Articles & Columns

Ultrashort pulsed-laser deposition of diamond-like coatings.

Improve cutting edge integrity and flute faces of cutting tools. A flute finishing process that uses a fine-grit, hybrid resin-bond flute polishing grinding wheel, special truing wheels and fine-grit dressing sticks.

Electron beam drills make short work of microholes.

Producing prototype automotive parts via 3-D printing helps reduce time to market while boosting vehicle quality and fuel efficiency.

Tom Lipton, the author of Cutting Tool Engineering's Shop Operations column, shares a trick he learned that reveals an interesting use of relatively crash-proof soft metal or plastic bed plates on a milling machine.

Minimize lubricant for a mass-production cylinder head line. Switch to minimum quantity lubrication.

A collection of metalworking products for your review.

This month's Cutting Tool Engineering Machinist's Corner column asks, "Why waste everyone's time courting a new customer if you aren't prepared to accommodate them?"

Produce additional parts without investing in a new machine tool and eliminate manually bending parts. A robot that is flexible and easy to program and move.

Part manufacturers are always challenged to achieve toolholding connections that are simple, repeatable and stiff, and shrink-fit toolholders provide those requirements.

Debating the need for CAM systems on Swiss-style machines.

When cleaning parts, there is general cleaning and then there is precision cleaning. Both types are important in medical device manufacturing, but precision cleaning -- repeatable removal of contaminants to a specified, usually validated standard -- has become more prevalent in part because of increasingly stringent Food and Drug Administration oversight of the manufacturing process, resulting in stricter process QC.

The use of conversational programming is growing and may influence tomorrow's conventional machine controls.

Diminishing numbers of skilled tradesmen in the workforce and the need to reduce production costs have caused machine tool automation to proliferate during the past decade.

An MTConnect app for Google Glass.

Since the May issue, I have been writing about our combustion shop's migration from batch processing to single-piece flow, or machining one part at a time. Single-piece flow eliminates work in process. This is desirable because WIP hides part defects and increases lead times and inventory levels.

A company running a centralized coolant system with neat oil seeks help from the Grinding Doc. The shop's oil supplier is promising great things if the shop switches to a newer oil product. But it seems like such a grand undertaking.

A dual-spindle boring mill with integrated contouring head.

A new R&D center for synthetic diamond.

Continuing the theme of the previous three columns, here are additional tips for enhancing the operation of a CNC milling machine from Shop Operations columnist Tom Lipton.