en.Wedoany.com Reported - German precision tool manufacturer Mapal held its annual press conference at its headquarters in Aalen, presenting its business development to the media and previewing new products to be showcased at the AMB trade fair. CEO Kress pointed out that the current market is not experiencing a short-term downturn, but rather many key sectors are undergoing profound changes in economic framework conditions, technological developments, and geopolitical influences. In the precision tool sector, export restrictions and rising prices for basic carbide products have led to raw material shortages, posing an additional challenge. Kress emphasized that it is more important to focus on what can be influenced, and that not every trend automatically becomes a market. Mapal only makes targeted investments where it identifies sustainable market opportunities and can create genuine value for users.
In fiscal year 2025, the Mapal Group achieved revenue of €514 million, a decrease of approximately 7% compared to €551 million in the previous year. As of the end of 2025, the company employed around 4,500 people globally. To address challenges, Mapal implemented its largest organizational restructuring project in history by merging German companies, transitioning to a process-driven organization with standardized processes and clearly defined responsibilities and structures to enhance transparency, efficiency, and speed. In fiscal year 2025, Mapal invested approximately €25 million in sites, production, digitalization, and future technologies, with plans to maintain a similar investment level in 2026. The aerospace sector was the best-performing application market in recent years, achieving double-digit revenue growth, significantly exceeding the market average. Mapal is also involved in the defense sector and industrial projects arising from new requirements for security, infrastructure, and energy supply. For the current fiscal year 2026, Kress assesses that framework conditions remain challenging, with moderate economic development in Europe, geopolitical uncertainties, global supply chain changes, and raw material market conditions affecting the market. Mapal aims to support users in achieving competitive production in Germany and other locations through innovative manufacturing solutions and products.
In terms of products, Mapal has launched the new drill bit Mega-Drill-Composite-MD-EdgePro for carbon fiber composite material processing, featuring self-sharpening during the drilling process. The drill bit uses laser sharpening on the main cutting edge of the first flank face, creating an extremely sharp cutting edge that enables perfect, fiber-tear-free drilling, especially suitable for thin-walled workpiece processing, reducing cutting pressure and preventing workpiece springback and bending. The drill tip adopts a 90° angle design for self-centering drilling, with a diameter range of 3 to 12 millimeters. The second-generation Mega-Deep-Drill-Alu drill bit specifically addresses the challenge of large drilling depths, featuring a completely new overall solution combining cutting edge geometry, cooling, and cutting material, suitable for a wide application range from forged alloys to high-silicon cast alloys. The straight main cutting edge ensures smooth, low-vibration processing, reducing chipping and burrs; double land edges and optimized chip flutes improve chip evacuation; four guide chamfers stabilize the drill bit. The cooling channels have been redesigned and enlarged by 20%, optimizing wear behavior and process stability. The coordinated cutting material solution, in its uncoated version with precision-ground chip flutes, enables process-reliable machining of various aluminum materials, and offers two configurable head coatings to suit aluminum alloy silicon content and cutting fluid strategies. The drill bit achieves a feed rate of up to 0.4 millimeters per revolution, with a maximum tool life path length of 3.2 kilometers. The standard series offers length specifications from 15×D to 40×D, with a diameter range of 3 to 16 millimeters.
Mapal has developed new uncoated PcBN cutting materials FU240 and FU290, suitable for hard milling of outer and inner raceways of drive joints, respectively. The outer ring uses quenched and tempered steel, while the inner ring is mostly case-hardened steel. By adjusting CBN content, grain size, and binder composition, the new cutting materials achieve a tool life improvement of over 30% compared to previously used products under cutting speeds of approximately 180 meters per minute and feed per tooth of 0.07 to 0.10 millimeters. The new Uniq Dream Chuck series collets feature a 4.5° profile, introducing hydraulic expansion clamping technology into the 3 to 5 millimeter clamping range, combining the advantages of hydraulic expansion clamping technology with the original profile of DIN 69882-8 standard shrink-fit chucks, enabling a technical transition without adjusting the machining process or existing interference contours. The collet is independently designed for small diameter ranges, integrating the hydraulic expansion unit and drive unit, with the drive unit integrated into the HSK flange, retaining the original shrink-fit profile. The new generation OptiMill-Tro-Uni trochoidal milling cutter adjusts tool geometry, with a core diameter adjusted according to length to increase bending strength, featuring five cutting edges for high feed performance, and an asymmetric helix angle design to reduce vibration. Field tests under actual operating conditions demonstrate that the coordination of tool and process design is crucial for performance improvement.
