Russian Customer Struggling with Inconsistent Drill Life? DIN338 HSS-M35 Twist Drill Package Helps Boost Hole-Making Efficiency

Russia has a strong base in machinery manufacturing, energy and construction. Hole-making operations are carried out every day on carbon steels, alloy steels and structural steels.
For many years, local distributors and workshops relied on several small suppliers for twist drills, which caused common issues:

• Fragmented sources – the same drill size behaves very differently from batch to batch;

• Low-end drills burn, chip or break easily in alloy steels, leading to scrap and rework;

• Mixed standards and materials make stock management and cost control difficult.

As end users demand higher hole quality, productivity and tool life, distributors are now looking for a unified, durable and steel-oriented drilling solution.

2. Customer Profile & Application

Our customer in Russia is a regional cutting tool and industrial supply distributor. Their main end users are:

• General machine shops and steel structure fabricators;

• Energy, oil & gas and heavy equipment maintenance companies;

• Automotive and agricultural machinery component manufacturers.

Key pain points:

1. Large variation in tool life
   End users complained: “Same 10 mm drill, one runs for a whole shift, another burns out in half a day.”

2. Difficult drilling in alloy steels
   Conventional HSS drills heat up quickly and wear fast in structural and alloy steels, forcing low cutting parameters and frequent tool changes.

3. Complicated stock structure
   Multiple brands and standards (DIN, GOST, non-standard) coexist, leading to duplicated items and complex warehouse management.

The customer wanted to build a long-term, repeatable product line based on DIN standard + HSS-M35 high-performance material.

3. Our Solution (Product & Specifications)

After analyzing the most common hole sizes, workpiece materials and machine types, we supplied a large package of:

DIN338 HSS-M35 Twist Drills

• Standard: DIN338 (jobber length twist drills);

• Material: HSS-M35 cobalt high speed steel, suitable for drilling alloy and structural steels as well as carbon steels;

• Surface treatment: steam-tempered “black & gold” finish, improving wear resistance and lubricity, helping chip evacuation and reducing built-up edge;

• Total quantity: 975,400 pcs, mixed across the customer’s main selling sizes;

• Manufacturing: heat treatment, grinding and finishing done in unified batches to secure consistent performance across all diameters.

Key Specification Summary (excerpt)

This single DIN338 HSS-M35 line allows the distributor to build a clean, unified drill portfolio for the Russian market.

4. Customer Feedback

Once the shipment arrived in Russia and drills were distributed to end users, the customer collected feedback from several key shops:

• Tool life and stability clearly improved
  Especially in alloy and structural steels, the HSS-M35 + black & gold finish showed better wear and heat resistance, enabling more holes per drill.

• Hole quality easier to control
  With unified DIN338 standard, hole size and surface quality became more stable, and the rate of rework and re-drilling decreased.

• Simplified stock management
  By focusing on a single DIN338 HSS-M35 product line, the distributor reduced overlapping SKUs and simplified purchasing and replenishment.

The distributor now positions this nearly one-million-piece DIN338 HSS-M35 drill package as their core drilling product for the Russian market.

5. Conclusion

This shipment of 975,400 pcs DIN338 HSS-M35 black & gold twist drills to Russia helped the distributor upgrade in three key aspects:

• Replace scattered, inconsistent drills with a unified DIN338 standard and HSS-M35 high-performance material system;

• Use steam-tempered (black & gold) finish to achieve better wear resistance and chip evacuation in alloy and structural steel drilling;

• Build a standardized, easy-to-replicate drill portfolio that strengthens their brand image and service capability in the Russian machining market.

For distributors in Eastern Europe and the CIS region, a similar DIN338 + HSS-M35 + black & gold finish combination is also a practical, well-balanced solution for improving hole-making performance and simplifying inventory management.