American Machinist articles from December 2005

American Machinist archives from December 2005

Italian designed, American made, Iraq deployed: M9, a world-class traveler put into service.(firearms machining)
December 1, 2005... Driving down an unassuming road in Accokeek, Maryland, leads to an equally unassuming facility. A person would never guess that one of the world's leading defense sidearms is manufactured there. The entrance has an open wrought iron gate, an...

Shop puts cutter in the productivity slot.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... An awkward and extended setup hindered competitive turnaround times for a particular part at SR Instruments in Tonawanda, N.Y. The manufacturer of hospital scales and a variety of marine equipment had to flip this part three times to reach its...

Company plays its way to customer satisfaction.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... Trico Manufacturing Corp. needed to reduce the amount of its products being returned because of defects, assembly or shipping problems and order-processing errors. The provider of heat and friction-reducing products, such as mist coolant and...

Plastic towers beat the heat.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... In the aluminum-extrusion industry, cooling-tower reliability is critical in maintaining sufficiently cool oil for hydraulic presses to operate continuously and to ensure safety and accuracy. However, high ambient temperatures, such as the...

CAM for college.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... The Precision Machining Research Consortium (PMRC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Research Center wants to put the benefits of its research into the hands of American companies. To do so, it is targeting three key objectives:...

Engine-building facility gets organized.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... The Toyota Racing Development (TRD) facility in Costa Mesa, Calif., houses Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.'s Indy Racing League and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series engine-building operations and has grown from 50 to over 250 employees....

Plant seals up spindle-contamination problem.(casebooks)
December 1, 2005... An Indianapolis automotive plant was experiencing spindle failures in a transfer line that produced power-steering components. Four identical spindles had bearing-contamination problems caused by high volumes of coolant that was used within a...

Insert grades for steel.(Cutting products)
December 1, 2005... Walter USA (www.walterag.com) has introduced Tiger-tec inserts in three grades (WPP10, WPP20 and WPP30) and eight ISO shapes that the company says are designed for rough and finish turning all types of steel. The inserts have gold-colored...

Small milling inserts.(Cutting products)
December 1, 2005... Minitang high production T490 LNMX 0804 PN-R milling inserts from Iscar Metals Inc. (www.iscarmetals.com) have four, helical, 0.315-in.-long cutting edges with positive rake angles, and the tangentially clamped design of the company's larger...

U.S. cutting tool institute billings index.(cutting toll digest)
December 1, 2005... Index for August '04--July '05 (1992 100%) August $151,299,780 142.9% September $143,973,615 135.1% October $150,843,626 137.9% November $136,477,214 128.2% December ...

Deep-hole boring tool.(Cutting products)
December 1, 2005... Sumitono Electric's (www.sumicarbide.com) antivibration X-Bars for deep-hole boring have a dampening mechanism that the company says eliminates chatter, and gives the tools long life while providing fine finishes at up to 6 times...

Diamond cutting tips.(Cutting products)
December 1, 2005... sp3 Diamond Technologies Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., (www.sp3inc.com) is making its Diatip freestanding diamond tool tips and tipping services available globally. Diatips feature pure diamond cutting surfaces and do not have binders that the...

Hole saw kits.(Cutting products)
December 1, 2005... M.K. Morse Co. (www.mkmorse.com) has added seven new kits to its line of Master Cobalt hole saws. The kits, protected and organized in custom cases, are available in the most common diameters and corresponding arbors used by industrial users...

Short-overhang collet chucks.(Tooling and workholding)
December 1, 2005... Command Tooling Systems, Ramsey, Minn., (www.commandtool.com) says the short projection of its DR (ER)32 Shorty collet chucks allows users to maximize workpiece size. The collet chucks are designed for tools with shank diameters from 0.079 in....

Trunnions for vertical machining centers.(Tooling and workholding)
December 1, 2005... Horizontal index trunnions from Royal Machine and Tool Co., Berlin, Conn., (www.royalworkholding. com) provide access to three sides of workpieces. Trunnion fixtures are manually or automatically indexed by machine control, and the workholding...

Optical/digital presetters.(Accessories)
December 1, 2005... Seco-Caboloy (www.carboloy. com) has added digital imaging features to its PWB tool presetting machines, including its TM4, TM10 and TM250 models. The company says digital imaging helps to eliminate common judgment errors and improve...

Get an edge on tool performance: matching edge hones with cutting conditions makes for super tools.(tooling)
December 1, 2005... Applying the "proper" edge preparation for a given application is no easy task. Until recently, creating edge geometries was more of an art than a science because the qualities desired in cutting tools--resistance to wear and hardness--make...

American Machinist focuses on American Manufacturing for 2006.(from the editor)
December 1, 2005... In this issue of AMERICAN MACHINIST, Group Managing Editor Gina M. Tabasso provides a look at Beretta U.S.A. Corp., a unit of Fabbrica D'Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A., that produces the Model 92FS (M9) 9 mm pistol--the standard sidearm used by all...

Rethinking the machine tool industry's role in national security.(government matters)
December 1, 2005... In 1986, then-President Ronald Reagan concluded that the machine tool industry was vital to national security. He had seen the results of a study revealing that the U.S. machine tool industry had been weakened by five years of steady...

Company not liable for electrocution of distracted contractor.(law & liability)
December 1, 2005... Olin Corp. hired Wegman Electric to perform electrical work at Olin's manufacturing plant in East Alton, Ill. The job site was near high-voltage electrical lines, and Wegman's contract did not require that the lines be deenergized or shielded....

American Machinist needs humor.(reader mail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... I have been reading American Machinist for a long time and enjoy reading about the new technologies and systems. It is becoming difficult to keep up and understand the new products entering the machine field. There is an item that used to...

China no longer draws off business.(reader mail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... I believe that the point of equilibrium for China capturing manufacturing business from other countries mentioned in the October editorial ("Common themes from the manufacturers at EMO 2005, p. 8) and October American Machinist V.I.P Edition...

VMC for electrode production.(SPOTLIGHT: MACHINING CENTERS)
December 1, 2005... Methods Machine Tools Inc. has modified a Fanuc RoboDrill as a high-speed, vertical machining center (VMC) to cut graphite EDM electrodes. The company says the TrodeMaster has 3D contouring capabilities handled by a Fanuc 31i-A5 CNC and uses...

Gearless spindle technology part of VMCs.(SPOTLIGHT: MACHINING CENTERS)
December 1, 2005... Mori Seiki's NV5000 vertical machining centers provide X/Y/Z travels of 31.5 by 20.1 by 20.1 inches and rapids of 1,654 ipm. The company says the VCMs' 12,000-rpm spindle drives use direct drive spindle (DDS) gearless technology to reach full...

Large work areas highlight of HMCs.(SPOTLIGHT: MACHINING CENTERS)
December 1, 2005... StarragHeckert's HEC 500 D XXL horizontal machining centers (HMCs) feature large work areas that the company says can handle two cylinder crankcases for a four-cylinder in-line engine. The work areas have 1,000-millimeter interference range...

Thread-whirling tool lets machines do more work.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Tornos Technologies U.S. Corp. has developed a thread-whirling attachment for its turning centers that operates on the counter- or sub-spindle to produce large-size threads. The company says its thread-whirling attachment reduces secondary...

Material makes VMCs rigid to handle cutting.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Hardinge Inc. says heavily-ribbed cast iron used in the construction of Bridgeport VMC760XP vertical machining centers provide stiffness and optimum distribution of cutting forces. The machines are equipped with widely spaced guideways that...

EDMs sport special controls.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Charmilles has introduced a new series of die-sinking EDMs--Roboform 550--that the company says incorporates a dynamic process controls system to make the machines easier to use and improves efficiency. Charmilles says its distinctive control...

Control system communication options.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... GE Fanuc Automation has introduced a new control system that extends the versatility of the company's products with a modular design that the company says accommodates a wide variety of input and output sources and allows the use of multiple...

Fiber insulation makes energy-efficient furnaces.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Lucifer Furnaces Inc. has introduced a line of energy-efficient furnaces that the company says can provide an entire heat treat cycle in less time than it takes conventional furnaces to reach operating temperature. The company says the...

Burnishing tools.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Cogsdill Tool Products Inc. is offering finishing tools that can be used to burnish flat surfaces on any diameter. The company says these tools are designed to suit the application and to produce low, micro-inch finishes and work-hardened,...

Drills available in standard sizes.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... BurrFree drills from E-Z Burr are available in standard fractional and metric sizes to produce holes of 0.374-inch (9.5 millimeter) diameter and larger. The company says its drills combine drilling and deburring operations in one pass,...

Space-saving clamps.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Mitee-Bite says its new, novel fixture clamp uses an eccentric socket head cap screw and a hexagonal brass clamping element to combing the security of screw clamps and the speed of camaction clamps. The company says the reduced profile of its...

Turning centers do front and back machining.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Fuji Machine America Corp. says its new, high-output automated lathes combine front and back machining in one machine. The company's twin-spindle ANW-4100 machines operate at 30 horsepower to run spindle speeds to 3,000 rpm, and feature...

Paper filters handle lubricants.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Knoll America Inc. is offering a line of paper filters to clean cooling lubricants during machining operations. The company's KF paper filters are available in five widths for tanks with capacities of 25 gallons per minute to 140 gallons per...

Finishing dispensers.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Dosatron International Inc. says its new compact, water-driven proportional dispensers provide three gallons-per-minute of flow for vibratory finishing to handle burnishing compounds, rust preventatives and detergents. The company says its...

Portable spindles.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Ibag North American has introduced a line of high-speed spindles that the company says can be used on vertical or horizontal machining centers. The company says its HFK 95 S40 spindles are rated at 4 horsepower at peak power, and 2.6 horsepower...

Vacuum pump for material-handling robots.(new equipment)
December 1, 2005... Piab Vacuum Products has introduced a compact, compressed air-driven vacuum unit for working with robots handling metal sheets. The P3010 AVM has two, built-in vacuum switches for efficient and reliable object handling. The company recommends...

Bandsaw-blade safety restraints.(practical ideas)
December 1, 2005... Changing bandsaw blades can be frustrating and even dangerous because they do not stay put during the process. To keep blades in place, I use two scrap pieces of 0.500 or 0.750-in.-wide banding or 0.020-in.-thick shim stock. I bend the...

Jaw idea provides a better grip.(practical ideas)
December 1, 2005... Most scissors clamps come with hardened rotating jaws that have three flat surfaces and one V-groove. To provide more holding options and less damage to parts, I make various jaws out of soft materials, such as aluminum and brass, so I don't...

Without a calculator.(100 years ago in American Machinist)
December 1, 2005... Calculators have been around in one form or another since antiquity, but the desktop calculator as we know it has its roots in the early nineteenth century when Charles Babbage, in what could be described as an intellectual tour-de-force,...

A money-making formula.(50 years ago in American Machinist)
December 1, 2005... Greist Manufacturing Co. of New Haven, Conn., a manufacturer that made sewing machine attachments and Singer sewing machines and equipment for the U.S. Navy during World War II, was profiled in the December 5 issue. A third-generation company,...

Beyond quality toolmaking: an American manufacturer continues a 125-year tradition of innovative solutions.(quality)(Company Profile)
December 1, 2005... Laroy S. Starrett built his company on the idea of providing "something useful that people would want," and that business plan still drives The L.S. Starrett Co. (www.starrett.com) 125 years later. But it has evolved to meet the manufacturing...

The changing direction of integrated machines.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... Mori Seiki U.S.A. Inc. (www.moriseiki.com) unveiled Nov. 3 what it is calling the future direction of integrated machining, demonstrated by its new NT Series of integrated mill-turn centers. Thomas Dillon, president of Mori Seiki, said the...

Micro parts milled in metrology research.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (www.mel.nist.gov) has produced micro-scale parts on a new, high-speed micro milling machine. The laboratory said it believes the parts are the first...

Turning centers sport simulation functions.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... Index Corp. (www.index-usa.com) is adding a virtual machine function to its machine controls that the company says will allow job shops to simulate machine motions and functions of turning centers, turn-mill centers and multispindle machines on...

Shop floor control and analysis.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... The Electronics Division of Kurt Manufacturing Co. (www.kurtelectronics.com) says its latest software--Kurt SPC Premium software--provides real-time variable and attribute charting, spreadsheet, light column and digital data entry, screens and...

Machine tool consumption slowed in September.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... The American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (www.amtda.com) and the Association For Manufacturing Technology (www.amtonline.org) reported September machine tool consumption was 2.4 percent lower than August with sales of $294.84...

Software sports web-accessible reporting tool.(technology trends)
December 1, 2005... Manufacturing software from AIM Analytical (www.aimanalytical.com) now includes a web-accessible reporting tool that lets users manage plant operations at any time from any personal computer. The company says its AIM Enterprise version 3.0...

Breaking the screw-machine mindset: not all jobs involve high-volumes and lots of simple turning operations.(screw machines)
December 1, 2005... Some of Tanya DiSalvo's customers have trouble believing her when she tells them a Swiss-style screw machine cut the parts that her shop makes. DiSalvo is the president of Criterion Tool & Die Inc., Brookpark, Ohio, (www.criteriontool.com)...