Beginning around six years ago, one machine tool builder after another added laser cutting and even welding to their products’ already impressive repertoires.
To a discrete manufacturer, process manufacturing is odd territory indeed. It’s a world in which textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, and food and beverage are produced en masse.
With a single example, Ira Moskowitz makes the case for why the organization he leads may be critical for advancing manufacturing in the United States.
If you ask any number of manufacturers exactly what they felt the first time they crashed a stationary machine tool or dropped portable measuring equipment, you’re bound to get a range of answers—though dread, terror and even nausea will almost certainly be on the list of responses.
The credential hanging on my wall that swells me with pride is my machinist certificate. That apprenticeship experience was the “ON!” switch for my career path. The brightness of that light helped maintain the vision and the hope even as I faced significant racial bias almost 30 years ago.
I met a man recently. He had worked at a small manufacturing company for 20 plus years and was the sole technician responsible for the assembly of his company’s most complex product. After years of dedication to the company, he was set to retire.
Rich, General Motors recently invested in 17 production-grade FDM printers, intending to use them for 3D-printed tooling. The term “tooling” is quite broad, however. Can you share details about what types of tooling GM and others are 3D printing, and why?
Tacoma, Washington-based Tool Gauge manufactures precision metal and plastic components and assemblies for the aerospace industry.
Composite materials consist of fibers—in the aerospace industry, they are typically glass, carbon or kevlar—suspended in a matrix of epoxy resin.
Avoiding product defects—and quickly finding and fixing those that occur—is a critical priority for all manufacturers.