Methods Machine Tools Inc., a supplier of precision machine tools and automation, has announced that effective October 1, 2019 it is representing OKK Corp. in North America. OKK is a builder of horizontal, vertical, and five-axis machine tools.
Adam Hansel, chief systems and sales officer, DMG Mori (Hoffman Estates, IL) sums it up perfectly: “Go into any shop. Ask them if they want to automate. The answer is yes. 100%.”
The first thing they teach you in Sandvik Coromant’s Metal Cutting Technology course—right after they tell you that Sandviken means “the sandy bay” in Swedish— is that heat is what destroys a tool. So let’s begin our review of recent turning tool triumphs with advances in coolant delivery.
A national model for advanced manufacturing. A place where programs and artificial intelligence systems meet. A facility where students can gain leading-edge Industry 4.0 skills. A place where today’s manufacturers can find workers with the skills to help their businesses grow.
The word superstar is overused. It wasn’t in the case of Carlos Ghosn. Over two decades Ghosn saved Nissan Motor Co. from bankruptcy and forged an alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. That run ended abruptly today amid Japanese news reports Ghosn, Nissan’s chairman, had been arrested.
The Heller Group has its own way of doing things. This doesn’t mean the German machine tool company is a maverick. Rather, it gathers the facts of a situation and draws up a business plan that may or may not resemble what its competitors are doing.
The decision to adopt robotic automation for welding cells is getting easier every day. There are any number of manufacturing considerations influencing that decision, including quality, productivity, and consistency of the weld. Today, however, the key driver is the lack of skilled welders available to fill the requirements of shops both large and small.
On Jan. 3, the Institute for Supply Management released its monthly manufacturing index. It had a noticeable drop, to 54.1% in December from 59.3% the month before. That meant manufacturing was still expanding, but at a slower rate.
Until the middle of 2010, first-tier subcontract machinist, JJ Churchill, could produce turbine blades only if they had their fir-tree root-forms preground elsewhere, or if they were subsequently added by another subcontractor. No longer is this the case.
Burrs, sharp edges, and rough surfaces plague even the most precise metal-cutting or forming process. Deburring and finishing can often be treated as the step-child of a manufacturing process, but its importance is growing as tolerances get tighter and precision devices become the norm.