Articles

Take a Gemba walk. If you're not familiar with what a Gemba walk is, let me fill you in.

Many trends affect the metalworking industry, including customer demands for the best quality, lowest cost and shortest delivery time. Design concepts for modular machine tools can address these expectations through general-function modules that can be combined to meet job requirements while reducing costs and lead times.

A Look-Ahead item on a green laser-line metrology scanner.

A Look-Ahead item on a deep-hole drill with a continuously thinned web.

Time for a literature review.

While the U.S. greenback has markedly appreciated in the last year, the Boston Consulting Group's Global Manufacturing Cost-Competitiveness Index shows that the U.S. remains one of the lowest-cost locations for manufacturing in the developed world. Productivity increases are largely responsible, and a key factor in this success is a relentless push to data-driven manufacturing.

Many times in making parts for aerospace engines with high temperature alloys like IN-718, Rene-95 and Waspaloy it is necessary to remove large amounts of material. Traditionally companies use, milling, turning or broaching to remove most of the material and then finish-grind to size. The engineers at Norton/Saint-Gobain's Higgins Grinding Technology Center have determined that for these materials grinding can, in many instances, remove the material more quickly and economically than turning or milling.

Whether you are grinding HSS or Tungsten Carbide, the flute grinding process is the most difficult feature to grind in round tool manufacturing. Though there are many reasons why, the main reason is that this operation is where most material is being removed from the tool, introducing the most heat and spindle load. There are several techniques that can be used to allow the grinding wheel to perform this operation more effectively.

Fallbrook Technologies' shop continues to produce prototypes for licensees of the company's continuously variable planetary technology while performing commercial jobs.

What possesses a new job shop to buy a $1 million, twin-spindle machining center when even the smallest purchases are subject to debate? At Jersey Elite Manufacturing (JEM), Rockaway, N.J., the answer is experience and detailed analysis, because sometimes a seemingly extravagant investment is the smartest move.

Offline presetting maximizes machine availability, reduces scrap.

Machine shops can be dangerous places, but a combination of planning, housekeeping and the proper safety equipment reduces the risk of injuries, audits and lost time.