Industry News for all/

Manufacturing technology orders in September continued their upward trend, ending the third quarter on a strong note. According to the latest U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report, bookings for September 2017 were up 6 percent from August and posted a year-to-date figure 5 percent higher than the first nine months of 2016. The monthly total of $403 million fell short of September 2016 by 26 percent, a typical drop-off in odd-numbered years when IMTS, the largest manufacturing technology show in the Americas, does not occur.

For today’s industrial manufacturing applications, it’s all about output. The goal is to machine as many parts as possible in the shortest amount of time to maximize profitability. In industries that regularly take huge blocks of metal and machine them down to a part that’s approximately 10 to 20 percent of the size and weight of the original piece, that process generates high volumes of metal chips, shavings, grindings and turnings.

Like most of us, Jay Hegemann deletes a lot of emails every day. Everything from miracle cures for baldness to special offers from credit card vendors go right into the trash. However, something about the email from Keyence’s sales engineer earlier this spring caught Hegemann’s eye and he decided to take another look. It’s a good thing, because the product advertised in that message has been a game changer for this small manufacturing firm.

Historically, the round tool cutting industry hasn’t offered many educational events to customers for collaboration. 3M is on a mission to change that.

User error is a more common cause of unplanned downtime in the manufacturing sector than almost any other sector, according to a new Vanson Bourne global study, sponsored by ServiceMax from GE Digital. Unplanned downtime triggered by user error is 23% compared to as low as 9% in other sectors. (And did that robot just snicker?)

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in October, and the overall economy grew for the 101st consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business. The October PMI registered 58.7 percent, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points from the September reading of 60.8 percent. This indicates growth in manufacturing for the 14th consecutive month and continues expansion consistent with pre-hurricane levels.

Stephen Winn, owner of Winn Manufacturing Inc., blogs about how his search for information on bending formulas came up short when he relied on the popular Internet search engine. "It was about that time that I saw my 20th Edition of the Machinery’s Handbook sitting in the corner of my desk," he writes. "Within about 10 minutes I had the bending formulas that I vaguely remembered and the standard method of measurement for the pitch diameter of the V-Groove of a “B” size pulley groove." Read his entire post on the satisfaction of kickin' it old-school at the link below.

Walter Dunkmann, head of the vacuum automation business area for J. Schmalz GmbH, Glatten, Germany, answers queries about digitization.

Sandvik Coromant hosted a “Digitalization on Machining” panel of leading digital manufacturing industry experts on Nov. 1, 2017, at the Center for Manufacturing Innovation in Greenville, S.C. Participants included William Sobel of VIMANA and representatives from GE Power, Cisco, Sandvik, Okuma, Microsoft, Mastercam, Rockwell Automation, MakeTime, Praemo and the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Walter teamed up with machine builder Starrag AG, Rorschacherberg, Switzerland, to take a step into the future. The venue was the fifth annual "Turbine Technology Days." Held at Starrag headquarters in Rorschacherberg, the event attracted over 200 visitors from 19 countries. It focused specifically on ways to make turbine production even more productive and reliable, and beyond that on developments in machining and control technology that are changing both turbine production and manufacturing in general.

Briggs & Stratton Corp. announced this week that it will move production of its V-Twin Vanguard engines from a joint venture partnership in Japan to its existing manufacturing facilities in Statesboro, Georgia and Auburn, Alabama. The increased production in North America will create approximately 50 new jobs at each of the facilities.

We all know that as grinding wheels wear and get smaller, they eventually stub out, requiring replacement. But what really happens as they wear? Does performance change? Do wheels act or behave differently as they wear? Do we need to change the grinding or dress parameters throughout whel life to compensate for these changes?

Inaugural awards hosted by manufacturing innovation centers mHUB, UI LABS and IMEC celebrated region’s manufacturing innovation and leadership by recognizing the companies, products and initiatives driving a new revolution.

Midwest Industrial Tool Grinding Inc. (MITGI) has been named the winner of the Workforce Development Award, part of the 2017 Minnesota Business Manufacturing Awards. This award recognizes a Minnesota-based manufacturing company for innovation and excellence in talent recruitment, efforts to retain employees and enhancing the image of the industry.

Summit Partners of Boston and Menlo Park, Calif., has bought a majority investment in the privately held Harvey Performance Company, Rowley, Mass. Harvey makes specialized cutting tools for precision machining applications for the manufacturing and metalworking industries, including aerospace and defense, medical, automotive, industrial motors and telecommunications sectors. It consists of two brands, Harvey Tool based in Rowley, and Helical Solutions in Gorham, Maine.

A survey designed to assess manufacturers’ preparedness for Industry 4.0 changes polled 537 manufacturing executives across eight industry segments. The vast majority of manufacturers surveyed have recognized the need for industrial transformation, with most already taking action. Those that have done so say they are already seeing benefits as a result.

Thermal systems manufacturer Watlow has been working to bolster a shrinking manufacturing workforce in the US, and its efforts have been recognized. The Missouri Association of Manufacturers has awarded the company a Made in Missouri Leadership Award because of its support of STEM education, training programs and economic development initiatives.

At the BWM Group's engine plant in Steyr (Austria), in a reference project accompanied by the Technical University of Vienna, Ecoclean Monschau has significantly raised the energy efficiency of a flexible EcoCFlex Classic robot cell that had been in service for several years. The system's electric power and water consumption were each cut by around 30 percent. These energy efficiency measures are now intended to be implemented on another 95 systems of the same type installed at various sites throughout Europe and Asia.

Fabrication/manufacturing is a very discrete industry and is on a run to shift towards additive manufacturing instead of the conventional machining process. And as a result, 3D CAD sketching and modeling tools are accepted as the most lucid geometrical medium for design articulation. In the wake of this constant attraction of fabricators towards CAD, software companies have a line of CAD software modules floating in the markets.

Mitchell Metal Products, Merrill, Wis., has received the first National Reshoring Award in recognition of the company’s success bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. The award, given by The Reshoring Initiative and the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), honors a company that has effectively reshored products, parts or tooling made primarily by metal forming, fabricating or machining.