Medical

Say your machine shop just received an order for 316 stainless fuel-injector nozzles requiring angled holes to be drilled on the workpiece face. Or perhaps your best medical customer needs miniature blood-pump impellers with complex 3-D blade geometries like those on a jet-engine turbine. How are you going to make them?

Manufacturing molds used to produce plastic parts with features that can be too small to be seen with the naked eye or measured with standard devices is challenging. That's why moldmakers that perform this work are specialists in the nuances of designing and building micromolds.

Can vertical machining centers go toe-to-toe with horizontals on performance?

END USER: Mainland Machine, (805) 543-7149, www.mainlandmachine.com. CHALLENGE: Increase spindle run times. SOLUTION: CAM system that enables efficient programming when machining with custom fixture plates. SOLUTION PROVIDER: DP Technology Corp., (805) 388-6000, www.dptechnology.com

As a follow-up to my April column, here are additional tips for enhancing the operation of a manual lathe.

A shot peening process that removes distortion from thin ceramic parts.

Ceramic parts help solve problems caused by metal and plastic implants.

END USER: Tivoly Inc., (802) 873-6003, www.tivoly.com. CHALLENGE: Significantly reduce downtime on a flute grinding machine. SOLUTION: Rebuild the flute grinder. SOLUTION PROVIDER: International Tool Machines (ITM), (386) 446-0500, www.itmfl.com

Users reap the rewards of high-speed milling when the elements of the machining system complement each other.

Shop Operations column as published in the July 2012 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering.