UFS, which stands for Utensili Filettatori Sparone, has a long history in manufacturing and selling precision tools (since 1947). Over the years, it has earned itself a key role in the production of threading taps boasting a reliable solid technological tradition in the sector.

Quality products, a highly skilled workforce and a service which is tailor-made to specific customer requirements in the manufacture of threading taps, dies, Go-no-go thread gauges, make it an “ideal partner” for any business.

THE COMPANY AND ITS PRODUCTS

Used material

The tool yield is determined by several factors, but most fundamental is the material. UFS uses the best high speed steels of high cobalt content (5% and over, or a high percentage of vanadium) and steels made from sintered powders (PM, PM1,PM3 high % of Co and Co + Va). This materials show a more homogeneous structure, with low carbide content, and with a correspondingly reduced risk of splintering, less wear and better performance on materials of high resistance.
- HSSE steel with 5% of Cobalt used for materials to work with R < 850 N/mm²
- HSSP steels with higher Cobalt percentage (or vanadium) used for materials to work with R < 1000 N/mm²
- HSSV3 steel with high percentage of Vanadium, for Inox
- Sintered PM steels of a high cobalt and vanadium content used for materials to work with R > 1000 N/mm²

Read more...

A random chemical and structural analysis of pieces is performed in the quality laboratory to control the size and distribution of carbides.

Finally, the hardness at the annealed, tempered and quenched state is controlled.

Heat Treatments

Heat treatment is a conclusive factor for the yield of the tool and consists of preheating - hardening - tempering.
The preheating is gradual and the tempering is assisted by very accurate controls of the temperature and the times of austenitisation. Then 4-5 recoveries follow for the complete transformation of the structure. The check of the austenitic grain occurs after the austenitisation and the hardness and the structure check after each recovery. Heat treatment are performed in vacuum ovens, which guarantee high quality tempering.

Surface treatments and coatings are very important stages for the performance and functionality of the tool.

The principle types of treatments and coatings in the UFS catalogue are:

• Nitriding S (NS)
• Vaporization (V)
• Chrome-plating (Cr)
• TiN (T)- TiN-G -  XP
• TiCN (CT)
• TiAIN (TX) and TXC
• Chrome Nitride (CrN)

Products’ quality

Our checks have always been based on metallographic and dimensional tests. Thanks to the new UFS Technology, the sample product subjected is tested for durability and improved, especially with products designed using special materials at the customer’s request. The staff appointed to these operations work full time both in UFS product improvement and in defining new tool shapes suitable for new materials or materials required for European Research Projects, together with Polytechnic University of Turin, Faculty of Materials Science as well as other important European Universities, including Aachen and Bilbao. This allows us to test undoubtedly difficult materials, like ceramic alloys, special cast iron, aeronautical and space alloys, among others; the improvement processes established for these materials help us to raise the quality level of the standard production.

Purposes

The aims set out in our previous catalogue have been widely achieved and during these last few years the consolidated production processes have allowed us to increase product quality and repeatability. We only have to continue in this quest for continuous improvement, with our characteristic determination.