ANCA Tool of the Year open for submissions

Now in its fifth year, ANCA's industry-first competition launched for 2022 at GrindingHub. Participants and winners in ANCA Tool of the Year (TOTY) achieve important brand recognition as well as cash and other prizes.

ANCA’s Tool of the Year customers can submit their favorite tool, with the winners being judged and announced live at IMTS 2022. There will be two competition categories to recognize both the functionality and creativity of cutting tool manufacturers.

• The main prize goes to #MadeonANCA tools and entries will be judged on the form and performance of their cutting tool.
• The second category is for virtual tools as the “Most innovative tool design.” Entrants are encouraged to be creative and use ANCA tool design software to push ideas to their limits.

The winner of #MadeonANCA receives $10,000 AUD worth of ANCA innovations for parts, accessories or software that fit the winner’s grinding needs or a trip to ANCA's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. This amazing prize further includes access as an ANCA VIP to exclusive opportunities with our ANCA tool experts. The winner of the most innovative virtual tool will receive a full CIM software package.

Submissions are open from through August 8, 2022.

The competition will be based on the passion and the craft of tool making, celebrating a highly skilled tool grinding community.

The judging panel consists of:

• Pat Boland, Co-Founder and Managing Director at ANCA
• John Saunders, Saunders Machine Works and founder of YouTube channel NYC CNC
• Xiaoyu Wang, Product Manager at ANCA
• Santosh Plakkat, Product Manager at ANCA
• Darren Fox, Product Manager at ANCA
• Zoller – measure profile and diameter

At IMTS 2022, the top five finalist tools will be judged on the following criteria:

• Best surface finish in Ra (roughness average) value on the flute or gash surface
• The tool that is closest to the nominal tolerance as stated on the drawing in terms of diameter and profile (i.e. if the tolerance on diameter is ±0.010mm and the tool is measured to 0.005mm, then this will rank favorably)
• Tool that has been ground to the tightest tolerance as per the drawing (i.e. the tool with the lowest tolerance will rank favorably)
• Level of complexity (i.e. in terms of the number of steps, profiles will rank favorably)