American Machinist articles from January 2006

American Machinist archives from January 2006

Shop rolls video for tool measuring.(case books)
January 1, 2006... Denny's Tool Mfg. Inc. (www.dennystool.com) produces and regrinds cutting tools, and meeting tolerances of [+ or -]0.0001 in. on diameters in carbide and HSS when grinding inside/outside forming tools, step tools, counterbores and more is...

Software improves company's design-to-manufacture processes.(case books)
January 1, 2006... York International Corp. (www.york.com) one of America's largest independent suppliers of heating, ventilation, AC and refrigeration equipment, sustains its premier supplier status by driving efficiencies throughout its business. As part of...

Vacuum technology sucks cost out of material handling.(case books)
January 1, 2006... As part of a DaimlerChrysler Summer Intern Professors Program, Dr. Kingman Yee, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich., did a comparative study of vacuum technologies used in...

Testing system leaks vital part information.(case books)
January 1, 2006... Millennium Industries (www.mill-ind.com), a Michigan-based automotive fuelrail-manifold manufacturing company, wanted immediate feedback on a critical brazing process to identify the presence and locations of potential leaks. Moving its...

Drills for hard and nonferrous materials.(Cutting products)
January 1, 2006... Big Kaiser Precision Tooling (www.bigkaiser.com) has introduced a new line of solid carbide drills that are designed to increase productivity while using low cutting forces and providing good chip control. The company's new Phoenix drills have...

Flat-shank drills.(Cutting products)
January 1, 2006... New Crownloc drills from Seco-Carboloy (www.carboloy.com) are available with ISO 9766 flat shanks and shoulders that the company says are optimized for high cutting speeds and increased bending stability, and high productivity and tool life....

High-feedrate drills.(Cutting products)
January 1, 2006... Sandvik Coromant (www.coromant.sandvik.com/us) says it can double feedrates with its CoroDrill 880 U-drills. The company says the drills have shaped center inserts with step technology that facilitates smooth entrance into workpieces and...

Stiff-body toolholders.(Tooling and workholding)
January 1, 2006... Schunk Inc. (www.schunk-usa.com) has introduced a new line of toolholders which rely on the Sino-T toolholders that use a series of inner sleeves, rather than hydraulics, to clamp tools. The company says the toolholders, which are actuated by...

Tabletop presetters.(Tooling and workholding)
January 1, 2006... Rego-Fix (www.rego-fix.com) introduced a new line of tabletop presetters that the company says can be used on the shop floor. The Toolmaster TM10 presetters are tabletop units. With electronic parallel correction, operators can make quick,...

Tool and component identification system.(Accessories)
January 1, 2006... Part Numbers in Pocket (PNP) case inserts and tote liners from UFP Technologies Inc., Georgetown, Maine (www.ufptech.com) are designed to provide component identification and protection for parts needed for work-in-progress or for finished...

Collector drill indexes.(Accessories)
January 1, 2006... Huot Manufacturing, St. Paul, Minn., (www.huot.com) is offering collector drill indexes that have covers embossed with a tractor, motorcycle or skid loader. The 4-in.-wide, 7-in.-deep and 1.75-in.-high steel cases are available in black or in a...

A new day for manufacturing in America? Whether it is or isn't is entirely up to you.(from the editor)
January 1, 2006... I would be surprised if anyone reading this is not worried that manufacturing--and machining--in the United States is dying. Competition is tougher than ever, and so many local newspapers constantly say manufacturing is dead that it's hard...

Winning at one-of-a kind: engineer-to-order manufacturers need strategies and technology solutions that address their special needs.(production management)
January 1, 2006... Engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturers produce unique products designed to customer specifications. Dies, tools, molds and machine tools are typical examples. For most engineer-to-order manufacturers, every product sold is similar to, yet...

Does manufacturing matter?(government matters)
January 1, 2006... Many in the manufacturing community felt a sense of optimism in 2003 when the Bush Administration held 23 manufacturing roundtables around the country, culminating in a January 2004 report, on the state of manufacturing titled Manufacturing in...

Keeping choppers up & maneuvering: helicopter company holds critical part tolerances with precision grinding.(grinding)
January 1, 2006... To keep police on top of troublemakers and the reporting crews that provide traffic reports and dramatic news updates in the air, the Robinson Helicopter Co., a maker of one of the world's top selling civil helicopters--the type used by police...

Manufacturing employment in industrial countries.(leading indicators)
January 1, 2006... The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that manufacturing employment is dropping around the world, and the two countries that are losing jobs fastest are China and Germany. Manufacturing employment is dropping in those countries as they...

Overheard.(leading indicators)
January 1, 2006... During a Daimler-Benz board meeting in early 1998, one director is reported to have said, "I must confess that I don't know how to pronounce the name of this new company we are going to create." The chairman responded, "It will be...

Chips-n-burrs.(leading indicators)(Cartoon)
January 1, 2006... Caption: "Jesh, Mort. It's a figure of speech."

Owner not liable for fall caused by contractor's work.(law & liability)
January 1, 2006... Pearson Education Inc. bought a new conveyor and related equipment from Rapistan Systems, now known as Siemens Dematic. Rapistan hired Indiana Industrial Systems (IIS) to install the conveyor. The installation required the construction of a...

Worker fails to prove toxic vapors cause symptoms.(law & liability)
January 1, 2006... Alexander Hudjohn was working in La Grande, Ore. for S&G Machinery Co., an authorized dealer of Deere & Company. On July 26, 2000, Hudjohn's supervisor told him to puncture and drain about 50 spent aerosol cans containing Deere products,...

Instant waterjet cutting.(machine of the month)
January 1, 2006... M-Series retrofit kits transform practically any CNC machine, including milling and turning machines, lasers, routers, robotic arms and oxy-fuel or plasma cutters, into waterjet-cutting systems. The removable kits provide shops with a low-cost...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
January 1, 2006... In Alan Ramsay's Practical Idea ,"Formula taps into drill sizes" (November, p.18), the tap-drill diameter formula for a 38-16 thread should read 0.375 - 0.0625 (pitch) = 0.312 in. in diameter. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to sharp-eyed readers Steve...

Outsourcing comes with a price.(reader mail)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... Is it right or wrong for U.S. manufacturers to outsource? You either understand the issue or you don't. American manufacturers view it as the only answer for surviving in today's competitive market---an easy and quick fix that drives profits up...

Leaning toward multitasking: shops find that cell-manufacturing rules don't apply to multitasking machines.(multitasking)
January 1, 2006... Kim Parrish operated the shop floor at Advanced Machining & Fabrication Inc. in Owasso, Okla., (www.advcosinc.com) for years using leanmanufacturing principles that say existing equipment should be arranged in manufacturing cells and one...

Laser-based broken tool detection system.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Renishaw Inc. has developed a broken-tool detection system that the company says is based on affordable laser technology. Renishaw's TRS1 tool-recognition system uses proprietary tool-recognition technology to distinguish intact from broken...

Better ceramic grains improve abrasive belt performance.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Saint-Gobain Abrasives has introduced a new line of abrasive belts that the company says have improved ceramic grains that keep cutting longer. The company says the belts use improved seeded-gel grains that fracture under use along submicron...

Trimmable discs deliver more abrasive.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Weiler Corp has developed a trimmable backing for its abrasive flap discs that allow more abrasive to be exposed, extending the life of the disc, and reducing grinding and finishing costs. The company says the new discs can be used in...

Toolholders for small tools.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Command Tooling Systems expanded its Thermolock toolholder line to meet demands for high-speed tools in smaller sizes. The company is offering 60 new toolholders for tools as small as 0.125 in. (in standard English measures) and 3 mm (in metric...

Drills designed to hold close tolerances.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Big Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc. has designed a special point geometry for the new addition to its Sphinx Quadro Plus line of drills to improve their performance in cutting steel, cast iron and nonferrous metals. The new drills have 15-degree...

Small-part deburring machine.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... The sPINner small-part deburring machines by Earth-Chain USA are designed to eliminate hand deburring of small, precision parts used in the medical, aerospace and electronic industries. The company says the machines can be used to deburr...

VMCs designed for medical components.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Methods Machine Tools Inc. offers vertical machining centers designed for machining stainless steel, titanium and hardened tool steels to produce medical devices and components such as valve bodies and assemblies, probes, implants, dental tools...

Grinder features Fanuc controls.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Monza Corp. has added features to its Model CNC 1 entry-level centerless grinders that previously were available only on its more advanced grinders. The company says its Model CNC 1 features Fanuc Powermate I D controls that store program...

Heavy-duty grinder.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Studer has extended the capabilities of its S36 model grinding machine to give it the capacity for expanded, heavy-duty production applications. The new model is designated as the Studer S36 Heavy Duty (HD) grinder and uses 24-in. by 6.3-inch...

Spindle-alignment kit.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Pinpoint Laser Systems Inc. has introduced a spindle alignment kit made to check parallelism, concentricity and wear on spindles, lathes and boring equipment. The company says its Model PLS-AKS003 is a low-cost unit that uses a laser...

Clamps hold more parts in fixtures.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Carr Lane Roemheld has developed new swing clamps that have top flange mountings to accommodate more parts on fixtures. The company says its clamp bodies are hidden below the fixture surfaces, providing more room on the top of fixtures for...

Clamp-free cutting.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... The Wen Magnetics Division of WEN Technology Inc. has developed magnetic workholding modules that provide clamp-free cutting zones with five clear sides for milling operations. The company says its NeoGrid magnetic workholding systems use...

Live centers include interchangeable springs.(new equipment)
January 1, 2006... Riten Industries Inc. has introduced heavy-duty, spring-loaded, carbide-tipped live centers that have four interchangeable springs to handle axial deflection pressures while compensating for thermal expansion and varying workpiece dimensions....

Three more reasons to toast the new year.(publisher's perspective)
January 1, 2006... If The Gallup Poll is correct, most of America's New Year's resolutions have already been abandoned. At American Machinist, we're just getting started. Here's what we've resolved for 2006: 1. More ways to get the information you need ...

Idea plugs hole problem.(practical ideas)
January 1, 2006... Heat treating for hardening often changes the shapes and true locations of holes in workpieces. This is especially problematic if two workpieces must be dowel-pinned together. So, to provide leeway for correcting holes that don't line up, I...

Setup puts a detent in plastic job.(practical ideas)
January 1, 2006... I developed special tooling to install threaded inserts into plastic standoffs that are part of small electronic assemblies manufactured in various configurations. Ultrasonic welders do the installations, and the special tooling nests the parts...

100 year ago in American Machinist: what people did before television: a lengthy letter to the editors.(retrospective)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... A reader kindly wrote to the editors to describe the attention he paid to each issue of American Machinist. He could not read during work, even though he thought such reading improved his mind, but he did read the shorter pieces, such as...

Chips-n-burrs.(Cartoon)
January 1, 2006... Caption: "I've never seen it do THAT before."

U.S. productivity growth 1992-2004.(retrospective)
January 1, 2006... AMT Chairman David Burns, president and chief operating officer of the Ex One Company, spoke about manufacturing in the United States at the annual AMTDA-AMT joint meeting. His slide shows that productivity gains in U.S. manufacturing more than...

Moore tool claims breakthrough in ultra-precision grinding.(technology trends)
January 1, 2006... Moore Tool Company of Bridgeport, Conn., (www.mooretool.com) says it has developed a prototype jig grinder that in beta tests has consistently held roundness tolerances within 10 micro in. (0.000010 in.) and linear accuracy to tolerances within...

Mori Seiki to introduce turret shaft lathe aimed at the automotive market.(technology trends)
January 1, 2006... Mori Seiki (www.moriseiki.com) will introduce its NZ-S1500 two-turret shaft lathe at the Westec 2006 trade show at the Los Angeles Convention Center in late March. The company says the new machine is designed specifically for high volume...

Small parts deburring machine.(technology trends)
January 1, 2006... Earth-Chain (www.earth-chainusa.com) has developed a machine designed to eliminate hand deburring of small, precision parts for the medical, electronics and aerospace industries. The company says its "sPINner" machine can be used to deburr...

Machine improves secondary deburring of precision parts after grinding and honing.(technology trends)
January 1, 2006... Otec Precision Finish, Inc. of North Kingston, R.I., (www.otecusa.com) has developed a new type of centrifugal disc finishing machine that the company says meets stringent industry demands for smooth surfaces on work-pieces subject to...

High-performance polycrystalline diamond cutting grade and advanced spring-grinding disc wheels to debut at Westec 2006.(technology trends)
January 1, 2006... The CITCO and Gardner Abrasives operations of the Cinetic Landis Grinding Corp. (www.cineticlandis.co.uk) will present several new cutting and grinding products at WESTEC 2006, including a CITCO Dipax D4 polycrystalline diamond cutting grade...

Taking the pain out of P25.(turning)
January 1, 2006... For most shops, ISO P25 is the most difficult metal to cut. Components, operations, materials and machining conditions vary widely in this general turning classification, which can include operations from roughing to finishing of parts that are...