Lead Angle

Articles • August 1, 2015 • Alan Richter

Plan for the future

World-class manufacturers expand their production space for anticipated demand rather than attempting to catch up with current needs. This effort to always be ahead of the times was on display at Horn Technology Days, which took place June 17-19 and was hosted by Hartmetall-Werkzeugfabrik Paul Horn GmbH at its headquarters in Tübingen, Germany.

Articles • July 1, 2015

Home is where the part is

CTE Editorial Director Alan Rooks addresses reshoring in the final Lead Angle column of his 9-year career at Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Articles • June 1, 2015

The long and short of it

When you consider the future of U.S. manufacturing, it's important to distinguish long term from short term.

Articles • February 1, 2015

Look out below

I don't like bringing this up, but two key metalworking markets -- defense and energy -- are in a bit of trouble.

Articles • December 1, 2014

Innovations drive manufacturing

It goes without saying that the heart of manufacturing is innovation. From the cotton gin to the steam engine to the assembly line to the CNC, the manufacturing process is always being reinvented, refined and reimagined. Today, a lot of the talk is about additive manufacturing, and justifiably so. Since its dawn in the 1980s, AM has moved from a "that's neat" tool for hobbyists to a valued tool for prototypers to making fixtures and long part runs.

Articles • October 1, 2014

Tide turning in tech training?

Pundits have long said that U.S. machine shops and parts manufacturers need skilled candidates to fill thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of available jobs. The problem, it's alleged, is getting people interested in manufacturing in the first place.

Articles • September 1, 2014

Connecting with everything

For a guy like me who remembers when a landline telephone was the only way for an individual to share information immediately over long distances, today's world of infinite connectedness still has an otherworldly, "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it.

Articles • August 1, 2014

Metalworking barometer headed up?

IMTS serves as a convenient benchmark for the health of the U.S. metalworking industry, allowing comparisons with the last go-round, and the ones before that.

Articles • July 1, 2014

Skills gap or training gap?

Machine shop managers in various regions across the country say they have struggled to fill open positions, and that the job applicants they get often do not have the requisite skills. But the experience of one shop in Massachusetts suggests that the real problem isn't a lack of willing job applicants as much as it is a lack of pertinent training programs.

Articles • May 1, 2014

Something from nothing

Ask any entrepreneur and he or she will tell you that getting from concept to reality isn't easy. It almost always requires a hellish amount of work, risks and disappointments.

Articles • April 1, 2014

My kind of town, Chicago is

Chicago wins bid to host digital manufacturing institute.

Articles • February 1, 2014

Good morning AM

Is it morning in America -- and the world -- for additive manufacturing? That's looking more and more likely. While AM, also known as 3D printing, is well-established as a process for making prototype parts, it's making serious inroads into production -- where the real money is.