Quite Conventional
Considerations and cost justifications when purchasing your first EDM.
Editorial
Alan Richter
Alan Richter, a 40-plus-year veteran journalist, has spent the last 26 years covering the metalworking industry for Cutting Tool Engineering and currently serves as its editor-at-large. Contact him at [email protected].
Editor-at-large
Email: [email protected]
Port Authorities
A subset of form relief tools, port contour cutters perform multiple machining processes in one pass.
Shapely and Strong
This article looks at advantages of button cutters, particularly for high-speed machining.
Precise Turns
A look at Swiss-style cutting tools and how they are applied.
Tool, Mold & Die City
Meadville, Pa., and the area surrounding the city are home to approximately 150 precision tooling and machine shops. The article explains why this city of 14,000 is such a hotbed of precision machining and entrepreneurship.
Plugging In
A new turning tool emits an electric signal when its insert reaches a predetermined wear point or breaks. Called Sensor Tool, sections of the coated insert are ablated by a laser, thereby creating an electronic circuit.
Squeeze Play
The use of shrink-fit toolholders continues to grow, mainly because, compared to conventional holders, they secure tools more tightly and extend the life of cutting tools. Article includes an overview of available systems and comments from users of shrink-fit holders.
Counting Dollars
Salaries earned by metalworking professionals, including machinists, production engineers, manufacturing engineers and corporate managers. Salaries are broken down by region, size of company and type of shop or manufacturing facility.
Size Matters
The trend toward developing finer and finer carbide grains continues. The author looks at recent developments in the production of nanosized tungsten-carbide grains, which are smaller than 0.2 microns in diameter. Though not used widely at present for the production of cutting tools, some predict that will change as the technology evolves.
Talking Points
A conversation with Lee Iacocca, chief spokesman and a member of the board of directors of The Online Asset Exchange (onlineassetexchange.com), a service for buyers and sellers of machine tools. Iacocca also is involved with a company that produces electric bicycles. The former president of Ford Motor Co. and of Chrysler Corp. was at WESTEC 2000, where he met with CUTTING TOOL ENGINEERING to discuss manufacturing's role in the economy, his perceptions of the machine tool industry and business-to-business e-commerce.