® achieves a clean and uniform milling pattern with dimensionally stable and dimensionally accurate results. Hufschmied Hexator® is offered as standard with diameters from 2,0 to 12,0 mm; other dimensions are available upon request.
“Our specialists have once again proven that all aspects of a tool can be optimized for a process, from the shape to the cutting edge layout and geometry, right through to the coating,” explains Christel Hufschmied, managing director of the Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH“We are fortunate to have not only the professional expertise and experience but also all the necessary technical facilities in-house. This gives us the freedom to develop exceptional tools and noticeably improve processes for our customers.”
The Hexator® will be presented from September 15th to 19th, 2026 at booth 3D64 in hall 3 of the AMB in Stuttgart.