Industry News

ARCH Cutting Tools is pleased to announce and welcome Bill Orris as Manager of Technical Product and Sales Training.

Manufacturing is booming. Many say that's great news for the stock market because increased manufacturing activity is evidence of a stronger economy. This seems logical, but does data support such a conclusion? And is it prudent to use manufacturing indicators to time your exposure to stocks?

While this statement may not applicable across the board with machine tool applications, it certainly rings true when used in context with air supply to machine tool spindles. More often than not we have found that poor quality air supply to spindles is a significant factor in premature machine tool spindle failures.

There are no collaborative robots, only robots with collaborative applications. That's according to Simon Whitton, regional division manager of North America for KUKA Robotics Corp., Shelby Township, Michigan.

Birmingham, AL – Motion Industries, Inc., a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operation replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, announced the promotion of Pamela Sims to Vice President of Marketing, effective September 1, 2018.

Tolland, CT – CNC Software, Inc., the developers of Mastercam, announced that Mike Nicholson has been hired as the European Territory Manager to further develop the company's European distribution channel.

The International Manufacturing Technology Show was great. It was fun to actually meet some of the people I've worked with over the past couple of years, plus there were the new machine tools, Industry 4.0 and industrial-internet-of-things technology, software systems, cutting tools, robots, metrology equipment and 3D printers.

Although automation is occurring in manufacturing, as it is in other sectors of the economy, the evidence does not support the idea that automation was the main cause of the sudden decline in manufacturing employment after 2000.

Texas could be in line to land thousands of additional aerospace-related manufacturing and engineering jobs if companies in the fast-growing sector heed a new ranking of the most competitive places for them to operate. The report by PricewaterhouseCoopers lists Texas behind only Washington state as the top location in the United States for "aerospace manufacturing attractiveness."

In preparation for this year's celebration of Manufacturing Day on Oct. 5, I read the book "Finding America's Greatest Champion: Building Prosperity Through Manufacturing, Mentoring and the Awesome Responsibility of Parenting" by Terry M. Iverson, president of machine tool distributor and rebuilder Iverson & Co., Des Plaines, Illinois.

The metal fabrication and manufacturing industry has adjusted in recent years to meet the demands of an evolving global economy, impacted by social, political, economic and technological advancements that effect all aspects of the industry.

Robots and the programming they rely on have certainly made huge leaps in recent years. But manufacturers have little use for jumping or cuddling machines. They need performers that can do specific production jobs. Do robots fit the bill? Will they replace all our manufacturing employees?