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SME Home Media Manufacturing Engineering Magazine Tooling & Workholding for Today’s Shop Floor Fall 2018

Tooling & Workholding for Today’s Shop Floor Fall 2018

Efficient five-axis workholding solutions locate and stabilize the workpieces without obstructing access to the top and sides of the part. Photo credit: BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling

Five-Axis Workholding: Modular Approach Yields Many Benefits

October 30, 2018
The rules of thumb for shops experienced in five-axis machining aren’t any different from those for first- time users of this sophisticated machining process. The difference is that the experienced shop has already traveled the learning curve for five-axis machining.
Jim Lorincz
By Jim Lorincz Contributing Editor, SME Media
Customer demand for systems offering greater efficiency, more flexibility and, when necessary, multiple vendor relationships is driving digital tool management development.

Digital Tool Management: Multiple Concepts Begin to Converge

October 31, 2018
The focus on digitalization in design and machining has highlighted the importance and advantages of more sophisticated digital tool management (DTM) systems. While this has generated a great degree of differentiation, and some confusion regarding a generally accepted system definition, it has resulted in the evolution of objectives and capabilities that are both more comprehensive and more customer-centric.
By Frank Burke Contributing Editor, SME Media
Cutting tool manufacturers are producing more complex, high value tools, like this form tool being ground on a Walter machine from United Grinding.

Grinding Advances Power Faster, More Efficient Round Solid-Carbide Toolmaking

November 1, 2018
Hats off to tool manufacturers! They make some of the most geometrically complex products out of the toughest materials and with the tightest tolerances. And yet cutting tools represent only 3% of the total cost of the average metalworking process.
Ed Sinkora
By Ed Sinkora Contributing Editor, SME Media
RFID-capable presetters, such as this one from Haimer, are increasingly popular with shops striving for maximum efficiency.

Sorting Out the Options Leads to Successful Presetting

November 2, 2018
With the number of offline and in-process toolsetting options on the rise, developing a way to efficiently utilize this technology can be confusing. Which presetter should we buy? What about the software that’s so often part of these systems—do we really need it?
By ME Staff Report
An alternative to solid high-feed round tools, Sandvik Coromant’s CoroMill 415 is a small-diameter, high-feed face milling cutter.

Advanced Cutting Tools Rev Up Milling Operations

November 5, 2018
Do you have what it takes to raise your milling productivity to the next level? In addition to the requisite know-how, you need cutters and machine tools that will allow you to employ milling techniques that exceed what’s normally possible. Aided by the right hardware, you may soon be performing feats like pushing your feed rates to new highs and cutting harder materials than ever before.
By ME Staff Report

Upfront

  • Alan Rooks
    Tooling & Workholding

    A Supermarket for Tooling and Workholding

    November 5, 2018
    If you’re looking for new solutions to tooling and workholding challenges, IMTS was a great place to start. The bi-annual trade show, held this past September in Chicago, allowed shops to browse for the “latest and greatest” technologies.
    By Alan Rooks - Editor in Chief, Manufacturing Engineering

Advanced Manufacturing Now

  • Online wheel dresser spindle.
    Tooling & Workholding

    Superabrasive Wheels Reinforce Outstanding Results for Cutting Tool Manufacturers

    October 25, 2018
    For today’s industrial cutting tool manufacturers there is a continuous and increasing demand for faster cycle times, better asset utilization, tighter tolerances and improved quality. Running a successful manufacturing facility takes more than acquiring the latest state- of-the-art equipment and the most advanced grinding technology.
    By Alfredo Barragan Sr. - Corporate Application Engineer, Norton | Saint-Gobain
  • ANCA developed its own low-cost robotic solution for tool loading, designed to operate within the machine tool work area. The three-axis ANCA robot has a capacity of 380 tools and accommodates tool sizes up to 20 mm in diameter x 150 mm long.
    Grinding & Deburring

    The Future of Robotics in CNC Grinding

    October 26, 2018
    The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) in 2016 showed unit sales figures in 2015 up 15% on the year before, reaching an all-time high of 253,748. Since 2010, technical improvements in robots and automation have turbocharged investment, according to the report.
    By Pat Boland - Co-Founder, ANCA Inc.

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