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Founded in 1958, Balax pioneered a design for cold forming taps featuring "Lead Form Geometry Correction", a process which reduces tapping torque by creating lead threads on pitch. The new taps, called Thredfloers, were said to be "BALanced AXially", giving rise to the company's name, BALAX.
Thredfloer Taps, with their low torque capabilities, soon found acceptance among US manufacturers across the country. Balax has since added other metalworking tools to its product line, including Thredshaver Cutting Taps, Miniature Thread Gages, and Roughing End Mills.
Balax Thredfloer Forming Taps are ideal for applications involving aluminum, brass, copper, lead, stainless steel, carbon steel, cast steel, leaded steel and zinc. In general, any material, which produces a stringy chip, is a good Thredfloer candidate.
Balax's thread forming process offers several advantages over thread cutting, including:
Balax Thredfloer Forming Taps are ground on special, patented thread grinders featuring lead form geometry correction. This process produces forming taps whose lead threads are on pitch, resulting in reduced tapping torque.
Thredfloer Forming Taps are available in ANSI, DIN and JIS sizes with plug, bottom, or one thread lead chamfers. Specialty Thredfloers are available in miniature, extension, STI and straight and tapered pipe versions.
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Balax Thredshaver Cutting Taps are the ideal solution for applications which are unsuited for thread forming. Balax Thredshavers are manufactured using CNC grinding equipment and statistical process quality control procedures to assure consistent, lot-to-lot accuracy. Standard features include:
Thredshavers are available in a wide range of sizes and styles for tapping low-, medium-, and high-carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, nickel alloys, aluminum alloys, cast aluminum, magnesium, brass, copper, cast iron, and tool steels.
Thredlock Forming Taps Now you can manufacture tapped parts that keep a secure grip on fasteners without the use of lock washers or thread-lock compounds. How? By using a patented Balax Thredlock Tap to thread your hole. This simple, economical process helps minimize materials costs and streamline the assembly process.
For use in ductile materials, Balax Thredlock Taps are the ideal way to prevent loosening of fasteners that are subjected to vibration or thermal expansion. They are available for both blind and thru hole applications, and the tapped holes are compatible with standard, off-the-shelf fasteners.
Balax Thredlock Forming Taps create a thread with a built-in spring that grips fasteners tightly.
As a screw is inserted, it deflects the thread's spring, creating a tight fit.
Coolant-Thru Forming and Cutting Taps Take advantage of the coolant-thru capabilities of your machine tool. Available in both cold forming and cutting tap styles, Balax Coolant-Thru taps solve lubrication problems, even in deep blind holes. Both forming and cutting taps are available in three coolant-path styles: Thru-Coolant, Radial-Coolant and Angular-Coolant.
Chipbreaker Cutting Taps
Straight Flute Chipbreaker Thredshavers are engineered for tapping deep blind and thru holes where chips made by spiral flute or conventional flute taps are a problem. The special heavy duty flute configuration converts chips to small flakes that are easily handled without causing tap binding or seizure. They are available in regular or coolant-thru configurations.
Taperlock Thread Gages Balax Taperlock Thread Gages are ground from hardened High-Speed Tool Steel blanks on proprietary Balax Thread Grinders. This unique grinding process provides an accurate thread pitch with less lead error than other grinding or gage manufacturing methods used today. Taperlock Thread Gages are available in ANSI sizes from 0-80 to 1-12 and in metric sizes from M1.6 x .35 to M12 x 1.75.
Extra Length Thread Gages Balax Go Gages 4-40 (M3 x .5) thru 7/16 (M10) are made with a longer overall length that allows gaging to thread depths achieved with most standard tap dimensions.
Miniature Thread Gages ( download detailed page 390Kb ) Balax Miniature Thread Gages come in sizes from 000-120 to 00-90 or 0.90 UNM to 1.40 UNM. They are manufactured from special high speed steel blanks using a special grinding process which assures a consistency and accuracy never before available with miniature gages. They are held in color-coded collet type holders.
Taperlock Oversize Pre-Plate Gages Oversize gages come in sizes ranging from 0-80 to 1/4-28, or M1.6 x 0.35 to M10 x 1.5. They are designed for Class 2B fit with a 0.0003" plating thickness allowance. Metric pre-plate gages are designed to a 6G tolerance.
Certificate of Inspection A Certificate of Inspection, furnished with every gage, assures the accuracy of your gage to "Class X" tolerance levels. Unlike most other thread gages, all Balax Thread Gages are furnished with actual fifth place (.00000) measurements of pitch diameter and major diameter.
Balax Roughing End Mills are available in a variety of side-cutting and center-cutting styles for machining aluminum, steel, stainless steel, titanium, cast iron, and all commonly used alloys. They are designed and manufactured to provide optimum production efficiency.
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