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TL Technologies Inc., based in Lancaster PA, opened nine years ago with a vision of becoming a lights out producer of precision machine products. Working out of a 10,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility, they specialize in mid- to high-volume production runs for complex parts with challenging dimensional tolerances.

Cyber criminals are increasingly setting their sights on today’s digitized manufacturing industry as an entry point into government and commercial supply chains.

There is no shortage of competition in a global market. As a manufacturer trying to get ahead of the pack, automation can help with problems like a limited skilled labor force, quality control issues and suboptimal throughput. But the high initial cost and extended implementation time can be deterrents.

Manufacturers are facing shrinking product lifecycles with frequently changing customer demands. As a result, they need agile production and flexible factory layouts that can easily be modified whenever needed.

Most anyone who’s worked in a machine shop for any length of time has at some point attended a trade show or machine tool distributor’s open house. There they see canned demonstrations of CNC machines busily carving up chunks of brass, mild steel, or aluminum into business card holders and tic-tac-toe games.

Rod Zimmerman of cutting tool manufacturer Iscar Metals lives in a pleasant green zone in a Fort Worth suburb. Yet within a half mile of his home, an oil company has sunk a vertical hole 7,500′ (2,286 m) deep, from which it has splayed nine lateral lines, each going about half a mile.

When it comes to being successful, manufacturers today have more tools than ever to succeed. Chris Mahar, Associate Editor of Manufacturing Engineering, talks with Jeff Lage, President, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies at Ellison Technologies, about how Industry 4.0 is helping manufacturers improve operations through data collection and insights. Providing tips on how businesses can get the most capacity out of their machines, remove waste and enable their machines do more.

Modern machining is all about speeds and feeds. The old school slow, heavy cuts that were very popular back in the day have been replaced with a new way of machining parts characterized by fast, lighter cuts.

The second level of machining automation is here. It may not be at every shop or factory yet, but it’s coming.

Industrial robots are becoming easier to program, more versatile, more cost-effective, more accurate and more mobile. These changes are lowering barriers to entry, shortening return on investment and making robots a more practical investment.