CEO Jason Walker and part of his team at Waypoint Robotics had just returned from the Modex 2020 show in Atlanta when the governor of his company’s home state imposed a stay-at-home order because of COVID-19.
While businesses were in lockdown and people were quarantined at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, TRAK Machine Tools – Southwestern Industries Inc. and New Century Careers continued to forge a partnership that will benefit Pittsburgh’s regional manufacturing industry.
Shops that have always wanted full simultaneous five-axis machining capability but were afraid to take the plunge now have access to a recently developed vertical machining center from Mazak Corp. that the company says not only helps reduce the intimidation factor of full simultaneous five-axis machining, but also makes automation integration a whole lot easier.
The promise of 5G is tempting. Fast data speeds and low latency rates make wireless connectivity, and real-time monitoring and decision making a possibility. Cost, legacy systems, security and other issues might be a deterrent that keeps some from dipping their toes into 5G waters.
One of the biggest challenges that any shop faces in 2020 is finding skilled workers to backfill those baby boomers who are retiring, or simply finding staff to meet the demand of a healthy manufacturing economy.
In this podcast discussion with Rick Schultz of FANUC America and Bruce Morey, Senior Technical Editor for Manufacturing Engineering Magazine, current practices in aerospace machining is dissected. Many shops today stick with the tried and true to reduce risk to schedule and profit, but that tried and true is stuck in the 1980s and 1990s. Rick discusses practical ways to get the most out of 21st century machining technology, by programming for the part and not the machine.
The COVID-19 crisis caught all of us off guard and interrupted global systems in a way not experienced in recent memory.
As laser manufacturing systems for sheet and tube grow more sophisticated—powerful, automated and scalable—navigating the wealth of choices might feel daunting.
In an effort to help customers get their operations back up and running after a full or partial shut-down, Castrol, Lewiston, N.Y., is offering savings to those who trial and switch to Castrol industrial coolants.
The 40/20 vertical machining center platform is rightly regarded as the workhorse of job shops. To help their customers deal with increased competitive pressures, machine tool builders are improving on this established 40 × 20" design, relying on advanced spindle technologies, fourth and fifth axis table-on-table configurations and high-speed, high-efficiency machining strategies.
