Machining

Resurface scratched and rusted cylinder barrels in-house. A tube hone machine.

Anybody with half a brain can immediately see the usefulness of computer-controlled equipment. The ability of a machine to telescope the work processes so they run in parallel instead of series can turn a single machinist into a one-person army.

A telescoping ball bar is a simple, but useful device that provides a quick and inexpensive way to characterize machine tool errors.

Dynamic and aggressive cutting tool demonstrations are common at trade shows. Toolmakers present phenomenal displays, where chips spark and fly and machines move at feed rates that seem impossible. In other words, they demonstrate high-speed machining.

A unique manual milling method is available for generating geometrically true spherical surfaces. This technique can be used to machine convex and concave spherical surfaces. Other than the milling machine, the only tools needed are a boring head and a rotary table.

Produce parts faster without investing in additional fixturing. Efficiently reprogram the parts with the company's CAM software after moving part production to a multitask lathe.

Achieve tight-tolerance requirements when producing microtools. Grinding machines designed to produce microtools.

Overcoming a bottleneck caused when programming different machine tools with various CAD/CAM systems. A single CAD/CAM system that can program multiple machine brands.

Several weeks ago, my wife and I attended a dinner party at her sister's home. One of the guests heard I was in manufacturing and introduced himself. He's 48, married and has five children and a mortgage. He's a pleasant individual, and we spoke about his trials and tribulations over the last few years. He lost his job during the Great Recession and has since been struggling to find a steady job. Unemployment checks and odd jobs, as well as assistance from their church and friends, have helped his family muddle along. His experience is in customer service and sales.

Real-time measurements during metalcutting can offer significant insight into machine tool performance. The parameters to be measured include position, velocity and acceleration of the axes; cutting force; sound; temperature; and acoustic emission, which is not the same as sound, but rather a high-frequency, structure-borne vibration.