Articles

Articles • March 1, 2016 • Alan Richter

Nothin’s going to touch you …

... in these golden years," crooned the late David Bowie in one of his smash hits. The term "golden years" is also used in Albert B. Albrecht's book "The American Machine Tool Industry: Its History, Growth, Restructuring & Recovery," which he revised in 2015 for the third edition. AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology sponsored the book. Albrecht defines the golden years of the machine tool industry as being from 1948 to 1998. "It was during this period that the United States machine tool industry led the world in both machine tool production and consumption," Albrecht wrote.

Articles • March 1, 2016 • William Leventon

A special electrical cabinet that lets users connect sensors to gather machine data

Networking option: Could the introduction of a small electrical cabinet turn out to be a big step toward more widespread implementation of the Industrial Internet of Things? This special electrical cabinet, called the SmartBox, was developed by machine tool builder Mazak Corp., working in collaboration with networking equipment provider Cisco Systems Inc. The SmartBox is designed to overcome concerns about complexity and security that have led to resistance to connecting machine tools to a plantwide network.

Articles • March 1, 2016 • William Leventon

A control system for quickly programming industrial robots

Teach your robot well: A new control system can reduce the time to set up and program industrial robots from an hour or more to just minutes, according to the Finnish research organization that developed it.

Articles • March 1, 2016

Cool and clean

Hypertherm Inc. designs and manufactures plasma, laser and waterjet cutting systems, as well as CNC motion and height controls, CAM nesting software and consumables. The Hanover, N.H.-based company opened a 165,000-sq.-ft. facility—Hypertherm's newest—in Lebanon, N.H., in 2012. Among other machinery, the facility contains 26 multiple-axis, Swiss-style CNC lathes, which are used in the manufacturing of plasma cutting torch components, primarily electrodes and nozzles. The components are made of nonferrous materials.

Articles • March 1, 2016

Neat ripple effect

Lindquist Machine Corp. is a custom-machinery builder that relies on its CAD/CAM system to keep its workflow flexible, break bottlenecks and reduce lead times. The Green Bay, Wis., shop has one programmer to do complicated programming, but most of the workers on the shop floor can write, or at least modify, programs.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Keith Jennings

The power of relationships

With 2015 being a year of changes and volatility in our market, the importance of strong, supportive business relationships was made even clearer. Longtime business associates became friends, and new business relationships formed with former employees who stayed in touch, neighbors, contacts made through my local chamber of commerce and even my brother's gym-workout partners. These are people who provided helpful insights and became ambassadors of our company, because they got to know us and saw potential.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Jeffrey A. Badger, Ph.D.

Dressing with PCD

Ask the Grinding Doc: When I ran out of single-point dressing diamonds and got desperate, I mounted a PCD insert to dress an Al2O3 wheel. Is there any danger in doing that?

Articles • February 1, 2016 • William Leventon

One machine, two processes

Additive and subtractive manufacturing may be conceptual opposites, but a new partnership aims to show that the two can make a good team. Two of the partners are New York organizations: the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Elmira-based Hardinge Inc. RIT researchers are incorporating additive-manufacturing capabilities into Hardinge's Bridgeport GX 250 5-axis vertical machining center. The goal is to create a hybrid manufacturing system capable of producing more accurate parts at a lower cost than conventional manufacturing methods.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • James Harvey

Avoiding machine crashes

Everyone crashes, I was once told. It's likely true. However, not all crashes are created equal. There are fender benders that just break small tools, and then there are head-on collisions that ruin much more—including your day. CNC machine crashes are relatively easy to avoid. They often occur during setup and debugging. If you can recognize high-risk situations, you'll be in a better position to avoid them.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Kip Hanson

Gripping threaded parts

Cutting external threads is one of the more difficult machining operations. Achieving the proper thread form can be challenging, and tool chipping and premature tool wear are often problematic because of insufficient surface speeds and high cutting pressures.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • Dennis Spaeth

Ring in New Year with new site

We at Cutting Tool Engineering celebrated the New Year by unveiling a major overhaul to the design and functionality of our website, ctemag.com. Sporting a bright new design with larger text and images, ctemag.com is not only easier on the eyes, it's also easier on the fingers thanks to new navigation and search functionality. In short, finding the information visitors want will take fewer clicks than ever.

Articles • February 1, 2016 • William Leventon

Form of solid carbide harder than diamond

Researchers at North Carolina State University reported the discovery of a distinct form of solid carbon they estimate is about 10 percent harder than diamond and could play an important role in machining. They also claim to have developed a relatively inexpensive technique for producing the substance, called Q-carbon, at room temperature and ambient atmospheric pressure.