Sustaining Speed with Richard Childress Racing

With a partnership spanning over two decades, it’s safe to assume that Kennametal and Richard Childress Racing (RCR) know each other pretty well. What started with an automotive focus for RCR’s historic NASCAR teams has evolved into providing all-encompassing support at RCR’s 52-acre campus in North Carolina.

It’s because of that familiarity that Kennametal has been able to continue to support RCR since the company’s operations expanded into industries beyond automotive a few years ago. RCR is AS9100 certified and with our longstanding history of excellence in aerospace operations, tooling like our HARVI™ high performance solid carbide end mill lineup and KOR™ 5DA solid carbide end mill series have played a major role in helping produce parts that are ready for takeoff.

Kennametal KOR5 DA Solid Carbide End Mill

From special tooling RCR needs and uses regularly to general job shop work across industries, we’ve proudly worked with this storied NASCAR competition organization for nearly 25 years.

“We work on some extremely tough parts with unique machining challenges, so knowing we can call Kennametal and receive immediate top tier technical support has been so significant when it comes to productive and effective processes. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do daily and deliver the products and services to our customers, both on and off the track, that we serve. It’s a team you can trust to work their hardest to understand and help us rise above our challenges.” RCR’s Vice President of Manufacturing Rocky Helms

Rocky recalls some examples of our engineering and applications support taking RCR’s automotive machining operations to the next level:

• Manufacturing camshafts for automotive projects and experiencing long cycle times due to working with difficult to machine materials. Seeking solutions for grooving operations specifically, RCR reached out to Kennametal and cut machining time from 3.5 hours to just 35 minutes.
• Winning a contract to produce lug nuts used in the NASCAR Cup Series. RCR consulted with Kennametal and found our line of high-performance HARVI I TE solid end mills were the perfect solution.

Kennametal HARVI I TE Solid Carbide End Mills

Further supporting their diverse manufacturing operations, the RCR facility features a full-blown machine shop where our innovative tooling and ToolBOSS™ inventory units are on full display for visitors touring RCR’s impressive space. We also support RCR with software and technology that is known to boost productivity and simplify machining strategies.

This longstanding relationship made RCR the perfect location to kick off our Metal Cutting Tour, where we displayed our innovative solutions at work on the parts they are creating daily at their facility in Welcome, North Carolina.

We can’t predict what’s in store for the next 20 years, but we can commit to remaining a partner that both takes the time and has the technical know-how to understand the unique needs of our customers to keep their shops running in the most productive and cost-effective ways.