Author: Edited by Senior Editor James D. Sawyer
Date: 5/22/2013
High-grade, high-performance steel is needed to make the molds for today’s multifunctional and artfully shaped lighting systems.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2013
Choices lead to machining solutions for most small complex parts
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 4/9/2013
The three sons of the late Fritz Weber lead the next chapter for Rego-Fix, the fast-growing Swiss precision toolholding manufacturer
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak
Date: 2/14/2013
Cutting tool developer Komet of America Inc. (Schaumburg, IL) has named CountyLine Tool (East Peoria, IL) as its first North American Komet Service licensed partner, providing customers with tool refurbishment services as well as Komet brand standard and made-to-order solid carbide tools.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2013
Quick change (QC), zero point clamping, modular vises and clamping devices are just some of the buzzwords one hears in the workholding world. Typically stated objectives are reduction in setup time and downtime, increased spindle utilization, and flexibility to match requirements of automation and increasingly popular five-axis machining.
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 1/1/2013
The toolholding industry is launching new systems for gripping, clamping and locking, as well as deadening vibrations. It's also expanding its toolholder lineup, going ever bigger for applications in the energy, machinery and heavy-duty transportation markets and ever smaller for medical and aerospace parts.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2013
Steel, cast iron, heat-resistant alloys head the list for PVD, CVD coatings
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 10/26/2012
I had the pleasure of visiting the North American headquarters of Sweden-based Seco Tools and its technical center in Troy last week. Seco opened its bright and modern 81,000-square-foot building in suburban Metro Detroit in July of 2008 – right before the US financial markets tanked and the global economy plunged into the Great Recession.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 9/1/2012
Which came first the machine tool to cut the most advanced, difficult-to-machine materials, or the cutters, toolholders, fixturing, and chip evacuation coolant systems required to apply the power and precision required in chipmaking? The answer is as elusive, it seems, as that to the fabled query about the chicken and the egg.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 8/1/2012
Real competitiveness in traditional material removal processes begins where a tool is held to meet a fixtured workpiece. One or the other or both are moving, turning, indexing, or profiling, often simultaneously. Making the right selection of tooling and workholding including cutting tool, substrate, coating, geometry, as well as toolholder, toolchanger and ancillary coolant delivery and chip removal systems for the material application is critical to optimizing process performance.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor James D. Sawyer
Date: 7/1/2012
The Great Recession was not kind to manufacturing, but the industry has bounced back in fine fashion. It grew a phenomenal 91% from 2009 to 2010 and an impressive 66% from 2010 to 2011. Thus far this year manufacturing has grown 20%—beating forecasts.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2012
If it uses grit and takes off material, we’re probably in it," says Harlen Gibbs, operations manager, Minnesota Grinding (Crystal, MN), and he means that quite literally. If you add the word "true" to Gibbs’ characterization, you would be describing the precision machining possible with the latest advances in grinding technology.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2012
Parts used in the oil drilling business for the Oil Patch are tough and large with hardness of Rc 36–40 with diameters to 40" (1016 mm), lengths to 220" (5.6 m), and weighing up to 2 t. They require equally tough, rigid, highly flexible machine tools to deal with them. Some shops with the right tools thrive on the challenge of machining these workpieces.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 3/1/2012
Machining Aerospace Materials: Shops grow with the latest technology about the properties and machining characteristics of the newest toughest metals and carbon-fiber reinforced plastics.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 2/1/2012
While the overall economy might still be on shaky ground, the oil patch has recovered remarkably in just the last two years. There are over 2500 rotary rigs now active in North America compared to under 1000 in December 2009, according to the December 2011 Baker Hughes Rig Count report, a barometer of the drilling industry.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2012
Oil prices are widely expected to remain above $100 a barrel throughout the year, making the pursuit of aggressive domestic drilling economically sensible. There’s enough drilling activity to ensure that shops will have a ready market for their machining capacity for oil field goods. The increased activity is offering business opportunities for machine shops located nearby and for machine builders and distributors and their third-party suppliers of tooling and workholding.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2012
Laitram Machine Shop Inc. is a producer of machined components for Intralox, a major developer and manufacturer of industrial conveyor systems and for Laitram Machinery, a manufacturer of automated shrimp-processing equipment. The challenge is always to produce parts in the shortest possible time to the highest standards while reducing the cost to machine the parts.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak
Date: 2/1/2012
Speeding up programming tasks on CAD/CAM software ranks at the top of machine shops’ requirements when faced with making quality parts on a deadline. The more efficient a shop’s toolpaths are, the less chance that any programming problems result in wasting very expensive machine time on the shop floor.
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Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 1/1/2012
Ever tighter part tolerances and the need to make parts ‘right the first time’ are prompting more offerings in metrology devices for use directly on or near CNC machine tools. At the same time, increasing use of four and five-axis machines presents its own challenges in calibrating machine tools.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 6/1/2010
To recondition or buy new? That's a question any user of round tools—such as drills, end mills, and reamers—should consider. The economics of the Great Recession have spurred increased interest in reconditioning. There are many variables to consider in the equation—more than some might think. Geometry, purpose, substrate, and coating all play a part in driving the decision to recondition a tool.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 4/1/2010
From Boeing 787s to new Navy destroyers, fiber-reinforced composites are gaining in use. As production scales up, more-efficient manufacturing remains a focus. One key to that efficiency is tooling for composites. These molds and forms give the final shape to a part, and are often integral to their final curing.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 4/1/2010
Parts continue to shrink in size in the medical and dental, telecommunications, mold and die, and aerospace industries, creating a demand for micro cutting tools, some smaller than a human hair (average size 0.0035" [0.09-mm] in diam).
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2010
It's pretty much accepted that drilling is the process that is performed the most in machining, whether by machining centers, CNC lathes, or dedicated drilling machines. Cost per hole, hole quality, and hole completion are key considerations in selecting the right drill and process. Related processes such as reaming, chamfering, and counterboring/boring can be readily performed as you drill, often combined on one tool.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 9/1/2009
When it comes to toolholding for rotating round tools, you might say there are old-fashioned conventional systems and there are newfangled devices, and a lot of gripping options in between. The challenge is to transmit force from a rotating machine spindle to a metalcutting tool—an end mill, a drill, or a tap—for accurate, efficient, and safe metal removal for precision machining results.
Full Article Author: La Roux K. Gillespie
Date: 6/1/2009
Edge finishing is a relatively new term in manufacturing. It's a new and deeper focus on what many used to call deburring, edge honing, edge preparation, edge prepping, burring, chamfering, or edge blending. Edge finishing goes beyond any of those definitions. Deburring, which is often considered wasted effort by managers, wrongly carries a negative connotation.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak
Date: 5/1/2009
Machining small parts requires specialized micromachining cutting tools and processes. Micromachining applications are mostly found in the medical and die/mold industries, as well as aerospace for avionics parts, and for manufacturing the small electronics components found in increasingly miniaturized high-tech gadgets and cell phones.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 4/1/2009
Machining composites presents unique challenges compared to metals. Reinforcement fibers are abrasive, shortening tool life. The plastic matrix carries away little heat, unlike metal chips, and overheating can melt the matrix. Composites can delaminate, and burrs and fibers show on poorly drilled holes or poorly trimmed edges.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 4/1/2009
It's getting harder to imagine any market that isn't benefiting from the latest developments in parts manufactured from advanced composites. "Advanced composites will arguably dominate consumer and production products, especially in the near future," says Bert Erdel, industry consultant and executive technology advisor, Morris Group Inc. (Windsor, CT), "as they have begun to gain wide acceptance in solving energy-related issues."
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2009
The objective of effective workholding is always to present a part or workpiece, regardless of size, configuration, and material construction, to the machining process—securely, repeatably, and accurately, without creating interference issues. All workholding devices aren't created equal, but there's a good chance that they are being manufactured to increasingly stringent standards to perform required functions whether in production applications, a stand-alone machine, or a cell
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2009
The machining challenges for two of the most advanced concepts in cutting tool materials are pretty well known. Cubic boron nitride (CBN) tools of varying designs are being used to cut hardened ferrous metals with or without interrupted cuts, as well as welded and clad metals. Polycrystalline diamond tools (PCD) are being used extensively for milling nonferrous metals and composite materials, plastics, and extremely difficult-to-machine superalloys.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 12/1/2008
Nothing kills the value of an investment in advanced technology more than seeing machines sitting idle on the shop or factory floor for want of a part or a technical fix. Buying advanced machine technology is one thing. Keeping it up and running through monitoring, planned maintenance/managed downtime, and quick response to emergencies is another.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Michael Tolinski
Date: 9/1/2008
Various cutting forces make significant demands on the tool/toolholder interface
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 8/1/2008
This pavilion is the ultimate toolbox for manufacturers
Full Article Author: Laird Perry and Eric Ostini
Date: 5/1/2008
Marriage of abrasive waterjet and wire EDM maximizes shop production
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 5/1/2008
Workholding with magnets, vacuum, and glue
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 4/1/2008
New coatings are going the boutique route, using multiple layers and new materials to optimize for a particular application
Full Article Author: Konrad Forman, National Milling Applications Manager, Ingersoll Cutting Tools
Date: 1/1/2008
It's no secret that the main trend in job shops over the past decade has been toward CNC machining centers that are faster and smarter, but are also lighter and have lower-horsepower spindles. Today's rising energy costs have simply accelerated this trend. This is a complete departure from the use of muscular machines that are able to take very deep cuts in a single pass.
Full Article Author: Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2008
Today's manufactured products continue to shrink in size and scale. Products as diverse as medical and dental devices, cell phones, laptop computers, and aerospace and electronics components require smaller, even miniaturized, cutting tools and tooling systems.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor James R. Koelsch
Date: 9/1/2007
Pooling resources makes them leaner and meaner
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 9/1/2007
CBN, PCD, and ceramics are growing in use for the toughest machining jobs
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 6/1/2007
Holes are cleaner, deeper, faster, smaller
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert Aronson
Date: 5/1/2007
Don't overlook this path to productivity
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2007
Processing on multitasking equipment boosts throughput and can reduce tolerance stackup
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 4/1/2007
New tool designs and proper choice of toolholder interfaces can optimize milling and turning operations on multitasking machines
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 4/1/2007
Many manufacturers of workholding equipment report a significant sales increase or a backlog of orders. Several factors contribute to this rosy picture in addition to the generally positive mood for manufacturing in the US. Companies are looking at the total manufacturing operation, from materials in the door to product shipping, instead of basing buying decisions on issues such as initial cost. And that approach certainly includes workholding.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2007
High-feed milling strategies produce high metal removal rates
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 4/1/2006
Innovative holemaking tools can improve cycle time, reduce cost per hole
Full Article Author: Mark Brownhill, Product Manager, GE Fanuc Automation Inc.
Date: 3/1/2006
It’s possible to minimize unexpected tool failure by adhering to best practices, error proofing, and other automation strategies
Full Article Author: Don Graham, Product Manager, Turning, Seco-Carboloy
Date: 2/1/2006
Increasing use of ductile iron, CGI, and austempered ductile iron will require changes in cutting tool technology
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 1/1/2006
New tools are designed to keep spindles cutting metal
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