Articles & Columns

Many companies fail to recognize the benefit of having well-designed, effective training programs, despite a proven track record for improving the skills and morale of employees and increasing the flexibility and bottom line of a company.

When productivity decreases, some leaders assume that machinists are not adequately doing their jobs. After all, they directly operate the machines. Before jumping to this conclusion, however, ask if you are being fair to these skilled workers who are the backbone of the manufacturing industry.

Water Jet Sweden recently introduced the FAWJ Micro Head package for shops that use the company's standard machines and want to make highly precise, narrow cuts that don’t need to meet extremely tight tolerances.

With its release of new tool bodies and inserts, Walter USA LLC significantly expands its cutter family for milling large threads, the T2711/T2712 system.

What about the less obvious threats to worker safety? How do you take those elements into account? To address this concern, the shop where CTE's Machinist's Corner columnist works uses a system of unsafe acts or conditions tickets (UACTs).

END USER: Backerworks Manufacturing LLC, (505) 342-2943, www.backerworks.com. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: Axis Machine Services LLC, (505) 206-2726, www.axismachineservices.com; Houghton International Inc., (800) 666-4684, www.houghtonintl.com. CHALLENGE: Reduce the amount of coolant makeup and the sticky coolant film that forms on machine surfaces. SOLUTION: A soluble-oil metalworking fluid for multiple-metal machining and grinding.

Before bringing abrasive waterjetting in-house, shops should know it is a deceptively simple process that demands a great deal of thought, effort and planning to ensure a reasonably quick return on investment and increase in operational productivity.

As demand grows for finer surface finishes and tolerance specifications become tighter—and competition continues to intensify—parts manufacturers are adopting advanced fluid filtration technologies to achieve their machining and grinding goals.

The use of aluminum molds for production molding applications is the “biggest trend I’m seeing in moldmaking,” said a longtime manufacturer of cutting tools.

When programmed to follow optimal CAM toolpaths and matched to a machine tool’s capability, expensive cutting tools engineered for high efficiency may offer total-cost-and-performance results that are significantly better than lower-cost cutting tools.

With respect to the norms of the 19th century, Kate Gleason was way ahead of her time. In honor of Women’s History Month, CTE remembers groundbreaker Catherine “Kate” Anselm Gleason (1865-1933). During the restrictive culture of her time, she helped shape the global cutting tools industry as a sales engineer for her family’s gear cutting machinery business. 

Machine maintenance goes soft(ware).The stakes are much higher today for machine maintenance. Shops must be more proactive, and aim to optimize every operational aspect of their CNC equipment. 

When chatter rears its ugly head, it’s a good idea to look at your cutting tools. Selecting material-specific cutting tools is certainly part of the solution.

CemeCon Inc. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Jan. 17 to officially open its new 15,000-sq.-ft. headquarters and CVD-diamond coating facility in Big Flats, N.Y. The opening marks the fourth expansion of production capabilities since the U.S. subsidiary was opened in 1998 and the third increase in capacity for CVD-diamond processing since 2014.

Baker Industries Inc. reports that it has installed an Emco Mecof Powermill 5-axis vertical milling center—the first of its kind in the U.S. and one of the largest milling centers in the Midwest.

YG-1 Tool developed its line of D-Power diamond-coated carbide endmills for machining graphite and composite materials.

CNC machine tool owners with a healthy concern for their employees are advised to enclose their machines in protective structures.

Complying with sensitive information requests may be necessary in some circumstances, but it’s possible to provide too much information, which might expose proprietary processes and technology and put a company at a competitive disadvantage.

In his March 2018 Lead Angle column, CTE Editor Alan Richter takes notice of developments in large-part machining and previews an upcoming shop profile about Coldwater Machine Co.'s expertise in producing short runs of fairly massive components.

Last year, Sandvik Coromant Co. introduced its CoroPlus Collision Detector, which is designed to effectively use data to minimize damage to both a machine tool and a workpiece in the event of a crash.