Industry News

In a move aimed at providing improved sales and service support as well as new and innovative products, NTC Laser will join Komatsu America Industries LLC as of April 1, sources at both companies reported in a joint news release issued today. NTC Laser and Komatsu are subsidiaries of Komatsu America LLC, headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.

Solar Manufacturing, Souderton, Penn., recently appointed John Oakes as the company's new sales representative for the Northeast U.S. region, according to a Feb. 17 news release. Oakes will focus on vacuum furnace sales in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Able Machine Tool Sales Inc., Agawam, Mass., is the New England distributor for Dayton, Ohio-based Advanced Industrial Measurement Systems' (AIMS) Revolution Series coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), according to a recent Able news release. Designed and engineered with Renishaw 5-axis measurement technology, AIMS introduced its new CMM product line in 2015.

BIG KAISER Precision Tooling, Hoffman Estates, Ill., recently welcomed Pierre Bruyere to the company's Rep network for select provinces in Eastern Canada. He has been tasked with managing distributor relationships and sales efforts with customers in Quebec, Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Trotec Laser Inc., Canton, Mich., discusses the "Advantages of lasers versus other methods of cutting, marking and engraving" in a white paper available through the company's website. The target audience for the white paper: companies that use traditional methods of cutting, marking and engraving, such as inkjet systems, embossing, mechanical stamping, etching, printing, mechanical engraving, knife cutter or CNC routing.

Additive manufacturing (AM) will neither displace existing machining processes nor revolutionize industrial production operations—at least not for the next 5 to 7 years, according to Myron Graw, an AM authority who spoke at METAV 2016, the 19th International Exhibition for Metalworking (Metallverarbeitung) Technologies. Graw, who heads up AM operations at KEX Knowledge Exchange AG, in Aachen, Germany, wasn't just sharing his personal opinion. He was delivering the results of a five-stage AM study conducted by KEX, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, according to a news release posted to the METAV 2016 website Feb. 23.

Welding or soldering without heat seemed like a good idea to Hanchen Huang, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston. He and his students dreamed of a better way to stick things together such as a computer's CPU to a printed circuit board, or the glass and metal filament in a lightbulb, according to a recent news@Northeastern post.

Laser technology company Coherent Inc. will acquire industrial laser maker Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. for about $942 million, according to a joint news release issued by the two companies March 16. "This transaction is aligned with our strategy of increasing our scale and pursuing accretive growth opportunities," said Coherent President and CEO John Ambroseo. "The combination of Coherent and Rofin represents a unique opportunity to strengthen Coherent's position in materials processing. The addition of Rofin's complementary portfolio will build on Coherent's capabilities as a world leader in laser and photonics-based technology and solutions, and create meaningful value for our stockholders."

Daniel Franklin, who began his career at the Rollomatic factory in Switzerland in 1999, will take over the team leader's position with immediate effect, according to a recent Rollomatic news release. Franklin takes over for Mac MacKenna, who transitioned into a sales manager position in the Northeast.

Greenleaf Corporation, a leading developer of cutting tool technology and ceramic materials, has appointed Jan Andersson to the position of Global Manager, Tech Team and Marketing. Andersson comes to Greenleaf from Kennametal Corporation and Sandvik Coromant where he held various positions within Product Management, Marketing, Sales and R&D.

TYKMA Electrox, Chillicothe, Ohio, a worldwide supplier of industrial laser systems, in February introduced a new brand identity following the year-old merger between TYKMA Technologies and Electrox Laser Marking Systems.