Prototyping critical in manufacturing: Safety, Standards & Compliance
The effective use of prototypes can lead the way to continuous improvement.
How to choose the right toolholder
Christopher Tate shares the key elements of selecting a toolholder that will help drive efficiency and improve your shop's bottom line.
Despite its advantages, new technology isn’t always embraced
To ensure success of productivity-enhancing technology, shops and other manufacturers must understand and take into account the four main areas of the acquisition process: problem definition, conceptualization, implementation and realization.
Deburring: an essential but often overlooked process
With so much attention given to improving machining processes, machinists, programmers and engineers at times forget about simple, but necessary, processes like deburring.
Effective training programs improve employees’ skills, morale
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.
Effectively cleaning parts improves bottom line
Many nonmanufacturing people would be surprised by the amount of resources expended on parts cleaning, but it is a critical aspect of part quality. Failure to maintain a rigorous cleaning program can cause significant issues in complex assemblies.
Turning to improvisation to meet customer needs
When turning parts, shop improvised to meet customers' needs.n
Shop considers investing in 5-axis machining
If your shop makes parts that demand multiple setups, parts that have challenging geometry or parts with difficult GD&T requirements, 5-axis machining could provide significant benefits. Do not let the potential cost of the investment prevent you from conducting a thorough cost analysis of your current machining methods.
Shop credits timing for successful holemaking operations
At Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Inc., holemaking success is about timing—finding the best sequence in which to perform manufacturing operations.
Lessons learned from threading nuts, bolts for gas turbines
Spindle bolts are made from difficult-to-machine, high-strength superalloys. They have very tight dimensional tolerances, which makes thread cutting a challenge. As a result of facing several thread-cutting problems during process development, we have learned important lessons at Mitsubishi.
The fundamentals of industrial sawing
Sawing is one of the most common manufacturing processes in a machine shop. It is versatile, simple and reliable. Nonetheless, many young engineers and machinists are quite familiar with lasers and abrasive waterjets but have no knowledge of sawing.
Trim waste with proactive environmental program
Industrial waste, its impact on the environment and regulation by governments have become significant areas of interest for medium and large manufacturing companies. One company's proactive approach to environmental sustainability also reveals ways to reduce waste.
