Industry News

As we celebrate our 50th year in business, we thought it worthwhile to share our thoughts on the past half century and our future.

To serve the needs of moldmakers and manufacturers that demand the highest levels of productivity and design quality for surface texturing applications, GF Machining Solutions has introduced its new AgieCharmilles LASER S series. Unveiled for the first time in North America at a special event at its North American headquarters in Lincolnshire, Illinois, the new all-in-one machines offer a number of innovative technologies that result in advanced capabilities and outstanding speed, leading to cycle time reductions of 30 to 50 percent.

[MASON, OH]  CNC Indexing & Feeding Technologies announces that the company is now owned by an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Trust), effective immediately.

SAVAGE, Minnesota – Beckhoff Automation is pleased to announce that Kevin Barker has been appointed the new president of Beckhoff Automation LLC to manage Beckhoff business operations across the US.

Scappoose, Oregon – The Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Research and Development (OMIC R&D) welcomed Sugino Machine Limited in January 2019 as its 23rd member.

[LORAIN, OH]  Absolute Machine Tools announces that the company has been sold and is now owned by an Employee Stock Ownership Trust (ESOP), effective immediately.

Birmingham, AL – Motion Industries, Inc., a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operation replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company (GPC), announced today the that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Axis New England and Axis New York (“Axis”), an automation and robotics company based in Danvers, MA.

Macomb, Mich. -- Tooling Tech Group (TTG) has announced Kelly Connors as the company’s corporate sales executive.

Waukesha, WI—Walter, a cutting tool manufacturer has announced the appointment of Richard Garrick as President Sales Region World West.

Torrance, CA – CMTC is pleased to announce that Patrick Billiter will be taking over the positions of Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance and Administration, Treasurer and Secretary.

OSSEO, MINNESOTA — Die Technology, Inc., a machining services and tooling manufacturer, announced today the creation of its new sister company, Nanotech Precision, LLC.

Women make up around 47% of the U.S. labor force, nearly 74 million people and counting. But the percentage of manufacturing roles filled by female workers is only 29%. In a sector not only flourishing but facing a potential shortfall of workers, why do women remain so vastly underrepresented?

Advanced manufacturing is a significant driver of the northeast Ohio economy and has been a key factor in the region’s recovery from the recessions of the early 2000s and 2008. However, growth in employment in the sector has fallen behind increases in gross regional product, and efforts to address this challenge will require an increase in the area’s skilled workforce.

The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), in partnership with Festo Didactic, will establish industry-recognized skills standards and ultimately credentials for jobs related to Industry 4.0. In light of the significant trend in digitalization of manufacturing through technology advancements such as Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), training in these skills is vitally needed now. With NIMS’ emphasis on manufacturing skills training, credentialing and standards, plus Festo’s complete Industry 4.0 learning Factories, courseware and eLearning integration, the two organizations are poised to provide the training programs for Industry 4.0.

Heinrich Georg Maschinenfabrik has received an order from Vítkovické Slévárny spol. s r.o. for the supply of a roll lathe, the third lathe so far supplied by GEORG to the Czech roll manufacturer. The new machine will be linked with one of the existing lathes. Thanks to this solution, only one operator will be needed to control both machines.

Manufacturing is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change as we transition from the industrial age to the information age. The manufacturers that will prove best able to capture value amid this transition will be those that can best manage complexity and embrace flexibility. A new layer of manufacturing software has emerged to answer this call.

The light is a little too dim for Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute at the National Association of Manufacturers. She wants the industry to shine a brighter light on itself and attract the recognition it deserves.

Mike Gampetro has a great job. As a CNC programmer for the Proposal Engineering Dept. at Ingersoll Cutting Tools, Rockford, Illinois, he spends his days improving customers’ machining processes. It could be an Inconel part where Gampetro suggests ways to increase tool life, or it could be a long-runner where every second of cycle time counts. Either way, it’s his job to generate ideas his customers can then use to produce more parts in less time, and hopefully reduce their operating costs along the way.

Live tooling, as the name implies, is specifically driven by the CNC and the turret of various spindle and powered subspindle configurations on CNC lathes to perform various operations while the workpiece remains in orientation to the main spindle. These devices, whether BMT or VDI, are also called driven tools, as opposed to the static tools used during turning operations, and are usually customized for the particular machine tool builder’s turret assembly.

When we think about the quality of life in U.S. cities, we think about affordable housing, good schools and hospitals, strong public services, excellent parks, bike paths and cultural resources. And of course, there’s the employment factor. Usually, larger cities offer more employment stability because there are simply more jobs. But this is changing now that manufacturing jobs are more readily available in cities with populations under 700,000.