Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2013
Honing was invented more than 70 years ago to de-glaze cylinder bores in early automobiles. Since then, conventional honing has been routinely used to create crosshatch surface finish in bores to enhance oil retention to lubricate and seal sliding/mating parts like pistons, plungers and shafts.
Full Article Author: Jim Lorincz
Senior Editor
Manufacturing Engineering Magazine
Date: 4/1/2013
"When most people talk about the question of tool life, they're referencing extending the time of use of a particular tool. It can be more helpful to take a look at the big picture and examine the question of tool life from a technologilla perspective," said Jeff Dei, presdient, Carmex Precision Tools LLC (Richfield, WI).
Full Article Author: Edited by
Jim Lorincz
Senior Editor
Manufacturing Engineering
Date: 3/1/2013
Demand for oil field equipment technology for oil and gas industry applications like pipe and casing threaidng grew by 33% in the US in 2012 according to estimates cited by EMAG LLC Farmington Hills, MI and Leipzig, Germany).
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2013
Remotely operated vehicles (ROV) rose to the top of public consciousness with the Gulf oil spill disaster in April 2010. Streaming video from ROVs working to staunch the flow of oil from the Macondo well was seen on television screens around the world in real time after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, burned and sank.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2013
Laser cutting has emerged as the best way to cut and trim hot-stamped steel, the light-weight, high-strength materials increasingly used in the automotive industry to reduce the overall cost and weight of cars while improving both passenger safety and fuel economy.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 12/1/2012
In many industries, surface texture has become an important aspect of product design. It not only provides the means to refine the physical appearance of an item, but also allows a company to influence tactile impressions of their products.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 11/1/2012
Recent advances in PCBN cutting tool technology have increased the acceptance of hard turning as a finishing operation of critical surfaces, according to Seco Tools Inc. (Troy, MI). PCBN tool inserts, combined with the latest plunge turning technique, are said to produce as good or better tolerances than conventional grinding for finishing steel parts hardened to Rc 45–64.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 10/1/2012
An aluminum-alloy drill pipe string over a mile long is credited with significantly reducing drill string hook load and related drilling torque and drag for drilling offshore from Seria, Brunei, in a well, considered one of the most complex by Brunei Shell Petroleum Co. (BSP).
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 9/1/2012
Continuous dress creep feed (CDCF) grinding is enjoying a comeback for processing complex profiles for aerospace and other difficult-to-machine workpieces. CDCF technology uses a constantly infeeding rotary diamond dresser that dresses the wheel continuously during the grinding cycle at a preprogrammed infeed rate.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 7/1/2012
For many industries, composites are the material of choice for achieving lightweight, fuel-efficient and strong designs. The challenge going forward for engineers is to take full advantage of the properties of composites by using advanced analysis tools to predict margins of safety, performance, cost, and design for manufacturability.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 6/1/2012
The Electrochemical Grinding Process (ECG) is shedding its identity as a "special use" nontraditional machining method. Applications in manufacturing aircraft engines and power turbines continue to grow as more difficult-to-machine materials are used.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2012
Repetitive multiaxis manufacturing of complex parts poses a special challenge to CAM software manufacturers. Examples include Swiss-machined medical components, cylinder-head ports, and multiblade parts used widely in aerospace, energy conversion, and other fluid movement applications. When considering the possible alternative approaches, Mastercam’s multidiscipline teams at CNC Software Inc. (Tolland, CT) came to the conclusion that the CAM software should be simple yet highly intelligent.
Full Article Date: 12/1/2011
Visitors to the Gear Expo in Cincinnati saw an array of machining centers from leading machine tool builders machining gears, once the exclusive domain of highly specialized gear-generating machines.
Full Article Date: 11/1/2011
Breakthrough machining technology for through-tool cooling with a low-flow cryogenic nitrogen process has been approved by the government for standard roughing operations in production of titanium parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, impacting the most time-consuming and cost-intensive machining processes associated with manufacturing titanium parts.
Full Article Date: 9/1/2011
Mersen USA, part of the French Mersen Group, has installed a 37' (11-m) high cold isostatic press (CIP), believed to be the largest one of its kind in the world. The new press improves Mersen’s position in the isostatic graphite market, increasing the company’s ability to produce large cross-section graphite blocks.
Full Article Date: 8/1/2011
Sunnen’s HTG series tube hones are designed to increase part capacity for oil-field applications with high-volume throughput. The machine is well-suited for instrument piping and down-hole equipment applications, such as pumps/motors and hangers, and large hydraulic cylinders like those found on offshore oil platform stabilizers.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 7/1/2011
WG-700 is a completely new whisker-reinforced ceramic insert from Greenleaf Corp. (Saegertown, PA) with a substrate that features an optimized whisker load to improve crack- and wear-resistance characteristics while increasing overall strength of the insert.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 6/1/2011
Connecting the digital data threads between machines, devices, and software that are used in integrated manufacturing was demonstrated at AeroDef 2011 Manufacturing Exposition and Conference by the Computational Manufacturing Alliance, a consortium of companies dedicated to expanding the scope of integrated manufacturing systems.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2011
Designated the Equator, this system is described by Renishaw Inc. (Hoffman Estates, IL) as a radical new alternative to traditional dedicated gaging. The patented design is capable of high-speed comparative gaging for inspection of high-volume manufactured parts, and reportedly can switch between parts in seconds.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 4/1/2011
The new 2500-mm HU100A-5XLL HMC from Mitsui Seiki (Franklin Lakes, NJ) is designed for machining large, complex, and heavy hard metal parts. Mitsui Seiki has built several custom-engineered machines with similar configurations and attributes.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2011
Well-suited for arc welding, machine tending, material handling and a variety of process applications, the new IRB 2600 from ABB Robotics Inc. (Auburn Hills, MI) is the latest model in the company’s medium-capacity range of multipurpose robots.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2011
The new FTR 3500 floor-type horizontal boring mill from MAG Americas (New York) is a midsized job-shop machine capable of a full 2-m reach inside parts with a ram-supported spindle. It’s described as well-suited for heavy-metal milling, as well as precision multiaxis contouring, boring, drilling, and tapping on large parts for the construction, oil field, and wind energy industries.
Full Article