Industry News

One of the activities CTE Editor Alan Richter enjoys most about his job is touring production facilities. The visits give him a chance to see how parts and products are made while meeting face-to-face with talented metalworking professionals.

Sweden-based information technologies provider Hexagon AB has announced an agreement to acquire MSC Software Corp., the Newport Beach, Calif. based provider of computer-aided engineering solutions such as simulation software. The agreed-upon purchase price is $834 million. The acquisition is subject to clearance and standard regulatory filings and is expected to be complete in April of 2017.

The Robotic Industries Association has announced that in 2016 the North American robotics market broke all-time records for orders and shipments. During the year, 34,606 robots valued at approximately $1.9 billion were ordered in North America, representing growth of 10 percent in units over 2015.

Livonia-based Michigan Metrology will host a short course on surface metrology and tribology on May 9-10. Dr. Don Cohen, an expert on surface roughness and its effects, will lead the course. Topics to be covered include instruments for measuring texture, surface texture parameters, wear, friction, sealing, data analysis and more. The workshop is designed for scientists, engineers and technicians.

Ohio is soon to benefit from new job-creating investments by a number of major manufacturers. The Dayton Business Journal reports that companies including General Motors, Navistar International and Whirlpool have announced projects that will add to the 885,539 manufacturing jobs the Buckeye State currently boasts.

Running a small to medium-sized machine shop business presents many challenges. Alliance Broach & Tool, East China, Mich., has been in the business of building its operations and client base for more than 35 years; the company knows about some of these challenges. In spite of a tough economic climate, however, Alliance continues to significantly grow. After nearly 40 years, that is an impressive accomplishment.

President Trump has signed an executive order that formally ends U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade agreement negotiated by former President Obama but never ratified by the U.S. Congress.

Chicago-based Digital Manufacturing and Design Institute has opened enrollment for the first three of a planned 10 online "101"-style courses on manufacturing and design technology. Developed in partnership with the University at Buffalo and coordinated by The Center for Industrial Effectiveness for the Coursera online learning platform, Digital Manufacturing and Design Technology launches on Jan. 30.

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are helping manufacturers eliminate flaws introduced during the machining of large, costly components. In the February 2017 issue of the Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, the Missouri S&T researchers describe their approach and explain how it can improve the accuracy of the 5-axis machine tools used to make large parts.

GM has announced that it will invest an additional $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations, creating a total of 7,000 new jobs here. Is it a case of "If I tweet them, they will come?" After the announcement, incoming US President Donald Trump was quick to tweet about "all of the jobs I am bringing back into the US." Not so fast, say GM and industry watchers.

Deniz Sari, Dr.-Ing., has been named Gear Technology Manager for Samputensili and its joint-venture Star SU LLC. In the newly created position, Sari will analyze all best practices coming from Samputensili and Star SU manufacturing plants around the world.n