The service bureaus that grew in lockstep with 3D printing’s early rise in popularity have largely evolved into one-stop shops for a variety of machined, fabricated, plastic-injection molded, and of course 3D-printed parts.
Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, was quoted in a 2006 article in Forbes as saying, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”
While the manufacturing sector generates large amounts of data, relatively few companies have fully harnessed that data to improve operational efficiencies.
Hockley Pattern & Tool, Halesowen, England, is an example of a company dedicated to the art and science of making perfect tooling.
After three years of work, military researchers are near the end of a project to find a faster, cheaper way to make tools for large aerospace parts like skins for wings and fuselages.
Solid-carbide round tools have seemingly been around forever; before them, high-speed steel (HSS) tools ruled the roost, and after them a growing selection of alternative processes like indexables, EDM, waterjet and now additive manufacturing emerged as competition.
In an announcement orchestrated from Barcelona, California-based HP in June announced an expansion of its 3D printing business.
The distributorship with NCS Technologies is aimed to grow their sales channel for TruPrint additive manufacturing systems throughout the U. S.
Betting that the worst of the pandemic will be over and travel restrictions lifted, the 2021 edition the machine tool exhibition is putting out the welcome mat to the world.
Improvements in manufacturing management software, robotics, additive manufacturing and thermal controls are making small batch sizes more cost effective—even for smaller shops. Manufacturing plants are able to reduce inventory, improve throughput and reduce demands on human operators.