What is the difference between MetalMax and MillMax?

MetalMax (also known as TXF) is the brand name for the original tap-testing system invented by Dr. Tom Delio and Dr. Scott Smith at Manufacturing Laboratories Inc. or MLI. MLI was founded in 1987 and there are several hundred MetalMax kits in the field. The technology is not proprietary but the implementation is unique. Tap-testing is not new, the history is described here.

MLI is owned by Drs. Delio, Smith and Tony Schmitz.

MetalMax is a suite of expensive and complex analytical software packages used by companies worldwide as part of their process planning and machining optimization activities, among other things. It is also used for research and development by Universities and R&D institutions.

Versions of it have been sold to large machines shops, especially those with the Makino MAG machines as, at the time, it was the only way to tune the very high speed (30,000+ RPM) milling tools. In fact, it's use was required as seen in this Makino manual:

Since its inception MLI has sought to simplify and expand adoption of machining dynamics technology and created numerous simplified versions of MetalMAX. One you may have already heard of in the industry is BlueSwarf (Barton, Smith, Delio founders) with the "Data Collector" which was a non-automated simplified execution of MetalMAX. However, BlueSwarf shifted approaches and still utilizes the basic technology but as a hardware solution with pre-tune specific tool assemblies (called the "SmartTool" exclusively licensed to MSC). BlueSwarf no longer sell tap-testing kits nor offer any tap-testing services. Barton, Delio and Smith are no longer part of BlueSwarf.

Most recently SpeedCast was created and marketed by MLI as a semi-automated but simplified version of MetalMAX. In January of 2020 MSC, MLI and others entered into an agreement to rebrand SpeedCast the "MillMax" system to reach a broader audience and have greater impact in the industry due to MSC's industry position.

There are several competing companies in the dynamic measurement and speed prediction segment and as with other software solutions, e.g. CAM, FEA, tool management, these various products will look very similar in their output but the implementation will be different.

IF YOU HAVE A CUSTOMER WITH A METALMAX KIT, they may still be interested in the MSC MillMax Service. Here's why:

They already believe in the technology and science of tap-testing. They spent a lot of money on it at one point.

The MetalMax requires considerable training to use and over time they may have lost trained employees. Many MetalMax kits sit unused.

The MetalMax kit takes considerable time to analyze and produce a result with complex graphs, so they may only use it on a few tools on their most expensive machines.

You are offering to do the work for them which free's their employees and leverages their resources. You possess the skill and familiarity from doing this full time rather than an end user that will only do it occasionally and needs to re-familiarize each time they do it or not do it exactly right. We sometimes hire carpenters to do work at our houses, not because we are unable to do the work but because they are more practiced and experienced and can do it faster and better.

MSC MillMax is a service that provides answers in the form of an easy to use Dashboard that takes only one minute to produce. They can apply tap-testing to more tools in their shop and on lower cost machines because YOU are doing it for them. NOTE: MSC can convert their existing MetalMax files into MSC Dashboards.

Share with this customer the recent cover story in Modern Machine Shop. It chronicles the entire story of MLI and the creation of MSC MillMax.

https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/how-machine-tool-dynamics-could-become-a-us-supply-chain-strategy