American Machinist articles from April 2003

American Machinist archives from April 2003

Believe it or not. (Editorial).
April 1, 2003... It has been said that we believe whatever we want to believe. Anyone doubting the wisdom of these words only needs to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper to find varying opinions on where the economy is heading, particularly in the...

The race is on. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... A new series of machines has claimed the pole position in the high-speed-wire-EDM race with cutting rates of up to 47 [in..sup.2]/hr. But just as noteworthy is that these machines run at a lower operating cost than other high-speed EDM...

Opening the gate to advanced manufacturing. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... By teaming up, six federal agencies hope to improve the exchange of manufacturing information among themselves, as well as U.S. industry. The goals of the collaboration are to leverage information about technical programs; share resources; and...

Kiss-and-tell grinding. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... A major automotive engine manufacturer has installed what is reportedly the first production grinder combining external and internal crankshaft-grinding operations. The new machine, which incorporates "kiss" grinding of the crankshaft thrust...

Diagnostic tool for machines. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... A new process-quality monitor lets shops run constant diagnostics during cutting, milling, drilling, and boring operations without interrupting production flow. According to the manufacturer, The Modal Shop Inc., Cincinnati, the ePIG (cutting...

Works off production machines. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... A linear-motion subassembly integrates into metalworking machines but doesn't require its own motor or controller. Instead, it links to a machine tool's main drive via a simple pulley system. The Amacoil/Uhing unit, made by Amacoil Inc.,...

Cold-spray alternative to electroplating. (Technology Trends).
April 1, 2003... A new cold-spray technology is said to speed production and improve part quality versus ultrathick or heavy electroplating of copper. The process, introduced by ASB Industries, Barberton, Ohio, produces a high-quality surface coating with...

Back-clamp cutoff toolholder. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... A new back-clamp-style cutoff toolholder simplifies insert replacement in comb-style-type Swiss machines. The placement of the clamp also improves chip evacuation. Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corp. MOUNTAIN HOME, N.C....

3D-pendulum holder. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... The 3D-pendulum holder from Erowa, in combination with various Erowa wire-EDM clamping elements, lets users attach workpieces on the outside or directly on the wire-EDM center in a horizontal-machining position. Users can load it with...

Extra-large boring system. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... Measuring 16 ft in length, the Controlled Boring System (CBS) SX series tool from Innovative Tooling Solutions has a machining capability from 16 to 47-in. in diameter. The tool runs on horizontal boring mills with live spindles and milling...

Back-bore insert-holder program. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... A new back-bore insert-holder program expands KPT/Kaiser Precision Tooling's range of back-boring applications. New back-boring insert holders for the 112 finish-boring program range from 0.622 to 1.772 in. A second set of back-boring...

Quick-change collet chuck. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... The ProDyne fixed-length collet chuck offers 0.0005-in. TIR and 0.0002-in. repeatability using industry-standard A25, B42, B60, and B90 solid collets, without the need for adjustment. The chuck is compatible with machines using an A-4, A-5,...

Jaw positioner for aerospace application. (Toolholding & Workholding).
April 1, 2003... Royal Machine's 21-in.-diameter three-jaw work positioners grip and locate jet-engine compressor housings for CNC deburring operations. The positioners provide 1-in. jaw movement (2 in. on diameter), and two sets of top jaws grip diameters...

Mill sports replaceable inserts. (Cutting products).
April 1, 2003... The Tangi-Square Hollow Mill holds replacement carbide inserts instead of carbide or HSS tool bits. The mill provides four right-hand cutting edges, and the inserts cut tangentially instead of radially. Insert slides are supplied for...

Back-draft milling cutter. (Cutting products).
April 1, 2003... The Radicator inserted carbide back-draft milling cutter's patent-pending design moves cutting edges close to center for a freer cut than competing tools, reports the manufacturer. The large size of the insert promotes heat dissipation....

Quick-feed compact miller. (Cutting products).
April 1, 2003... According to Stellram, its new VA12 milling cutter not only has the highest feedrates possible in a compact design but also offers true 90[degrees] cutting. The cast-iron-grade SC3025 inserts provide wear and abrasion resistance, while the...

Flexible twin cutters. (Cutting products).
April 1, 2003... The G01 twin-cutter line from Komet offers a number of different cartridges and indexable inserts for many types of jobs. Tools come in a double-effective-insert arrangement, stepped-cutter type, and in roughing/finishing versions. Komet...

2003 machine tool consumption decreases. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2003... U.S. MACHINE TOOL CONSUMPTION TOTALED $149.70 MILLION JANUARY, reports AMT--The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA). This is down 24.9% from December 2002 and down 19% from...

Marking-system producer sold. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2003... NEW YORK MERCHANT BANK CASTLE HARLAN INC. HAS acquired marking-system manufacturer Technifor SA, Miribel, France. Terms were not disclosed. Castle Harlan says it is merging Technifor with another company it owns, Gravograph New Hermes Holding...

Ohio company marketing Ceratizit tools. (Business Trends).
April 1, 2003... Allied Machine & Engineering Corp., Dover, Ohio, now provides marketing and support for EcoCut cutting tools in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. EcoCut tools are supplied by Ceratizit USA, Columbia, S.C. They perform simultaneous functions such as...

Spray-on tooling machine. (Machine of the Month).
April 1, 2003... THE MODEL 88 RAPID-TOOLING machine is said to produce forging, die casting, and injection-mold tooling faster than any other process. It not only produces a 40-1b tool in 2 hr but also reduces material costs by 80% to 90% and eliminates typical...

Five-minute spindle change: a special spindle design gets old spindles out, new spindles in, and machines back in the cut. (Spindles).
April 1, 2003... Somewhere, a jobshop has just crashed a machine spindle, wrecking the bearings and perhaps the motor. If using a conventional high-speed spindle, the shop will spend hours, even days, removing, repairing, and re-installing it. But if the shop...

On-line bargain basement: well-know website expands into the realm of manufacturing equipment. (E-Commerce).
April 1, 2003... For one electronics contractor, a website helped it stock its entire facility with machines and disposable tooling at a savings of up to 90% off manufacturer prices. Another company completely equipped its machine shop at pennies on the dollar...

Graphical interface simplifies CAM. (Bits & Bytes).
April 1, 2003... VX's new graphical interface provides an overview of manufacturing processes associated with a product design. The program displays each element of the machining process in a single, easy-to-understand hierarchical tree. Users select, move,...

Generate accurate blank shapes. (Bits & Bytes).
April 1, 2003... Fastblank V 2.0 lets Solid Edge users develop optimal blank shapes for complex metal designs. "The software improves formability and product quality, while reducing material costs and the amount of trials in the prove-out stage," says Dan...

Make better decisions with real-time information. (Bits & Bytes).
April 1, 2003... MEM (Manufacturing Event Monitoring) modular software acquires data in real-time and stores manufacturing-event information. The information provided by MEM lets managers better understand their utilization of manufacturing resources and...

Identify codes quickly and accurately. (Bits & Bytes).
April 1, 2003... EconoCR is an industrial-optical-character recognition (OCR) software that identifies, matches, sorts, tracks, and verifies products as they move through various laboratory, manufacturing, or material-handling processes. Typical...

No whistleblowing protection. (Law & Liability).
April 1, 2003... Earl Taylor began working for Modern Engineering Inc. in 1988. Under a contract between Modern and DaimlerChrysler, Taylor worked at the Chrysler Jeep Truck Engineering Plant in Michigan as a wood modelmaker. As computer-aided design (CAD) made...

Seller of silica not liable for silicosis. (Law & Liability).
April 1, 2003... Roger Bergfeld worked for John Deere Dubuque Works Foundry from 1972 until it closed in 1987. Bergfeld continued to work for John Deere at another plant until he retired in March 1999. During the period of Bergfeld's employment, the foundry...

Idea puts a stop to laborious cutoff. (Practical Ideas).
April 1, 2003... When doing cutoff work with a rubber-bond wheel and vise, I measure the amount of stock to be removed, adjust the part accordingly, and tighten the vise. However, this is time-consuming if, for instance, I have to cut 10 mm off the ends of over...

Squeaky-clean grinders keep company competitive. (Casebooks).
April 1, 2003... When PROMAX Tool Co., an end-mill manufacturer from Rancho Cordova, Calif., expanded operations to a 25,000 [ft.sup.2] facility, it saw an opportunity to increase productivity by adding new technology. One area that needed improvement was its...

A VMC that's a CMM. (Casebooks).
April 1, 2003... When Audi Performance Racing (APR) brought machining operations in-house, it purchased a Fadal Performance Series VMC 4525 for machining Inconel 625 exhaust-manifold castings. However, the Auburn, Ala., racing-products company soon discovered...

Grinder meets medical demands. (Casebooks).
April 1, 2003... About four years ago, Kim Supply Co. of Montpelier, Ohio, decided to get serious about the tool-grinding part of its business. As a result, the company now specializes in fluting and regrinding tools, with medical being one of its main markets....

Software helps fight cancer. (Casebooks).
April 1, 2003... Tissue compensators are small, precisely machined blocks of brass or aluminum that sit in between cancer patients and the radiation machines used to treat them. Varying the thickness of these compensators gives doctors exact control over the...

Plasma cutter cleans up dirty power. (Casebooks).
April 1, 2003... Drops and fluctuations in voltage, known as dirty power, were hampering the use of critical equipment like plasma cutters at Peterson Manufacturing Corp. in Embarrass, Wis. As result, an old 40-amp cutter had difficulty cutting the various...

Ready-to-use welders. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... Lincoln's Precision TIG 275 and 375 units now come as Ready-Pak welding systems. They have MicroStart TIG technology, which offers arc starting at low-amperage levels--as low as 2 amp. The systems are well suited for welding specialty alloys...

Light portable inverter. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The Dynasty 200 AC/DC TIG/stick inverter welds steel and aluminum in the field and other hard-to-reach places. It weighs 47 lb and has a welding range of 5 to 200 amp (AC) and 1 to 200 amp (DC). In addition, the Dynasty 200 features Auto-Line...

Inverter prevents electric shock. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... In addition to generating true-square wave AC/DC output from 185 down to 5 amp, the Pro-Wave 185TSW inverter incorporates voltage reduction device (VRD) technology to prevent accidental electric shock. This reduces the OCV when the power supply...

Updated welding cell. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The FlexArc C robotic arc-welding cell has a design change and increased capacity. Its palletized frame increases operator protection by providing minimal access to the work area through four viewing windows of protective weld screen. With an...

Workholding for welding. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... Series PB clamps use a hardened helical spline with three hardened drive balls for workholding in welding environments. Arm position adjusts up to 90[degrees] at installation with a special adjustable rear plug. Changing the plugs also changes...

Custom blend welding gas. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The BlendMaster 1000 gas blender lets users create custom-blended gas mixtures for TIG and MIG industrial welding. It provides 0 to 100% blend adjustability for two-component gases. The BlendMaster maintains a [+ or -] 1.5% accuracy while using...

Double welding productivity. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The DualARM System for arc welding combines two ARC Mate robots with an R-J3iB controller. One teach pendant controls the entire system. The control coordinates motion between the robots and headstock positioners. The DualARM is well suited for...

Brazing paste alloy. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... Fusion #1311 brazing paste alloy consists of J.W. Harris' Blockade filler metal with atomized copper, phosphorous, tin, and silicon. This alloy joins copper/copper, copper/brass, and brass/brass parts. It produces visible silver-gray fillets...

Technology spikes lasers' output intensity. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... Used in the automotive industry for fuel injector and component welding and cutting tubes and frames, JK401 and JK501 laser processing systems provide industrial precision welding and high-speed cutting of metallic materials. They offer 400 or...

Lathe with built-in robotics. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... As an alternative to aftermarket automation integration, the TN-35TL 8-in. slant-bed CNC lathe comes with the company's gantry robot built-in. The lathe makes high volume, tight tolerance turning an option for job shops. The TN-35TL is...

High-precision turning centers. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The Spinner high-precision TS series of turning centers use 165 to 250-mm chucks, VDI30 or VDI40 toolholders, and have spindle throughholes of 46 to 77 mm. Their fully cast design with sliding guideways absorb vibration. Rapid-feedrate...

Lathe has special headstock. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The headstock of the Tsugami 2-axis C220 lathe features a one-piece chuck, actuator, and a spindle within a hollow-core motor design. The C220 has a 12,000-rpm main spindle with cooling unit and a 4-in. chuck. The lathe's control is a...

New EDM. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... C-Tek CNC/ZNC EDM machines feature a PC-based controller with all digital EDM parameters for easy operation. The machines have five different motion settings and five depth settings for the Z-axis. The controller also contains 30 pages of saved...

Low-foam cleaning. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The Triton EF line of low-foam surfactants are nonionic and useful in metal and other hard-surface cleaners, spray cleaners, rinse aids, and auto-dish detergents. At low temperatures they are low foaming. They are also compatible with anionic,...

Coolant mixer. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The Jetmix coolant mixer has a mixing-zone design that creates strong shock waves of water vapor which break down coolant concentrates into homogenous, submicron-sized oil droplets. This results in machining fluid with stability, tramp-oil...

Demanding O.D. grinding. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The EJ10 CNC O.D. grinding machine is well suited for demanding applications such as O.D. grinding of cylindrical components in plunge-cut and oscillating grinding. Outfitted with a Siemens 840 D CNC, the EJ10 uses manual or automatic modes for...

Grinder features opposing workheads. (Spotlight: welding).
April 1, 2003... The ITM Series 2005 form grinder has two opposing workheads that use automatic precision chucks or centers to grind carbide and HSS tool blanks. Workpieces can be clamped in a chuck and ground unsupported or supported with a center, clamped...

Manufacturers' directory.
April 1, 2003... To help you contact key material handling manufacturers quickly, the following Manufacturers' Directory also contains complete telephone numbers of the main offices. Listings in boldface type indicate the advertisers in this edition. A ...

Products & services directory.
April 1, 2003... Here, in alphabetical order, are suppliers of the products, services, and systems. Companies listed in boldface also have an advertisement in this issue. Blue listings were purchased. Check the Advertisers Index for correct page number. ...

Products & services directory. (Drills, Diamond--Inserts Threaded-Fastener).
April 1, 2003... Drills, Diamond Carter Diamond Tool Corp., 4475 Hamann Pky., Willoughby, OH 44094, 440-946-7800, 800-628-8665, FAX: 440-946-5671 CJT/Koolcarb, Inc., Carol Stream, IL Crystallume, 3397 De La Cruz Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054,...

Products & services directory. (Inspection Equipment, Airfoil & Turbine Blade-Robot Components).
April 1, 2003... Inspection Equipment, Airfoil & Turbine Blade Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., 200 Frenchtown Rd., North Kingstown, RI 02852, 401-886-2000, 800-766-4673, FAX: 401-886-2727, Internet: www.brownandsharpe.com--See Ad Index for ad ...

Products & services directory. (Robots, Abrasive Belt Grinding--Zinc & Zinc-Base Alloy Shapes & Forms).
April 1, 2003... Arobotech Systems Inc., 1524 E. Avis Dr., Madison Hts., MI 48071, 248-588-9080, FAX: 248-588-9370 Brush Research Mfg. Co., Inc., 4642 E. Floral Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90022, 323-261-2193, 588-251-3760, FAX: 323-268-6587, Internet: ...