Automation

Röhm Products of America, Suwanee, Ga., a provider of clamping and gripping technology for the metalworking industry, has appointed three regional sales managers to support growing sales of the company’s chucks, centers, vises, tool clamping and automation systems, as well as customized solutions for turning, milling, drilling and grinding.

Shop Floor Automations Inc., La Mesa, Calif., is celebrating its 20th year.

Industrial parts distributor Motion Industries Inc., Birmingham, Ala., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Co., announced three management changes.

In response to the ongoing growth of its Edgecam and Surfcam brands, Vero Software Ltd., Cheltenham, England, hired Account Manager Chris Carter to represent both solutions in the Southwestern United States.

My October 20 post on adding capabilities to your current CNC brought a response from a reader who who shares a problem. “We have a few Kitamura MyCenter 4XiF VMCs with FANUC 16iMB controls running daily on our shop floor,” he writes, “The control hasn’t given us a single problem since they powered on for the first time. However, we haven’t been able to get the machines onto our network and we have given up trying.”

For our February issue’s Industry Briefs department, I’m writing an article about the Deburring Application Laboratory at Matrix Design LLC. The company designs, builds and installs robotic automation systems for deburring parts, as well as machine tending and material handling.

Earlier this week we shared the conclusions of the McKinsey Report, which concluded that it may be possible for U.S. manufacturing to grow by 20 percent and add more than 2 million jobs by 2025. That was the good news. It can only happen, however, if manufacturers embrace Industry 4.0 technology. The Integr8 conference in Detroit showed how to get started.