Industry News

Today's manufacturing and industrial processing facilities face intense competitive pressures, challenging economic conditions and stringent government regulations. To thrive, companies must engage in operational "best practices" designed to continuously improve process and product quality and reduce costs. An often overlooked method of process improvement is to remove oil from your facility's wastewater or process stream as soon as possible, preferably using a highly cost effective "tube type" oil skimmer. Properly applying a tube type skimmer can pay for itself within a few months by improving operational efficiencies, promoting employee and environmental wellness and generating new revenue.

The Digital Manufacturing Design and Innovation Institute (DMDII) announced today the launch of a "Cyber Hub for Manufacturing" with $750,000 in seed funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The hub will serve as a testbed for the creation and adoption of new cybersecurity technologies to secure manufacturing shop floors across the United States and complements DMDII's public-private partnership as one of the Manufacturing USA institutes sponsored by DOD to advance the state-of-the-art in digital manufacturing in America.

Many manufacturers in the aerospace industry depend on high-precision, complex specialized cutting tools and want them as quickly as possible. However, not all tool grinding shops can meet that challenge. Almar Tools Inc., Camas, Wash., is one that can. To succeed where others often fail, the shop takes a simple straight-forward three-prong approach that consists of efficient production practices and highly trained machinists paired with the latest in tool grinding machine technology.

I recently spoke with Afzaal Mir, founder and owner of toolmaker FSC Cutting Tools Technology LLC, Greenville, S.C., about his business and life.

There's a Sands Casino where the Bethlehem Steel Corp. once stood. The casino was completed in 2009, just 8 years after the 100-year-old steel company filed bankruptcy. Ironically, the biggest obstacle facing the casino's developer was a shortage of structural steel. Even more ironically, the developer ended up buying it from Nucor Corp., the onetime "minimill" competitor that Bethlehem executives scoffed at decades earlier for the startup's embrace of electric arc furnace technology.

Not only is automation continuing to displace workers at manufacturing companies, the thought of being ousted by a robot is making some workers at those plants feel sick. That's according to a study by three Ball State University researchers and a Villanova University professor.

After helping customers to remove tramp oil from coolant for more than 40 years, Jim Petrucci, vice president of Oil Skimmers Inc., has yet to hear from anyone that doesn't have at least some tramp oil present in an individual machine sump or large holding tank. When enough tramp oil seeps into coolant on a steady basis to justify the acquisition of oil-removal equipment, which is common, the Cleveland-based company offers oil skimmers to remove surface oil.

For the May issue's focus on abrasive machining, I'm writing a multiple-source article about honing. One of the sources is Lapmaster Wolters LLC.

Julian Cornwall, a 17-year-old junior in the Butler Tech precision machine program at Colerain Career Center, has a big decision ahead of him. Companies looked at his portfolio and shop samples and talked to his instructor about his work during a recent skills competition. He had 11 job offers in hand when a trio of executives from the Feintool Group stopped by his machine to talk to him. When they left, his options had increased by another offer.

A precision machining supplier has come up with a way to address the skills shortage problem. Micron Manufacturing Co., Walker, Mich., lets workers create their own schedules. You want to be there for your first-grader's field trip? Do it. Want to have a long lunch with your aging mom? You can.

Nearly 100 percent of the solid-carbide tool assortment is suitable for reconditioning, according to Sandvik Coromant Co. Once a solid-carbide tool has been reconditioned three times and is no longer a candidate for reconditioning, it can be recycled.

Futura Automation LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz., added George Wilken to its management team.