Tooling It Up for Composites April 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.
Innovative Tools Remove the Jagged Edges October 1, 2014 Don’t overlook advanced technology available for removing the gnarliest burrs from parts large or small
Edge Finishing — Product Enhancement or Wasted Cost? June 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. In reality, deburring and edge-finishing processes add many benefits to parts—they create highly desirable edge quality—the quality most products need.
Oilfield Shop Gets into Small Parts Watchmaking December 1, 2016 When work in the oil field dried up due to poor economic conditions, Knust-Godwin LLC, a Texas oil & gas supplier, faced new challenges following transitioning into small parts machining. Rather than hunker down and wait out the cyclical downturn as many shops would do, David Prickett, sales manager, and Knust-Godwin management agreed they should work to diversify the company’s customer base.
A Crazy, Mixed-Up Method of Welding September 1, 2016 Friction welding may be just the recipe for joining lightweight materials
Oerlikon to Build Advanced Materials Manufacturing Facility in Michigan November 11, 2016 Oerlikon announced today that it will be building a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Plymouth Township, Michigan, USA, dedicated to producing advanced materials for additive manufacturing and high-end surface coatings.
Laser Takes Heat Out of Tough Tool Grinding December 1, 2016 Cutting tool maker Shape-Master Tool Co. (Kirkland, IL) needed to expand its tool grinding capability beyond that of its conventional machines or run the risk of losing work to the competition.
Micromanufacturing is Growing July 1, 2004 Many industries have been making parts with micron dimensions for some time, but in the last few years, the market for miniaturization has expanded. The demand is not only for small parts, but also for small complex features on larger parts. This is due chiefly to the switch to modules in which the functions of several parts or subsystems are not handled by a single complex unit.
Laser Welding Applications Expand March 1, 2014 Solid-state laser technology has matured, leading to development of new, cost-effective welding applications, such as hybrid welding
3D Printing Builds Up its Manufacturing Resume June 1, 2014 The additive manufacturing revolution is in full stride, flying in aircraft and giving manufacturers a robust tool for design and production