June-July 2014
Lean production techniques have been revolutionizing operations for 50 years. Guest columnists Ewan Duncan and Ron Ritter of consulting firm McKinsey & Company think through how coming advances in technology, psychology, and analytics may make the next 50 even more exciting.
Your CNC has a learning curve, and you might be surprised by all it can know and tell you now, to help you run a more efficient shop floor or production department.
The wire brake and air blast can be used together or separately to help improve quality and performance in robotic MIG gun applications, leading to cost savings for welding operations.
Lean production techniques have been revolutionizing operations for 50 years. Guest columnists Ewan Duncan and Ron Ritter of consulting firm McKinsey & Company think through how coming advances in technology, psychology, and analytics may make the next 50 even more exciting.
Featuring greater accessibility, the Emerald Series waterjet from WARDJet is a high quality, low cost waterjet system that is capable of indexing sheets of unlimited length in all directions.
M3048TG and M3058TG turret presses from Murata Machinery incorporate servo-driven ram drives that deliver 33 tons of heavy-duty punching force at 510 hits per minute.
Featuring four insulated walls and an aluminized steel exterior with a 2B finish stainless steel interior, the No. 978 universal oven from Grieve is perfect for any machine shop operation.
Featuring an automatic nesting process and the ability to export nests to a DXF file without installing a special DXF Polyline setup or changing machines, ProNest 2015 from Hypertherm contains more embedded cut process expertise in the NC code than any other software.
The Vaqua Komet twin-spindle wet blasting system from Guyson has an automated cabinet with a large safety-glass window equipped with an interior wiper and water spray to view blast cleaning and surface preparation operations for inspection, adjustment and maintenance.
Affordable software Exact Online integrates automatically with Quickbooks to consolidate and manage operations under one system, giving small manufacturers and wholesale distributors the competitive efficiency and visibility they need.
Featuring a large, open height and stroke, the Dener Diamond Ultra CNC press brake from MC Machinery Systems promises shops top quality bending operations at an affordable price.
For shops that need bulk cutting capabilities with minimal labor, the HCS-90E carbide circular cold saw from Behringer Saws meets high volume production demands with unattended operations.
Ideal for manufacturing medical devices and a wide range of diameter tubes and stents, the Sigma Femtosecond Laser Tube cutting system from Miyachi America provides exceptional edge quality when processing both metals and plastics.
The sky is the limit as partnerships between private manufacturers and scientific research laboratories expand the boundaries of size and accelerate the development of new industrial 3D printing systems that can create polymer parts up to 10 times larger than those currently producible.
Are you missing opportunities to produce parts profitably? Which of your parts currently require two or three machines to produce a completed piece? Let’s consider how you might put more profit in your pocket by producing those same parts with just your punching machine.
A Unison Breeze 80 enhances SL Engineering’s capabilities to produce more complex tubular shapes by extending the size range of tubing that can be bent using all-electric servomotor-controlled movement to tube and pipe diameters up to 80 mm.
Ideal for aluminum machining, the a51nx 400 mm high-speed horizontal machining center from Makino maximizes the average metal removal rate in both roughing and finishing applications.
Costimator® V12.1 from MTI Systems can estimate machining, fabrication and part assembly processes so shops can quickly quantify the impact of changes to product design, materials, geographic locations, manufacturing processes, volume requirements and more.
Priced at $699, the “Short Slugger” from FEIN Power Tools weighs only 22 lb and stands at 11 in with a 430 W motor that is ideal for repetitive drilling in close quarters or as a first-time user’s magnetic drill.
Connecticut Spring & Stamping has incorporated in-house CNC machining to stamp parts at a very low cost and then machine crucial features that require tighter tolerances.
To wet your whistle for what lies ahead at the International Manufacturing Technology Show on September 8-13, here’s a small sample of some equipment that you will see exhibited on the show floor at McCormick Place in Chicago.
The ultimate goal in the trend toward greater automation in machine shops is unattended machining. Here is a review of some of the latest integrated machine tool systems that can help shops achieve that goal.
Your CNC has a learning curve, and you might be surprised by all it can know and tell you now, to help you run a more efficient shop floor or production department.
The latest femtosecond laser technology from Raydiance can reduce cost per part by 20 percent to 50 percent and reduce product design, prototyping and development from months to as little as 24 hours.
Developed in Europe by Sunnen Products Company, the Single Stroke Honing® process for cast-iron hydraulic valve bodies produces less than 2 µm cylindricity in bores, achieving almost 200 percent more precision than previously possible.
Custom Etch purchased the LASER 4000 5Ax from GF Machining Solutions to add surface textures to extra-large workpieces used for automotive parts, housewares, aerospace, medical, beverage, lawn and garden equipment and toys.
Milwaukee Machine Works expands its energy sector business into wind turbine gearbox housings, fluid end manifolds for the oil/gas industry, and other oversized components up to 10 ft long and weighing up to 7,000 lb with a new large capacity dual-pallet Giddings & Lewis MC 1600 from Fives.
NUM develops special hardware and software for the XO laser cutter of Favor Laser, marking the company’s entry into the high performance end of the market.
TruDiode 151 and TruDiode 301 lasers from TRUMPF are more powerful and efficient, yet smaller than previous TruDiode lasers, producing wavelengths that range between 920 Nm to 970 Nm.
As the need for specialty steel pipe grows, higher steel grades and bigger wall thicknesses are introducing new challenges to pipe welding and fabrication shops. Here are some of the latest advances in welding equipment and fabrication tools that can help these shops gain and maintain a competitive advantage.
By changing welding processes, this oil and gas production equipment manufacturer cut more than 200 man-hours out of each product to thrive during the shale gas boom.
The wire brake and air blast can be used together or separately to help improve quality and performance in robotic MIG gun applications, leading to cost savings for welding operations.
The VeriWeld-SE™ Weld Seam Monitor from Taylor-Winfield records, analyzes and stores machine operating and weld schedule parameters using customer defined preset variables to validate weld quality.
Because labor costs are approximately 80 percent of the true cost of welding in the field while equipment is only about 5 percent, providing welding operators with the most productive tools is among the best ways to reduce labor costs and increase efficiency.
The interaction between the operator and a robotic welding system can be improved by centralizing operations into one user interface.
Say goodbye to cylinder liners used in lightweight motorblocks. HELLER CBC is a practical, extremely cost-effective twin-wire arc spraying alternative for coating cylinder bores.
Take a look at some of the coolant, lubricant, and metalworking fluid technology being used by shops to increase their metalworking productivity, keep their machine tools clean, and reduce their cost of operations.
An SCL curtain wall from Zoneworks effectively blocks the transfer of dust particles, smoke and fumes from space to space, reducing the volume of the space to be exhausted with curtain walls so that smaller fans can be used.
Lightweight Titanium 9400 series hard-hat PAPR systems from Miller Electric are designed to evenly distribute weight for optimal comfort and have dual air speeds that allow users to adjust the volume of air to maximize comfort.
This brochure from Camfil Air Pollution Control describes how to calculate the “Total Cost of Ownership” for cartridge dust collector filters.
In many cases, rules actually produce unintended consequences that are far worse than the behaviors we are trying to shape. Let’s think through this food for thought together.
Available in print or online, this detailed, new 6-page, full-color brochure from Dayton Progress examines the various properties and benefits of some common tool steels.
Forming operations take center stage on the turret punch press through some new tooling innovations from Mate Precision Tooling.
ANCA’s new high accuracy workholding and tool support system, the MicroPlus, enables tool rooms to produce higher precision tools with no additional cycle time.
TRD Manufacturing uses flexible workholding fixtures from AME that hold 56 different block sizes, offer quick changeover and can run different parts on each side or run multiple pallet loads of the same part in high production.
Unprecedented speed, accuracy and ease-of use, combined with the fastest paths ever from art to part, make it tough for progressive shops to ignore an investment in 3D scanning.
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