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SME Home Media Manufacturing Engineering Magazine May 2018

Manufacturing Engineering: May 2018

The May 2018 edition of Manufacturing Engineering is available as a digital magazine. Links to individual articles are below.
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The Future Looks Bright for Lights-Out Moldmaking

The Future Looks Bright for Lights-Out Moldmaking

May 1, 2018
At a conference for moldmakers I attended about 20 years ago, the group discussed how to find employees to work the third shift. It seemed that everyone at the meeting was having problems filling their third shifts.
By Clare Goldsberry Contributing Editor, SME Media
Compressing the Moldmaking Design and Production Process

Compressing the Moldmaking Design and Production Process

May 2, 2018
Moldmakers are under constant pressure to speed up the moldmaking process, improving their processes and product quality while boosting productivity.
Pat Waurzyniak
By Patrick Waurzyniak Contributing Editor, SME Media
Horn USA offers a high-speed spindle solution powered by coolant or air pressure.

Micro Cutting Tool Options Expand as Applications Increase

May 2, 2018
Solid-carbide micro cutting tools about the diameter of human hair or smaller—some producing parts visible only under a microscope—are making a huge impact on manufacturing highly advanced electronics, automotive and aerospace fuel injection systems, and medical instruments and implants.
Geoff Giordano
By Geoff Giordano Contributing Editor, SME Media
Oil Patch Transition: Manufacturing Adapts as Prices Recover

Oil Patch Transition: Manufacturing Adapts as Prices Recover

May 3, 2018
Manufacturing for the oil and gas markets is in a transition. The oil market has firmed up after prices plunged earlier this decade. That’s helping suppliers of machines used to produce parts for oil and gas exploration and distribution, as well as the companies that make those parts.
Bill Koenig
By Bill Koenig Senior Editor, SME Media
COFA

Macro Economics, Micro Burrs: Get a Handle on Cost per Part, Set a Target

May 3, 2018
The mindset that should accompany decision making about how best to deburr parts should depend on establishing a target for cost per part. That’s the sage advice of LaRoux Gillespie, Dr. Eng, FSME, CMfgE, PE, a past president of SME and author of 13 books on burrs and deburring.
Jim Lorincz
By Jim Lorincz Contributing Editor, SME Media

Shop Solutions

  • Philip Loaring and Pete Raulin

    Machining Partners Tackle High Volume Automotive Business

    May 4, 2018
    Oak Ridge, TN, may be known as the “Secret City” for the classified research conducted there to develop nuclear weapons in the 1940s, but Tennessee Tool and Engineering, a company founded there in 1972 by Larry Palmer, is well known as a machine shop. Its customers include manufacturers servicing the automotive, commercial equipment, agricultural, medical, and defense industries.
    By Jim Lorincz - Contributing Editor, SME Media
  • Automated Coupling Slashes Robotic Welding Cell’s Downtime
    Automation

    Automated Coupling Slashes Robotic Welding Cell’s Downtime

    May 4, 2018
    There is no better way to resolve a problem than by eliminating it entirely. At least that’s how KTH Parts Industries Inc. (St. Paris, OH) regarded its decision to automate a manual equipment changeover process for its robotic welding cells.
    By Jim Lorincz - Contributing Editor, SME Media
  • A reverse thrust component for jet engines being machined on a DMG Mori DMU 65 with Siemens 840D sl CNC.
    Controls

    Aerospace Machining uses Full CAD/CAM/CAE CNC Capability

    May 4, 2018
    DMG Mori (Hoffman Estates, IL) delivers manufacturing technologies to aerospace OEMs and production shops supported by a package of CAD/CAM/CNC hardware, software, and engineering services from Siemens Industry Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) for aerospace machining. A long-time partner with Siemens, DMG Mori builds a variety of conventional chip-cutting and ultrasonic machining centers.
    By Jim Lorincz - Contributing Editor, SME Media

Up Front

  • Future
    Smart Manufacturing

    What Will Manufacturing Jobs Be Like in 2068?

    May 7, 2018
    One theory I came up with years ago, backed by absolutely no evidence, is that automation and robotics will eventually be so extensive that none of us will have to leave our houses. We will eventually sit around all day, grow roots, and evolve back into the plant life we came from millions of years ago.
    By Alan Rooks - Editor in Chief, Manufacturing Engineering

Advanced Manufacturing Now

SME Speaks

  • Brock Strunk
    SME Speaks

    For an SME Member, Anything’s Possible

    May 8, 2018
    I’ve been involved with SME for over 19 years—first as a scholarship winner and then as a student member at the Oregon Institute of Technology. Little did I know that I would go on to become even more involved in SME both locally and nationally.
    By Brock T. Strunk - Chief Structures Engineer, Epic Aircraft SME Member Since 1999

Mfg Intel

  • Maria Conrado
    Additive Manufacturing & 3D Printing

    Affordable, Accessible Metal Additive Manufacturing

    May 9, 2018
    Manufacturing has been a way of life since the first industrial revolution. By the 1980s, advanced factories created products in ways never before imaginable. That same decade, a new form of manufacturing with the promise to revolutionize the way we make things was born—additive manufacturing (AM).
    By Maria Conrado - RAPID + TCT Event Manager, SME

Software Update

Tech Update

Workforce Pipeline

  • Jim Kenney
    Workforce Development

    Building a Stronger Workforce Requires a Cooperative, Collective Approach

    May 10, 2018
    In a rapidly changing world economy, our success is increasingly dependent upon the development of a strong, skilled workforce. To prepare our residents for careers that not only provide jobs today, but will continue to support them and their families for decades to come, a collective effort—spanning government, education and industry—is required.
    By Jim Kenney - Mayor, City of Philadelphia

Viewpoints

  • Larry Maggiano
    Controls

    How Factory Intelligence is Evolving

    May 11, 2018
    Intelligent factories have existed since manufacturing’s historical inception, but intelligence—defined as the acquisition and application of manufacturing knowledge—resided only with the factory’s staff.
    By Larry Maggiano - Senior Systems Analyst, Mitutoyo America Corp.
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