American Machinist articles from July 2003

American Machinist archives from July 2003

Good for the goose and the gander? (Editorial).
July 1, 2003... On the road to meeting Wall Street expectations, Corporate America got lost. The glare of profitability blurred the road signs and, consequently, management values and priorities took a wrong turn. Take, for example, the Pentagon's decision to...

Image is everything. (Letters).
July 1, 2003... I WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO YOUR MAY editorial ("There are two sides to every story," p. 8). In the New York metro area, manufacturing has such a bad image that it's willingly drummed out of municipalities, with great glee and delight. Part of the...

Sometimes you have no choice. (Letter).
July 1, 2003... I LIKED YOUR RESPONSE TO THE readers criticizing my idea for machining a hex on a round bar ("Practical idea gets hexed," Letters, January, p. 14). Although shops can buy countless items to make jobs easier, not everyone can afford to do this...

Connecting readers. (Letters).
July 1, 2003... Reader Thomas Maddock would like to respond to a Retrospective item that ran in March 2001 ("Request for historical information," p. 192). In the item, another reader, Valentino Garcia, asked for information on the history of drills. Mr....

Shedding some light on coating problems. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... A NEW COATING SYSTEM LETS manufacturers use ultraviolet (UV) light to detect defects. Developed by NCP Coatings Inc., Niles, Mich., the Optically Active Coating System (OACS) adds an exclusive UV-light-sensitive pigment to paints and coatings....

Coming up fast. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... IN THE HIGH-SPEED WIRE-EDM RACE, the Agiecut Progress is the machine to beat, says its manufacturer, Agie, Lincolnshire, Ill. Reportedly, it cuts between 350 and 560 [mm.sup.2]/min and does so using standard brass wire. According to Jon...

Swap out pallets up to 60X faster than before. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... A modular-workholding system that uses a vacuum to hold special templated plates or pallets dramatically cuts setup time--from an average 30 min to 30 sec, reports manufacturer Datron Dynamics Inc., Milford, N.H. Users of the Quick-Pallets...

Another STEP ahead. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... MANUFACTURERS ARE CONTINUING PROGRESS ON AN international standard that is expected to boost productivity, safety, reliability, and CNC machine tool usability and interoperability. This news comes out of a recent meeting where members of the...

Machine soft material with a robot. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... WHILE SHOPS MOST LIKELY WON'T be abandoning their machining centers just yet, new developments from CAD/CAM developer Delcam plc, Birmingham, UK, and industrial-robot manufacturer Kuka UK, Halesowen, UK, are furthering the idea of machining by...

Seeking help to improve manufacturing simulations. (Technology Trends).
July 1, 2003... DISCRETE-EVENT COMPUTER SIMULATIONS CAN SERVE AS POWERFUL TOOLS TO improve manufacturing processes and reduce product-design time and costs. But holding them back is a lack of standard interfaces that would promote interoperability among...

Diamond-coating service. (Cutting Products).
July 1, 2003... A NEW CDV-DIAMOND-COATING service, from sp3 Inc., directly coats flat or wear-shaped parts with smooth, 0.1-[mu] Ra diamond films. Wear rates and coefficient of friction are comparable to polished, large-grain diamond films. Depositions...

New threading-tool literature. (Cutting Products).
July 1, 2003... PROTOTYP'S THREADING TOOLS 2003 catalog is now available to the North American cutting tool market. The literature features the company's ANSI and new DIN/ANSI shank program. ANSI tools come with improved application design and coating choices,...

Chuck for pump housings. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... A 10-IN. FACE-CLAMPING CHUCK HAS A CENTER-MOUNTED, 3-in. diaphragm with adjustable orienting pins that center workpieces. Two contoured fingers then swing into position to clamp aluminum pump housings for distortion-free boring at 4,000 rpm....

U.S. Cutting Tool Institute billings index. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... U.S. Cutting Tool Institute Billings Index Index for April 02-March 03 * April $135,384,295 123.1% May $136,342,116 124.1% June $133,189,928 121.1% July $119,157,814 107.5% August...

Toolholders for discontinued machines. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... A RANGE OF HIGH-QUALITY, STANDARD toolholders from KPT/Kaiser lets manufacturers have new tooling on older and discontinued machines. All holders come with modular connections for multiple tool combinations. Standard holders are available...

High-speed collet chucks. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... NARROW-BODIED, HIGH-SPEED LSK collet chucks have finish-ground external surfaces and are prebalanced for applications running up to 40,000 rpm. The 8[degrees] taper improves concentricity, rigidity, and griping torque. Runout accuracy is...

Brake-rotor chuck. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... ROYAL WORKHOLDING'S 9 7/8-IN. diameter, 3-jaw drawdown, wedge-type power chuck grips the I.D. of automotive brake rotors for turning on single or multispindle lathes. The chucks provide tool clearance for machining both pad surfaces...

High-speed and torque rotary table. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... THE MATSUMOTO EDC 400 ROTARY table for multitasking machines combines high torque with a maximum machining force of 694 N-m along with 180 rpm for high-volume production. The table features a direct-drive motor for maintenance-free...

Gripping rails for magnetic chucks. (Tooling & Workholding).
July 1, 2003... GRIPPING RAILS, COUPLED WITH Mitee-Bite Pitbull clamps, grind and mill nonferrous materials on magnetic chucks. The low-profile rails are well-suited for grinding stainless steel, brass, aluminum, and plastics. Mitee-Bite Products Inc....

Toyoda and Mitsui Seiki working together. (Business Trends).
July 1, 2003... JAPANESE COMPANIES TOYODA MACHINE WORKS, AICHI, and Mitsui Seiki Kogyo Co. Ltd., Tokyo, have agreed to cooperate in the manufacturing and selling of machine tools. The companies are sharing limited management resources and promoting mutual...

Mazak shows off lean-manufacturing practices. (Business Trends).
July 1, 2003... AT ITS SUCCESSFUL PARADIGMS IN MANUFACTURING open house, Mazak Corp., Florence, Ky., provided American manufacturing companies demonstrations of the latest in machine tool and production technology. The company also unveiled a recently...

Lean-manufacturing efforts cut changeover time. (Business Trends).
July 1, 2003... DE-STA-CO, MADISON HEIGHTS, MICH., HAS CUT changeover times and improved on-time product delivery through formal lean manufacturing initiatives. Employing its own toggle clamps, the company reduced changeover times from 2 hr to under one hour....

Economic growth predicted despite mixed economy. (Business Trends).
July 1, 2003... AN INFORMAL SURVEY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF Manufacturers, Washington, D.C., took of its members suggests a clear upward trend in orders. About 40% of the respondents reported increasing orders in May while 24% reported decreases. According...

Monthly tool consumption slightly drops. (Business Trends).
July 1, 2003... U.S. MACHINE TOOL CONSUMPTION FOR APRIL totaled $169.57 million according to AMT--The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA). This is a 2.1% decrease from March and a 1.3% drop...

Microwelding medical instruments. (Talking Shop).
July 1, 2003... WELDING JOBSHOP, JOINING Technologies, East Granby, Conn., has expanded its microwelding services to medical device manufacturers. The company specializes in complex assemblies for orthoscopic surgical devices and implants including...

Ohioian wins top apprentice. (Talking Shop).
July 1, 2003... EIGHTEEN REGIONAL CHAMPIONS REPRESENTING 13 states vied for recognition at the National Tooling and Machining Association's (NTMA) 31st Annual National Apprentice Competition in Meadville, Pa. The two-day contest involved a comprehensive...

Apprenticeship program gets $1.9m grant. (Talking Shop).
July 1, 2003... THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR METALWORKING SKILLS (NIMS), Vienna, Va., has been awarded a $1.9 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor to establish proficiency and credentialing standards for metalworking apprenticeship programs. In...

New Nissan plant starts production. (Talking Shop).
July 1, 2003... PRODUCTION STARTED AT NISSAN'S new assembly plant in Canton, Miss. With 1,950 employees, the $1.4 billion facility is currently producing the 2004 Quest minivan. It will also build the Pathfinder Armada SUV, Titan King Cab and Crew Cab trucks,...

Selling to China. (Government Matters).
July 1, 2003... U.S. MANUFACTURERS, KNOW how critical access to the China market is and that it is likely to be even more important in coming years. With an economy growing at more than 8%/yr and a population of more than 1.3 billion, China dwarfs the rest of...

Conduct forming-feasibility analysis in minutes. (Bits & Bytes).
July 1, 2003... DEVELOPED IN CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH DASSAULT Systemes, V5 R10 Catform CAA V5 Based for Catia provides Catia V5 product designers a fully integrated tool for conducting forming-feasibility analyses on complex metal designs. "Catform takes...

Motion controller increases user productivity. (Bits & Bytes).
July 1, 2003... VERICUT VERSION 5.3 SOFTWARE NOW SUPPORTS SPACEBALL and SpaceMouse 3D motion controllers from 3Dconnexion, a Logitech company. "Using the SpaceBall or SpaceMouse is a natural progression in our development," says CGTech Product Marketing...

Software delivers advanced PDF support. (Bits & Bytes).
July 1, 2003... FACILITATING THE BATCH CONVERSION OF HPGL AND HPGL/2 files into an array of output-file formats, Hp2Xchange Version 9 now supports hierarchical assemblies and output for PostScript and SVG files. Hp2Xchange is a server-based...

Easy integration of third-party applications. (Bits & Bytes).
July 1, 2003... WINMOTION V2.0 COMBINES SOFT MOTION, SOFT PLC, and HMI in a single, scaleable software application that provides single or multi-axis control across a range of general motion applications. Examples include material-handling systems,...

High speed and efficiency in an unusual package. (Machine of the Month).
July 1, 2003... THE COSMO CENTER PM-600 IS A high-efficiency die/mold machine that integrates operations for cutting complicated shapes. It operates continuously and tackles high-speed machining as well as sculptured surfaces. The machine is efficient...

Court upholds contract clause. (Law & Liability).
July 1, 2003... IN 1995, IMAGE PLASTICS INC., A WISCONSIN COMPANY that recycles and reprocesses plastics, needed a machine that would grind up plastic snow fencing. Gregory Harm, Image's president, contacted Arlington Plastics Machinery, an Illinois...

Injured pipe fitter sues plant owner. (Law & Liability).
July 1, 2003... BORDEN CHEMICAL INC. HIRED SCHECK MECHANICAL CORP. to perform routine general maintenance in its resin-manufacturing plant. Borden also hired Pinner Electric Inc. and Lyons Electric Co. Inc. to perform electrical work. Raymond Preze was...

Owner of damaged mold loses claim. (Law & Liability).
July 1, 2003... S.S.I. PLASTICS INC. WAS CONTRACTED TO MANUFACTURE plastic cups for Prime Products Inc., using Prime's 800-lb patented industrial injection mold. In April 1997, Prime delivered its only "4- cavity Classic Coolie Mold" to S.S.I. in Houston for...

Race for quality. (Shop Shots).
July 1, 2003... WINNING THE 2000 MALCOLM Baldrige National Quality award was a great honor for Spicer Driveshaft Mfg. Inc. of Pottstown, Pa., because the company prides itself on producing perfect parts. The shop, a subsidiary of Dana Corp., manufactures...

Smooth road for rough machining molds: software strategy slashes programming and rough machining times for molds. (Software)(Cover Story).
July 1, 2003... Moldmakers typically cut molds and dies on machining centers by progressing from larger tools, which handle the bulk of stock removal, to smaller ones that add detail and prepare molds for finish machining, with each tool programmed as an...

Drilling do's and don'ts: make holemaking more productive. (Holemaking).
July 1, 2003... Many shops mistakenly believe that drilling operations must be done at comparatively low feeds and speeds. While this was once true, the same can't be said of today's carbide drills. In fact, users can greatly improve productivity and reduce...

Wired for tool production: cutting tool shops do the impossible with spark erosion. (EDM).
July 1, 2003... Partnering a CNC tool-and-cutter grinder with a wire-erosion machine lets shops process tools of both poly-crystalline diamond (PCD) and carbide. Typically, shops with these machines first grind a tool's profile and then burn edges and reliefs...

Raw grinding: today's grinders make big cuts without forfeiting accuracy or precision. (Grinding).
July 1, 2003... Don't believe the rumors that hard turning and other advanced machining processes are crowding out grinding. Technological advancements have not only improved grinding's accuracy and precision but have also increased its metal-removal rates...

Flexible manufacturing systems are a must. (Viewpoint).
July 1, 2003... THE NEED FOR AGILE AND efficient use of capital has never been greater. Manufacturers involved in high-volume production must quickly respond to changes in product life cycles without the time and expense historically associated with...

Idea further ratchets up manual tapping. (Practical Ideas).
July 1, 2003... MY IDEA IS IN REFERENCE TO ONE THAT APPEARED in American Machinist ("Idea ratchets up manual tapping accuracy," July 2002, p. 90). However, my manual tap handle involves a socket drive, two extensions, a socket, and a manual tap holder. I...

Tool pins dawn dowel insertion. (Practical Ideas).
July 1, 2003... I QUICKLY AND ACCURATELY PRESS-FIT DOWEL PINS USING A SPECIAL CUSTOM-MADE tool, which is basically a piece of standard metal rod. A hole drilled in one end of the rod holds dowel pins at a constant length, so they always protrude from the...

Shop makes its mark in dentistry. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... ONE MIGHT NOTICE SCI-DENT INC.'S HANDIWORK while sitting in a dentist's chair. The dental and surgical instrument-manufacturing company makes, among other things, Scalersand curettes used to clean teeth. To mark these instruments with such...

MC's toolchanger expands to meet increasing business. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... WHILE INCREASED BUSINESS IS USUALLY GOOD NEWS, AT Badger Meter Inc. it meant having to expand product manufacturing with an already consumed machining capacity. To handle the extra work, the Milwaukee shop took on a new horizontal machining...

Company takes its own advice. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... CLAMP MANUFACTURER DE-STA-CO INDUSTRIES TEACHES ITS customers how the right clamps reduce excessive setup time for stamping operations. The company evaluates a customer's methodology, considering such issues as procedures, materials, equipment...

System cleans up railroad's chip problem. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... A COMMUTER RAILROAD IN THE NORTHEAST WAS FACING safety and ergonomic challenges when grinding and milling train wheels back into shape. At its New York facility, metal chips shed from a 40-year-old wheel-truing machine were blown by compressed...

The briquettes are coming, the briquettes are coming. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... PAUL REVERE, FAMOUS AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR hero, founded Revere Copper Products Inc. in the late 18th century to roll copper. More than 200 years later, the Bedford, Mass.-based company is not only rolling, but cross rolling, flattening,...

Easy ordering on-line. (Case books).
July 1, 2003... MECA & TECHNOLOGY MACHINE INC. OBTAINS QUOTES instantly and then orders its custom metal parts without the hassles of conventional methods thanks to a website. Located at fvmt.com/ebusiness.asp, the e-commerce site belongs to Fox Valley...

Rotary tables. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... FOR 360,000-POSITION indexing, Dapra's CNC-rotary tables permit machining at any angle to 0.001[degrees]. They feature a single M-code-operated standalone control and multipoint pneumatic brake system. A high-precision, bronze-nickel worm wheel...

Robot links machines. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... THE ERS TWIN ROBOT links two milling centers with a single pallet loader. Its variable magazine serves both machines. Users can place pallets weighing 130 kg on the machine as easily as small graphite electrode holders. An identification center...

Handles heavy parts. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... THE R-2000IA/200T ROBOT transfers materials and parts as well as tends machine tools. Its gantry design features a 200-kg payload capacity and more than 2 m of reach. A dual-arm system moves parts weighing up to 400 kg over distances of 45 m or...

Tables for transfer lines. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... TSUDAKOMA COMBINATION TABLES fit into automotive flexible transfer lines or high-production machines. They feature an oversized drive mechanism and hydraulic tailstock support for heavy loads along with a dual-disk hydraulic clamping system on...

Extended-reach robots. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... MOTORAIL ROBOTS COME IN 20 OR 50-kg-payload versions and have 7 axes (single-axis rail and 6-axis robot) with a linear-traverse speed of 8.2 ft/sec and 0.004-in. total repeatability of the track and robot. The servo rail comes in linear-travel...

HMC table reduces workpiece/spindle interference. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... THE MYCENTER-HX400I HMC HAS A 15.7 x 15.7-in. table and uses Table Traverse design for X and Y-axis movement to reduce workpiece/spindle interference common on machines with a traveling column. It executes simultaneous full travels throughout...

High-speed HMC. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... THE HM600 HMC OFFERS 2,953-ipm rapids, 50-rpm B axis, 1.8-sec toolchanges, and 6-sec pallet changes. Its 630-mm pallet feeds at 1,575 ipm with travels of 30.71 x 29.53 x 31.5 in. and 1,540-1b maximum loadable weight. The machine teams a...

HMC features large work area. (Spotlight: part handling).
July 1, 2003... THE EC-400 IS A T-BASE HORIZONTAL MACHINING CENTER WITH A 20X20X20-IN. work cube, a dual pallet changer with 400-mm pallets, and a built-in rotary indexer. The EC-400 comes with an 8,000-rpm, 40-taper spindle powered by a 20-hp vector...

Lathe control quickly generates part features. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... CTX LINEAR UNIVERSAL LATHES USE Siemens 840D powerline CNCs with ShopTurn software. Shops quickly generate workpieces with complex faces and shell surfaces using the system's technology cycle package; interactive, context-sensitive operator...

Manual/CNC lathe. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... THE 1740 MCNC MANUAL/CNC lathe features an Anilam 4200T control and two-speed gearbox with high/low and neutral selections. Travels for the 1740 are 9.500 in. for X and 37 in. for Z with rapid-traverse rates of 315 and 472 ipm, respectively....

Grinding software tackles tough part forms. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... SMART FORM DRESSING SOFTWARE maintains correct part form over a grinding wheel's lifetime. It also provides off-helix internal-thread grinding and quickly grinds lead internal threads. The software precisely controls wheel and part forms in all...

Precision lathe. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... ALTHOUGH NORMALLY BAR-FED, Tsugami 3-axis C300 gang-tooled precision lathe also accommodates the automatic load/unload of small precision workpieces. The C300 features a Tsugami/Fanuc 21i-TA control with 0.000039-in. least-input increment,...

Custom-built sandblasting. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... DEE-BLAST SANDBLASTING CABINETS are built to customer specifications. Company representatives help with choosing the cabinet, dust collector, and cyclone separator. All come with pressure-vessel or siphon-feed operation. The cyclone...

Eliminates manual switchboxes. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... THE CAMLINK FOR WINDOWS GB/DataTransfer program adds multiserial-port options. The program allows users to upload/download Mazatrol, E/A, and ISO files from Mazak machines. The new port options let shops use devices such as cards and serial...

Machine-maintenance program. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... MAINTENANCE NAVIGATOR SOFTWARE for Mori Seiki machines offers information on daily and regular inspections and preventive maintenance along with easy-to-understand guides for machine disassembly and troubleshooting. The software's...

Easy way to filter sludge and chips. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... THE PFA-1002 PUMP/FILTER STRAINS sludge and chips from cutting oil or water-based coolant using a high-flowrate diaphragm pump and high-capacity bag filter. The self-priming pump pulls the cutting oil or coolant from the sump through a...

Toothed-belt-drive linear systems. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... STAR COMPACT CKR LINEAR SYSTEMS provide high travel speeds over long distances. Units have dynamic toothed-belt drives that deliver speeds up to 5 m/sec with smooth running qualities. The modules come in lengths up to 5,500 mm. Bosch...

Universal programming. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... THE RX7I IS THE FIRST OF THE PACSystems line of controllers that feature a single control engine and provide universal-programming environments. The control engine is built on standard embedded architecture with commercial deterministic...

Measure large parts within small footprint. (New Equipment).
July 1, 2003... EXCEL GANTRY-STYLE VISION SYSTEMS accommodate large parts and multiple part fixtures in a relatively small footprint. Monorail linear-way bearings, dual-encoder servo control, and electronics permit these measuring centers to reach 20 in./sec....

Equal--opportunity advertising. (100 Years Ago In ... American Machinist).
July 1, 2003... IN JULY 1903, AMERICAN MACHINIST HAD A REALLY PLEASANT problem--its front-cover advertising was booked up for all 52 of its 1904 issues, and advertisers were anxious to buy every established ad and secure spots for 1905. Editors devoted a...

Where's the DDT? (100 Years Ago In ... American Machinist).
July 1, 2003... IN A WRITE-UP TITLED, "MOSQUITOES VS. ENGINE," EDITORS conceded that the mosquito problem in Missouri must have been even worse than it was in "the wilds of New Jersey." In a suburb of St. Louis, the pests had completely shut down an engine....

Stop the presses. (50 Years Ago In ... American Machinist).
July 1, 2003... CANCELED CONTRACTS FOR HEAVY PRESSES WERE CAUSING A controversy in the manufacturing world. The U.S. Air Force canceled its orders for 17 "gigantic" presses for forging and extruding aircraft structural members. According to AM editors,...

Moving forward with measurement. (50 Years Ago In ... American Machinist).
July 1, 2003... MEASURING WAS ON THE MINDS OF EDITORS IN JULY 1953. They reported two new developments--the use of electronic gaging in the gearmaking industry, and a new "unusually precise" goniometer. At the latest AGMA meeting, manufacturers discussed...