American Machinist articles from June 2005

American Machinist archives from June 2005

Let's keep U.S. assembly lines moving.(FROM THE EDITOR)
June 1, 2005... The automotive industry is facing turbulent times as it contends with bitter price competition, excess production capacity, falling profits, and cheap financing. The surprise is that we're talking about the Chinese automotive market, not the...

Don't expect gas-tax reduction.(WE'VE GOT MAIL)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... I believe you are tilting at windmills with your May editorial ("Decreasing the fuel tax to reduce gas prices," p. 8). Corruption at all government levels is so widespread that I do not believe we will see an end. I have watched a local...

It is a choice to be happy.(WE'VE GOT MAIL)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... Regarding your April editorial ("Let's get happy," p. 8), Abraham Lincoln, a politician and lawyer touted for his honesty, said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." In other words, happiness is a choice. ...

No passion or pride for products.(WE'VE GOT MAIL)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... I agree with you and Ms. Maynard (author of "The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost their Grip on the American Car Market") in your March editoial ("Big Three automakers strike out," p. 8). Most major U.S. auto companies (and many other...

Corrections.(WE'VE GOT MAIL)(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2005... "Stop babysitting high-speed machines" (May, p. 52), incorrectly identified the moldmaking end users that often rough cut molds at speedy machine times. Mikron's moldmaking end users rough cut those molds. The location for Metronics Inc....

Manufacturers flock to grinding gathering.(TECHNOLOGY TRENDS)
June 1, 2005... A global audience packed the first-ever Schleifring Grinding Symposium held in Thun, Switzerland. More than 1,400 end users and distributors attended technical conferences, machining presentations, and factory tours. They also witnessed the...

Okuma America names president/COO.(TECHNOLOGY TRENDS)
June 1, 2005... Okuma Corp. has promoted Larry Schwartz to president and COO of Okuma American Corp., Charlotte. He succeeds Dean Hanaki, who has been named Okuma America's chairman and CEO. Schwartz was formerly vice president of sales and marketing. He...

March machine tool consumption strong.(TECHNOLOGY TRENDS)
June 1, 2005... AMT--The Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association (AMTDA) reported "strong" investment in machine tools despite reports of an economic slowdown. March U.S. machine tool consumption was...

Prototyping Darth Vader's face.(TECHNOLOGY TRENDS)
June 1, 2005... Millions of movie-goers will see a Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. But relatively few will know the character's menacing mask is the result of a prototyping technology called subtractive rapid prototyping (SRP). ...

Setting the standard for lean certification.(TECHNOLOGY TRENDS)
June 1, 2005... Manufacturers may have an industry standard for lean certification as early as this fall. Currently, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), and The Shingo Prize for Excellence in...

Customized miniturrets.(TOOLING & WORKHOLDING)
June 1, 2005... Multitask miniturrets with CoroTurn SL adaptor plates, cutting heads, and blades are for turning and grooving. Four cutting heads integrate into one toolholder for internal and external use to reduce toolchange time and maximize tool-magazine...

Vises for cubic workpieces.(TOOLING & WORKHOLDING)
June 1, 2005... Kontec KSL stationary clamping vises clamp cubic workpieces onto universal vertical machining centers or any 4 or 5-axis table. They come in three sizes with 3.9, 4.9, or 6.2-in. (100, 125, or 160-mm) base jaws, which can be combined with...

Hard-turning drive pins.(TOOLING & WORKHOLDING)
June 1, 2005... Neidlein face-driver drive pins clamp hardened "workpeices for turning. The drive pins, which are mounted around the face driver, are microserrated and hard coated. They can be used with SB/FSB and FFB standard face drivers and all...

U.S. Cutting Tool Institute billings index.(CUTTING TOOL DIGEST)
June 1, 2005... U.S. CUTTING TOOL INSTITUTE BILLINGS INDEX Index for February '04--January '05 February $130,560,000 123.0% March $154,823,146 145.4% April $142,985,844 134.7% May $135,776,786...

China trade troubles may come to a head.(GOVERNMENT MATTERS)
June 1, 2005... The China currency issue seems to be coming to a head. Last month, Senators Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) offered an amendment to the State Department Authorization bill that would have mandated a 180-day negotiation...

Grinder provides nano precision.(MACHINE OF THE MONTH)
June 1, 2005... Studer's new S12 cylindrical grinder takes precision to extreme levels, according to United Grinding, Miamisburg, Ohio. The machine makes its U.S. debut at the Production Grinding Conference in Cincinnati on June 21. The heart of the...

Secondhand exposure to asbestos dust is basis for claim.(LAW & LIABILITY)
June 1, 2005... Ronald Lunsford said his father worked for the Brower Company in 1958 at a Texaco refinery in Anacortes, Wash. and frequently returned home from work with asbestos dust on his clothes, hat, car, and tools. Lundsford claimed he was exposed to...

Suing for faulty fire fighting.(LAW & LIABILITY)
June 1, 2005... Ohio Briquetting LLC stamped briquettes from scrap titanium supplied by Titanium Metal Corp. On Nov. 15, 2002, an explosion and ensuing fire at Ohio Briquetting's plant in Oakwood Village, Ohio, caused significant damage to the company's...

MicroEDMing medical parts: details so tiny they can't be machined any other way.(MEDICAL MANUFACTURING)(Cover Story)
June 1, 2005... Working with electrode wire four to five times smaller than a human hair, holding parts barely visible with the naked eye, and accurately producing holes as tiny as 0.0005 in. in diameter is nothing new in micromachining medical parts with EDM....

Getting parts really clean: ultracleaning techniques for medical parts.(MEDICAL)
June 1, 2005... Medical-device manufacturers worry a lot about cleanliness. Even minute contaminants left over from manufacturing processes can lead to far-reaching medical complications, as well as interfering with subsequent processes. To make matters worse,...

Creating a vision for the blind: a unique training program gives the blind a new lease on life while helping shops gain skilled, conscientious employees.(TRAINING)
June 1, 2005... When one walks into the machine shop of Arizona Industries for the Blind (AIB), it's hard to tell that the operators are legally blind. They're moving around the shop quickly and competently, loading and unloading a variety of parts on several...

Shop fixes manufacturing mishaps.(CASE-BOOKS)
June 1, 2005... As a contract fabricating shop, Metal Fabricators Inc. (PMF) in Williston, S.C., laser cuts both 2D and 3D work, and the bulk of its 3D laser jobs results from fixing other manufacturers' mistakes. The shop uses a Domino 1530 2D/3D...

Many different jobs, one coolant.(CASE-BOOKS)
June 1, 2005... TNS Machining in Muskego, Wis., was aggravated with trying different types of coolants for the variety of metals it works with, machining processes it uses, and quality levels it requires. The prototype and production-machining job shop wanted...

Monorail machine minimizes material handling.(CASE-BOOKS)
June 1, 2005... As part of its foundry-modernization process, D&L Foundry in Moses Lake, Wash., installed a Wheelabrator 8-wheel monorail-blast machine to handle municipal castings such as man-hole covers and rings, gratings for trees, and commemorative-event...

Plastic towers play it cool.(CASE-BOOKS)
June 1, 2005... For metal fabricating shops like Cerro Wire & Cable in Hartselle, AI., and Olin of East Alton, Ill., plastic cooling towers reduce maintenance and increase up time for cooling metalworking operations. These non-corroding, leak-proof,...

Blocking setup problems.(PRACTICAL IDEAS)
June 1, 2005... Instead of incorporating sine plates on a vertical-spindle rotary surface grinder, I use cold-rolled steel blocks to set up large die segments needing to be ground on angles. These blocks, with tapped holes for 1/2 or 5/8-in, bolts, mount to...

Idea airs-out turning.(PRACTICAL IDEAS)
June 1, 2005... My idea evolved from turning stator housings for automobile alternators. Stators consist of several stacked plates riveted and glued together with copper-wire windings around them. After winding, stator O.D.s are turned using carbide inserts....

3-in-1 marking systems.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The 3-in-1 DPS marking systems offer three modular marking-head options--peen/scribe units that use an impact stylus for peen marking; a diamond tip for quiet scribe marking into hard or soft surfaces; and a 50-W, adjustable diode laser to mark...

Fiber-pumped markers.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The ProWriter F20 is a fiber-pumped, 20-W laser marker with a pumping technique for using telecom-grade diodes. It requires no special electrical connections or external cooling because it operates on typical house current. A compact design...

Engrave dot and data codes.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Borries' 313 micro liner mobile marking unit uses an area of 4.7x0.750-in. for marking dot-matrix characters and data-matrix codes. This makes it well-suited for metal and aluminum supports, pipes, tubes, and more. Programming comes from a...

Mark carbide and aluminum.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Ultra-Dex Beamer Nd:YAG laser marking systems tackle noncontact marking and engraving of steels, carbide, ceramics, aluminum, black-oxided steel, and more. The lasers "Q-switch" or cycle at short pulses to optimize peak power for maximum...

Diode-pumped laser markers.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... MicroLase marking systems use fully sealed, diodepumped Nd YAG/Nd:YV04 lasers. Their laser-diode sources are air-cooled and provide 15,000 hr or more of maintenance-free operation without external chillers or flashlamp replacements. The...

VMCs sport swivel-head spindles.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The FZ08KS Tilt VMCs feature swivel-head spindles with ranges of -20[degrees] to +115[degrees]. Aimed at medical, dental, and small automotive-parts manufacturers, applications include orthopedic devices and surgical supplies made of titanium,...

Linear-driven VMCs.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Super Velocity Center (SVC) 2000L VCMs with linear motors provide rapid traverses from 4,724 ipm in X to 1,969 ipm in Y and Z. These machines tackle long workpieces with 133.86x20.08-in. fixed tables and column travels in X, Y, and Z. With an...

Die/mold VMCs.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Well-suited for die/mold applications, NVD4000 DCG VCMs incorporate five ballscrews--two on the Y, two on the Z, and one on the X--that reportedly reduce vibration without sacrificing speed for accuracy. Input increments of 0.1 [micro] increase...

Automatic lathe.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The Tsugami BA26L automatic lathe removes metal in the X, Z, A, and Y axes. It comes with Fanuc 32i-TA two-path controls, AC drives for 7,000-rpm spindle speeds, and the manufacturer's tool-mounting arrangement. The machines include 14...

Close-tolerance lathe.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Sporting a ribbed, cast-iron base, an extra-wide bed, and hardened and ground ways, the GT-32 lathe offers rigidity for close-tolerance machining. This machine handles bars measuring 1.250 in. and 7.87-in. long. A 5-hp spindle drive delivers...

One platform for all laser components.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Mitsubishi Laser's [LVP.sup.lus] system combines machine tool, resonator, and power supply into one platform. Also included is the company's Diamond-Path technology that uses a constant beam-length system to maintain consistent beam quality and...

Mix coolants consistently.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The Jetmix emulsion-mixing device uses cavitation to consistently mix water and coolant concentrate for microscopic oil droplets less than 0.1 [micro] in diameter. The manufacturer reports this enhances the fluid's stability, increases...

Carbide-blade grinders.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... SBC cutter grinders reportedly reduce the cost of carbide and high-speed spiral-gear-cutter (stick) blades, improve quality, and shorten cycle times. They consistently grind parts to [+ or -] 5 [micro] and sport 49-hp, 10,000-rpm spindles,...

Control hole size and finish.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The SV-200 vertical honing system features a tool-stroking system that executes consistent crosshatch patterns throughout the hole I.D.s for control and higher accuracy in size and finish. The machine stays in any part of the hole and...

Ultrasonic polisher.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... A power-suspending system in the Ultramax UM-1200 ultrasonic polisher drops power output to 6 W when the handpiece is not polishing, keeping it cool and extending transducer life. The polisher produces 25,000 cycles/sec at 10 to 35-[micro]...

Software for multitasking machines.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Esprit 2005 software delivers preconfigured and factory-tested features to program multitasking machines from Mori Seiki, Emco Maier, Mazak, Citizen, and Nakamura Tome. An advanced, real-time-simulation feature performs machining-process...

Vertical rolling axis in die roller.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The MC-15 FI (V) Kine-Roller is a 30-ton-capacity, two-cylindrical-die rolling machine with a vertical rolling axis. This provides a horizontally fixed centerline for easy use in manual cells and robot-fed or pick-and-place systems. It is...

Milling control.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... MillPWR CNCs for milling machines run G-code files from CAD/CAM programs and translate DXF files into program code. The package includes mounting hardware and motor castings for retrofitting to various knee mills. Acu-Rite Companies Inc....

Surface roughness tester.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Surftest SV-800 surface-roughness measuring machines are built around a column-moving mechanism that nearly eliminates load capacity limitations. Their 31.496x19.685x7.874-in. (800x500x200-mm) measuring envelopes and long-stroke probe arms...

Five-axis measurement.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... SmartScope Quest 650 metrology systems provide programmable five-axis measuring via OGP MeasureMind software. The software supports simultaneous five-axis motion, keeping the coordinate systems aligned with rotating parts. The systems measure...

Low-cost arc welding.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... e cell dual, fixed-table robotic cells work well in small jobshops seeking low-cost automation alternatives to labor-intensive arc welding. The cells perform MIG (short arc and spray) Synergic MIG, MIG pulse welding, and flux-cored arc welding....

Share shop-floor info.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Automation Integration Manager (AIM) is customizable HMI/SCADA-based manufacturing software that integrates real-time plant-floor information into corporate financial structures. AIM lets manufacturers know equipment status, maintenance...

Graphic design software.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... TypeEdit 2005 artistic CAD/CAM software provides additional functions, wizards, and capabilities for moldmakers, engravers, and others. They include inlaid work, loop eraser, ridge function, specialized toolpaths, paneling, a parametric...

Cells provide material savings.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Shear Genius flexible manufacturing cells reportedly save up to 10% in material consumption as compared with traditional fabricating methods. They combine punching, forming, and tapping of a turret punch press with shearing for separating the...

UL-listed robots. (Spotlight: Marking equipment.
June 1, 2005... Pro Six robots are available in UL-listed models so operators maintain compliance with various local and state safety regulations. They meet ANSI/RIA 15.06-1999 safety standards and CE mark. Like Epson's E2 Series SCARA and EZ linear-module...

Multicompound oil.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... Hard Cut NG straight cutting oil contains an infused combination of synthetic and vegetable compounds and derivatives, which reportedly allow the lowest possible viscosity without compromising lubricity or flash-point levels. It is useful in...

PLC on a chip.(Spotlight: Marking equipment)
June 1, 2005... The PLC on a Chip module is a single chip, programmable logic controller used at the integrated-circuit level. It quickly and easily embeds into sensors, drives, custom controls, valve assemblies, and more for customer ladder diagram and...

Calendar of events.(Calendar)
June 1, 2005... June 15, 2005, Outperform You Competition!, Charlotte, GE Fanuc, American Machinist, Fanuc Robotics, SME, Kennametal, Renishaw, Modern Machine Shop, gefanuc.com June 15-16, 2005, Robotic Grinding, Deburring & Finishing Workshop, St. Paul,...

Cheap steel isn't a bargain.(100 years ago in American Machinist)
June 1, 2005... Editors discussed the advantage small companies had over large businesses in the June 1, 1905, issue. In small companies, the decision about what steel to purchase generally rested with "some practical man who knows the difference between good...

Costly cabbies.(100 years ago in American Machinist)
June 1, 2005... Horse-drawn cab costs were the topic of discussion in the June 8, 1905, magazine. To stop cabbies from overcharging for rides, the Merchants' Association was handing out cards that detailed legal rates. Riders who believed they were the victim...

"Paper" airplanes.(50 years ago in American Machinist)
June 1, 2005... In an article from June 6, 1955, editors told the story of an aircraft company rushing a new plane to completion. On the first test flight, the wings fell off halfway down the runway. Same thing on the second test. The company president...