Articles

Articles • January 1, 2011

Further freezing

END USER: Cryogenic Institute of New England Inc.; (508) 459-7447; www.nitrofreeze.com. CHALLENGE: Increase cryogenic treatment processing capability while reducing processing time and costs. SOLUTION: A cryogenic thermal cycling system that also heat treats parts and avoids oiling steel parts for processing. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Durable Metal Products Co.; (915) 351-8500

Articles • January 1, 2011

Pumping up productivity

END USER: Premium Frac Pumps LLC; (682) 647-3300; www.premiumfracpumps.com. CHALLENGE: Increase output of components for hydraulic fracturing pumps. SOLUTION: Automated cell consisting of two CNC lathes and robotic workhandling. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: Gosiger Automation Inc.; (800) 888-4188; www.gosigerautomation.com; and Hartwig Inc.; (972) 790-8200; www.hartwiginc.com

Articles • January 1, 2011

HMC puts rail component producer on the fast track

END USER: Wabtec Corp.; (864) 433-5900; www.wabtec.com. CHALLENGE: Increase machining productivity for two-piece railroad drawbars. SOLUTION: Dual-pallet HMC with long spindle extension. SOLUTION PROVIDER: MAG; (859) 534-4600; www.mag-ias.com

Articles • December 1, 2010

Presetting plus

Productive machining is all about keeping spindles turning and making chips. Time spent touching off tools, adjusting tool length and offsets in the spindle and doing test cuts is time—and money—wasted. That's the value proposition presented by manufacturers of tool presetters, and it's one that, surprisingly, is a bit of a hard sell in some shops.

Articles • December 1, 2010 • Alan Richter

Testing Hyper-Carbide limits

When SRL Nano Corp. developed carbide-grade tools that use a patented binder material with a melting threshold similar to that of carbide—about 2,870º C, naturally the Rosemead, Calif., company dubbed the new material Hyper-Carbide. And once you view the video below that captures a series of cutting tool tests, it's easy to see why.

Articles • December 1, 2010

New Balance

Manufacturers continue to make process improvements in everything from surface finish to grinding wheel life, but one of the simplest improvements is leveling an out-of-tolerance machine.

Articles • December 1, 2010

As the Tap Turns

Tapping isn't easy and one of the toughest challenges is preventing oversized threads. New tools can help. Read these tips from YG-1 Tool Co. and take a look at a 2-minute video of the company's slideshow presentation on multifunctional taps.

Articles • December 1, 2010 • Alan Richter

Threading Large

With the right tools, threadmilling large bore diameters doesn't have to be daunting. Read the article and check out a brief video of several threadmilling demonstrations offered by Allied Machine & Engineering Corp.

Articles • December 1, 2010

Ground to order

END USER: General Broach Co., (517) 458-7555, www.generalbroach.com. CHALLENGE: Increase capacity and maintain quality while grinding broaches for aerospace applications. SOLUTION: CNC surface and creep-feed grinder with auxiliary grinding head and large work volume. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: United Grinding Technologies Inc., (937) 847-1214, www.grinding.com; and Tooling Systems Sales Inc., (248) 656-2035

Articles • December 1, 2010

Better toolpaths help keep work onshore

END USER: Bob's Design Engineering Inc., (503) 648-7418, www.bdeinc.com. CHALLENGE: Retain contract for electronics components against offshore competition. SOLUTION: High-performance toolpath generation engine. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Celeritive Technologies Inc., (888) 253-6701, www.celeritive.com.

Articles • December 1, 2010

Maximizing multitasking with CAM

END USER: Central Utah Tool, (801) 374-2745, centralutahtool.com. CHALLENGE: Minimize time for programming complicated machining on a multitask machine. SOLUTION: CAM software for multitasking. SOLUTION PROVIDER: DP Technology Corp., (805) 388-6000, www.dptechnology.com

Articles • December 1, 2010 • Keith Jennings

2010: Valuable and stressful

December 2010 Manager's Desk column for Cutting Tool Engineering reflects on lessons learned from 2010.