Automation

As the cover indicates, the February issue will include a focus on automation. In addition to Contributing Editor Kip Hanson’s cover story about automating CNC lathes, I wrote about the productivity gains Camcraft Inc. is realizing after installing a Makino Machining Complex (MMC2) flexible manufacturing system.

Robots don’t take away jobs.
When companies lose to their competition, that’s when workers lose jobs.
There seems to be this idea: If the robots hadn’t shown up, the jobs would have stayed. But nothing could be further from reality.
Here’s the truth: We aren’t using enough robots.

The growing use of work robots and the deployment of artificial intelligence have been most disruptive in just those areas of the country that provided President Trump with crucial margins of support in 2016.

In connection with my article about flexible manufacturing systems for the February issue, I visited Camcraft Inc., which has a Makino Machining Complex (MMC2) automated pallet-handling system. Four Makino 4-axis a51nx horizontal machining centers are integrated into the system.