Machining

Do you process existing jobs the same way every time? If not, you may be throwing money away every time those jobs are run by having to reinvent the process over and over. If a few weeks or months go by in between runs of the same part, you may forget some nuance, whether it's a specific cutter, a dedicated fixture or a unique method for locating the part.

Capacitance sensors are noncontact sensors used in machine tools to measure the distance between a noncontact probe and a target sensor. Because the probe does not physically touch the target, capacitance sensors are beneficial in instances where the target surface is moving, such as a rotating spindle, or delicate, such as a silicon wafer.

Cutting Tool Engineering Senior Editor Evan Jones Thorne interviews Fauston Tool Corp. Vice President Heidi Hostetter about the company's reputation for innovation.

Tom Lipton offers more tips for part finishing in the December 2014 Cutting Tool Engineering Shop Operations column.

Reduce scrap and tackle challenging jobs. Adjustable finish boring heads.

Reduce costs associated with inventory management. An industrial vending system.

Reduce cycle times and time spent loading and unloading parts into a machine. Use clamps to create custom fixture plates and gang more parts per machining cycle.

The Machine Technology column in the December 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering discusses the essentials of tapered spindle connections.

The Shop Operations column offers still more tips for effective finishing in the October 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Improve inventory control and consolidate hundreds of cabinets and drawers for storing tooling and gages. SOLUTION: An automated storage system integrated with inventory management software.