While cylindrical grinding has been used for some time, its capabilities may not be fully appreciated. New grinding wheel technology, controls, materials and dressing processes, coolant and pump options—as well as smarter software—make today’s machines worth getting acquainted with.

Whether we’re talking about linear pallet systems, simple pallet changers, or robots, it’s clear there is a huge opportunity to automate US machining operations. While horizontal machines are automated more often than verticals, vertical machining centers are more prevalent than horizontals so the greatest untapped potential is in automating verticals.

Basic trends in modern manufacturing are driving growth in 3D optical metrology. “One is the highly complex and high-tech material that manufacturers are using today. For example, in the aerospace turbine blade market, they simply cannot touch the part like they used to—the surface finish of the material is too readily affected by any kind of contact metrology."

When wrestling with vexing issues such as product complexity, lightweighting, advanced materials and new manufacturing methods, today’s manufacturing engineers increasingly use high-fidelity simulations to visualize solutions to these challenges.

If John Winter of toolmaker Sandvik Coromant (Fair Lawn, NJ) were to start his own machine shop, all of his machines would be equipped for through-spindle coolant (TSC).

Cryogenics offer an alternative to traditional liquid coolants when conventional cooling methods can’t or don’t do the job well enough.