When you’re managing a global manufacturing enterprise, there’s no choice but to go big. Large manufacturers, and even mid-sized builders, need the latest and best available technology in fast, real-time enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to handle the rapidly changing situations on the shop floor, often at multiple manufacturing sites located anywhere in the world.
The demand for better part quality and lower cost per part has driven advances in grinding technology both in machine tool design and wheel performance. Grinding professionals are more aware than ever before of the critical role coolant plays in efficient grinding processes and the need for a well-designed coolant strategy.
When it comes to creative workholding solutions, Kurt Industrial Products Division doesn’t hesitate to replace one or even two of its old vises with a new one to get a better product.
Combining effective shop-floor strategies with advanced machine tool technology has resulted in dramatic setup reductions for Land & Sea Inc., dramatically shrinking setup times from days to minutes.
The landscape is changing and one estimate says all new passenger cars sold in Europe will be electric or hybrid by 2025. For the companies supplying the global automotive market, this fact and others will require an immediate and ongoing assessment of technologies and machinery.
Moldmaking is making a comeback, with more reshoring to North America of mold-and-die manufacturing that left for the Far East and other low-cost manufacturing centers. With faster metalcutting through high-speed machining (HSM) and improved EDM techniques, mold-and-die shops are finding innovative ways to compete with manufacturing operations in traditionally low-cost labor markets.
Investing in factory automation for the first time is a big decision for many CNC machine shops. For Loveridge Machine (Salt Lake City, UT), owner Dennis Loveridge thoroughly researched his options before making a decision for his high tech job shop.
Nesting is the process of arranging parts to be cut from sheets of metal or wood in the most efficient manner possible in order to maximize yield and speed the cutting process. By reducing scrap and accelerating the cutting process, fabricators are saving on material cost while running more jobs.
Not all threaded connections serve similar purposes.The load-carrying needs of an aerospace engine support bolt in a tension assembly greatly exceed those of a simple screw that fastens a cover plate to an electrical wall socket. International thread-acceptance documents and standards recognize this basic engineering fact, and incorporate different thread-inspection requirements into their verification standards.
Machine tool orders rose in May as the industry recovers from a two-year slump, the Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA) said in a monthly report.
