Modern Applications News articles from November 2008

Modern Applications News archives from November 2008

Pity the little guy: it's no longer a case of "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Now it's the big businesses that get coddled and the small shops that take it on the chin.(EDITORS CORNE)
November 1, 2008... I'll be the first to admit that my depth of understanding of financial matters is limited to about the amount of cash I have in my wallet at any one time, and sometimes that's just a couple of Washingtons keeping each other company. ...

Send us back to Old Chicago: justifying attendance at IMTS means putting the theoretical to practical use.(FROM THE SHOP FLOOR)
November 1, 2008... After two years of planning, advertising, and anticipation, IMTS has come and gone. Things are back to normal at our shop, except for the stacks of literature we requested at the show coming in through the mail with which our secretary, Debbie,...

Outlawing innovation.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Your editorial ["Heads in the Sand,'' Editor's Corner, MAN, Vol. 42, No. 8, August 2008, pg 6] was much too kind. First the heads aren't in the sand. I understand why for printing purposes you had to write that. I remember the $395 HP...

What's on the cutting edge of technology.(NexTECH)
November 1, 2008... See Spot Run! BigDog is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. The robot is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. The legs are articulated like an animal's,...

Blue-collar jobs lead employment decline.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... According to information released by the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing -NACFAM-seasonally adjusted manufacturing employment was reported at 13.4 million by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in September. Manufacturing employment...

NTMA and PMA join to strengthen industry advocacy.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... The Precision Metalforming Association, Independence, OH, and the National Tooling and Machining Association, Fort Washington, MD, are combining their federal government advocacy programs to promote the U.S. government to ensure a strong...

Unemployment trend by state.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... According to the Economic Policy Institute, since the economic downturn began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost more than 600,000 jobs, and the national unemployment rate has risen to a five-year high of 6.1 percent. States most affected...

Manufacturing technology consumption falls in July.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... July U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $303.44 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association and the Association For Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the...

GE Fanuc backs MTConnect.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, Japan, announced its support of MTConnect, a new communication protocol to link machine tools from varying suppliers around the world. MTConnect was officially launched by...

Flow executes definitive agreement in OMAX merger.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... Flow International Corp., Kent, WA, a developer and manufacturer of industrial waterjet machines, executed a definitive agreement to merge with OMAX Corp., Kent, WA. OMAX was a privately-held provider of waterjet systems. Flow first...

Dimension 3D printing provides $400,000 in grants to schools.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... The Dimension 3D Printing Group, Minneapolis, a business unit of Strata-sys, Inc., gave more than $400,000 to schools across the nation to underwrite the purchase of 3D printing systems for the 2008-09 school year. More than 40 schools received...

PennEngineering and Peninsula Components announce patent fight agreement.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... The patent infringement suit brought by PennEngineering & Manufacturing Corp., Danboro, PA, against Peninsula Components, Inc., San Carlos, CA, was settled. The original complaint was filed against Pencom on August 17, 2007, in the U.S....

Shuttle follow-on builder chooses PLM Software.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... Siemens PLM Software, Plano, TX, announced Space Exploration Technologies--SpaceX--a privately-held leading space launch vehicle developer and services provider, standardized on Siemens' NX and Teamcenter software for product design,...

Lincoln Electric opens Automation Center.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... The Lincoln Electric Co., arc welding products manufacturer, opened its Automation Center of Excellence on October 23, adjacent to its Cleveland headquarters. The 100,000 [ft.sup.2] facility showcases the company's robotic welding solutions. It...

Association for manufacturing technology elects new board of directors.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... The Association for Manufacturing Technology--AMT--elected its 2008-2009 officers and directors at its 2008 Annual Meeting in Austin, TX. The AMT Board of Directors--which represents more than 400 American manufacturers of machine tools,...

Some good news in a sour economy.(Industry News)
November 1, 2008... There may be at least three silver linings in the dark cloud of global economic crisis, according to a Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Rockford, IL, economic consultant. "For starters, the threat of inflation that dominated...

The bull of the woods.(Industry News)(Cartoon)
November 1, 2008... I DON'T THINK THEY SHOULD PUT IN ANY MODERN MACHINES TILL THEY GET RID OF ALL THE OLD ONES! OL' DODE IS KILLIN' HIMSELF TRYIN' TO PROVE TH' NEW IS NO BETTER THAN THE OLD! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WELL, THEY KNOW WHO TO PUT ON THEM OLD...

IMTS has its most successful show since 2000: while it's impossible to adequately cover all of the events and revelations that took place at the show, here are some of the highlights.(IMTS WRAP-UP)
November 1, 2008... Despite general economic uncertainty, the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2008 had its most successful show since 2000. Total registration for the six day event, which ran from September 8 through 13 at McCormick Place in Chicago,...

Clearing the air: maintaining a healthy shop environment means more than clean machines. Defeating indoor air pollution benefits both the shop and those in it.(FILTRATION)
November 1, 2008... There may not be fire where there's smoke, but fumes in the air of a shop can be a sign of a degraded environment. Keeping the air clear not only can keep employee lungs healthy, but also can mean avoiding violating occupational safety...

Robotic welding gives a lift to production: a manufacturer that makes parts as few as one at a time for its electric lift trucks discovered its parts could be welded more consistently with robotic welders.(WELDING)
November 1, 2008... Customers gel a lift from Crown Equipment Corp.'s products--electric lift trucks--but in a plant where small-quantity production is necessary. Crown found its welding productivity was falling down. Until, that is, it investigated automated...

Magnetic lifts provide an attractive alternative: a steel supplier turned to magnetic lifts for quicker turnaround.(ACCESSORIES)
November 1, 2008... Time can be saved in every aspect of machining. Smart companies know it is not only the machine that does the process that can be improved, but also how the product gets to the machine to be processed. When a steel supplier sought to increase...

Screen saver: incorporating the right CNC software, with displays that saved the customer and support team time and effort, proved to be a winning combination for a specialty machine builder.(CNC)
November 1, 2008... When designing a new tube-forming machine, MJC Engineering, Huntington Beach, CA, a machine tool builder of various metal-spinning machinery, had an open-ended approach. Working with its first customer, a compressed-gas cylinder manufacturer in...

Prepping the next generation of metalworkers: a community in rural Idaho took a look at what was needed to prepare its students for jobs in the metalworking industry and implemented an education system to ready them to work in any first-class shop in the country.(CAM)
November 1, 2008... While much has been made about the move of the U.S. to a service economy, manufacturing is still the driving force behind our economic development. We won't get rich by selling hamburgers to each other; someone has to make something worth...

Examining the ordinary to achieve the extraordinary: a prototype shop tried dealing with a challenging piece of machining with mediocre results; then it found a better way to hold parts and and accuracy improved.(WORKHOLDIING)
November 1, 2008... It's important to every manufacturer, large or small, to step back and take a fresh look at long-term jobs. Phillips Precision, Inc., Boylston, MA, is a full-service machine shop specializing in short-run production and complex prototypes....

Band Saw available in manual and automatic.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The SH 1419 Band Saw, with Metal Fabricating Solutions, has a swing head for mitering without material movement, provides straight, ac curate cuts, and can be used in bundle cutting. It has 60[degrees] of mitering ability, with capaci ties of...

Knee mill has Meehanite castings.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The TRAK K3SX knee mill with the ProtoTRAK SMX control is available as a 2-axis CNC machine or with a quill drive for automatic 3-axis CNC machining. Precision-ground ballscrews are in stalled in the table and saddle of the K3XS. The knee...

Wireless mobility for quality assurance.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Synergy 200A bundle features a compact 2.2 lb computer pre-loaded with Synergy SPC software for per sonnel who want to conduct qual ity checks as they move about the production facility. The software is designed for data collection, chart...

Foam-controlled fluid line.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The HFP line of fluids, with FACT foam-arrest control technology, produces less foam, making it a solution for applications that include high-speed machining and metal-working operations. The line offers more than five different fluids,...

Turning and grinding in one operation.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... CUBLEX platforms from Matsuura, integrate turning and grinding functions into high-performance 5-axis milling machines, providing multi-process machining capabilities. They canchange up to 40 chucks.The two models are 25 PC 40 that features an...

Carousel offers productivity boost.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Consolidation Carousel system consists of horizontal carousels and control software. Items picked from multiple work zones are conveyed to the consolidation carousel. The software designates specific cell locations in a bin for the...

Dual spindle, quad faceplate rotary table.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Tsudakoma RT-251 is designed for a horizontal machining center, allowing for up to four parts to be manufactured per machining cycle. The rotary tables generate a torque transfer efficiency of up to 85 percent by using an oversized, dual...

Jetstream Tooling line offers better chip control.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Jetstream Tooling line are cutting tools designed to deliver a high-pressure coolant stream at the inserts' cutting edge. The line achieves better chip control along with increased tool life and cutting speed and feed rates across coolant...

Solid carbide end mills for large-volume machining of aluminum.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Alu-Jet-Cut Solid Carbide End Mills are designed for large-volume machining of aluminum. Developed in conjunction with major aircraft manufacturers, these tools are for material removal in monolithic airframe structural components...

Replacing collet pads speedier than replacing the solid collet.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Patented style-S pads can be changed without removing the master collet from the spindle, reducing changeover time. On an eight-spindle automatic, all the pads can be changed in 15 to 30 minutes, compared to up to three hours needed to change...

Software release sports improvements.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Mastercam X3 offers expanded machining flexibility and an increased emphasis on speed and automation. Feature Based Machining, new high speed tool motion, and faster toolpath generation combine with dozens of enhancements in a package intended...

Semi-automatic band saw.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Model KS450 Semi-Automatic Band Saw is designed for work requiring sawing of solids and structural shapes up to 14" at 90[degrees] in full cycle, semi-automatic operation, and double mitering-60[degrees] to either left or right--with a...

Automatic robot loading system.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... A robotic loading system for the Coborn RG9 CNC 8-axis Grinding Machine for PCD/PCBN/CVD grinding offers 6-axis operation with an integrated robot controller capable of 4.5 lb payloads, a 36" programmable reach, and positioning accuracy of [+...

Motion computer controls more than 100 axes.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Power PMAC can control up to 128 axes simultaneously. It employs a Linux operating system with a hard, real-time kernel, for general-purpose computing environment. It comes embedded with a complete motion and machine control software...

Ring groover for oil and gas industry.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The OTM API Ring Groover is a cutting tool designed to advance productivity in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, where the quality and reliability of ring-joint gasket sealing in flanged pipe connections has a significant influence on...

Sweeper magnet cleans up ferrous material.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The Magnetic Road Sweeper, made from 304 stainless steel, uses a permanent magnet or electromagnet for vehicle-mounted applications such as a for klift or skid-steer to sweep industrial or commercial floors, worksites, roadways, construction...

Reduced-chatter burrs.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Omega Burs feature an aggressive, deep double-cut tooth pattern for chip control and rapid stock removal in harder materials with minimal chatter. They feature a geometry and a deep flute configuration for increased tooth strength, and maximum...

Software offers time savings.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Verisurf X, a new generation of software, is easier to navigate and to customize, as well as faster to learn, according to the manufacturer. It lets users inspect, analyze, build, and reverse-engineer using the same software. Features include:...

Wiper insert widens chip breaking ranges.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... The WMX wiper insert combines a main radius with multiple complementary radii and integrates a new chip-breaker geometry. This design widens feed rate and chip-breaking ranges, allowing machining times to be cut by 30 percent, according to the...

Fiber laser line offers range of applications.(New Products)
November 1, 2008... Turnkey fiber laser welders provide welding performance with minimal cost of ownership. Both low-power and high-power fiber lasers can be integrated into the existing range of Delta Series or custom workstations with motion options including...

Manufacturing is a knowledge business: at first blush, low-cost labor may seem to be a deciding factor in a manufacturer's advantage, but on closer examination it is the improved technical efficiency of manufacturing that can be a deciding factor in competitiveness.(THE LAST WORD)
November 1, 2008... Spend more than a little lime in the business sections of mainstream American newspapers and magazines and you'll be buffeted by the wails over lost American manufacturing jobs, complaints about the wholesale export of all manufacturing to...