Industry News

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for the eighth consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 56th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business. Yet, the January PMI registered 51.3 percent, a decrease of 5.2 percentage points from December's seasonally adjusted reading of 56.5 percent.

Seco Tools, Troy, Mich., was recognized for participating in the John Deere Cost Reduction Opportunities Process (JD CROP), part of Deere & Company's Achieving Excellence program. The toolmaker received the honor for the quality of its cost-reduction ideas and for demonstrating its commitment to continuous improvement, according to Seco.

Sharpening diamond-tipped and solid carbide rotary tools will be the focal point of Vollmer's display at Stand 1017 at the GrindTec 2014 international grinding technology trade fair, to be held March 19 to 22 in Augsburg, Germany. The grinding and erosion machine company will demo its new VGrind 160 grinding center, the company's first for processing carbide rotary tools.

United Grinding North America, the Miamisburg, Ohio-based provider of cylindrical grinding machine tools, has scheduled a six-city demonstration tour of the United States, as well as two open house events in Canada and Mexico, to demonstrate its STUDER S11 production workpiece.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), vice chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, released a new report detailing the revitalization in U.S. manufacturing. The report shows over 500,000 have been added jobs since February 2010, up 38% since 2009 and exceeding the industry's pre-recession peak for exports.

MSC Industrial Supply Co., Melville, N.Y. expanded its Accupro line of metalworking products with the launch of new milling, threading and toolholding solutions.

On Jan. 1, 2014, GF AgieCharmilles, Geneva, Switzerland, will become GF Machining Solutions, underscoring the fact that parent company Georg Fischer AG (GF) is a unified company with three divisions. Along with the name change, a new design style on the GF Machining Solutions Web site and sales literature will be gradually implemented, according to the company. GF AgieCharmille's U.S. operation is based in Lincolnshire, Ill.