Industry News

Kelsi Maree Borland writes that e-commerce has become the principal, or at least the most fervent, driver of industrial activity in the United States and particularly in Southern California, which is home to some of the country’s tightest industrial markets. While e-commerce dominates U.S. industrial activity, manufacturing activity is still booming—south of the border. Mexico has picked up much of the industrial manufacturing business, and as a result the north Baja industrial region is seeing record-breaking stats.

When you think of a doing something “like a boss,” words like confident, swagger, authority, cool, finesse and amazing come to mind. Those words apply to manufacturers who are killin’ it day in and day out.

As part of a joint research project, the companies Blaser Swisslube and KAISER have searched for the optimal combination of tool and metalworking fluid for titanium cutting. The results are impressive.

The manufacturing community is finding workers in the form of veterans. While 80 percent of manufacturers report difficulty filling positions, more than 200,000 service members return to civilian life each year in search of new careers.

China’s capital, Beijing, will shut about 1,000 manufacturing firms by 2020 as part of a program aimed at curbing smog and boosting income in neighboring regions, state media said. Beijing will focus on dynamic, high-tech industries and withdraw from “ordinary” manufacturing, reported the People’s Daily, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, citing a recent policy document published by the Beijing municipal government.

Hard work and first-class teamwork between the gear factory Hänel and Hainbuch have paid off. The new mandrel Mando G211 for gear manufacturers, suitable for gear hobbing, gear cutting and gear grinding, is available as a standard mandrel from stock and can be used optimally on gear cutting machines. Not only for Hainbuch was this project a success, but also for Hänel. This enabled optimization of manufacturing processes, reduced setup time and improved gear quality because the mandrel guarantees stable clamping and dampens vibrations.

Terry Iverson, a machine tool industry veteran, is on a quest to change the perception of the American manufacturing workforce landscape. The manufacturing floor is not what it once was. Computerized, clean and automated cells have emerged in the market and need an entirely new level of shop expertise.

U.S. manufacturing is not in decline but alive and well, producing record levels of output in recent quarters despite significant price deflation for manufactured goods. No other sector of the U.S. economy delivers greater value to American consumers than manufacturing when it comes to providing more and more output at prices that have declined annually by 2.64 percent in real inflation-adjusted terms over the past quarter century.

I’m not a morning person. If it were up to me, all alarm clocks on Earth would be rounded up and smashed with a giant hammer, their electronic corpses left to rot in a landfill far, far away from my home in Tucson, Arizona. I’m not sure what people on other planets do about the whole alarm clock situation, but I assume they are more advanced than humans and therefore late sleepers like me. Unless my dad’s predictions about the looming extraterrestrial invasion are accurate, however, we’ll never know.

Penn Stainless Products recently installed a new Koike Aronson Versagraph Millennium Series plasma cutting system (Model 6300) at its Jackson Center facility. The new unit provides western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio the same high-quality cuts available through PSP’s Quakertown facility at shorter delivery times. The system utilizes Hypertherm HPR800XD HyPerformance plasma technology for a clean, consistent cut up to 2.5” thick, and features an extra-wide cutting envelope of 10 feet wide x 40 feet long.

To gain more knowledge about Industry 4.0 developments, I participated in the Taiwan Smart Machinery Media Tour Aug. 20-24. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council hosted the event. The council reports that Taiwan has the highest density of precision machinery cluster in the world, exports almost 80 percent of its products and is the fifth largest export country for machine tools.

The Republican Party has become the party of blue-collar America. After the 1992 election, 15 of the 20 most manufacturing-intensive congressional districts in the U.S. were represented by Democrats. Today, all 20 are held by Republicans. The shift of manufacturing from a Democratic stronghold to a Republican one is a major force remaking the two parties. It helps explain Donald Trump’s political success, the rise of Republican protectionism and the nation’s polarized politics. It will help shape this year’s midterm elections.

HARTLAND, Wis., (August 23, 2018) — Todd Kaull has been named Vice President – Global Operations for Dorner.

As manufacturing industries, such as automotive and aerospace, continue to grow in the southeast, technical and robotics training will only become more crucial.

Lübeck, August 17, 2018. SLM Solutions Group AG has invested 25 million Euros in its new production and administrative headquarters.

SUWANEE, Ga., August 20, 2018 — RÖHM Products of America Inc., has announced that it has acquired Master WorkHolding Inc.

Schaumburg, IL – THK is taking major steps to meet the growing worldwide demand for linear motion products.

KERN Precision Inc. (KPI), Eschenlohe (Germany)/Chicago, has concluded a distribution partnership with Innolite GmbH, Aachen (Germany), for the North American market.

NEEDHAM, MA U.S.A. (August 13, 2018) – OPEN MIND Technologies AG , a developer of CAD/CAM software solutions worldwide, has announced it has recently partnered with Okuma America Corporation, joining the Partners in THINC collaboration, founded by Okuma.

Tolland, CT – CNC Software, Inc., the developers of Mastercam, announced that Stas Mylek has been promoted from Senior Product Marketing Specialist to Partnership Program Manager.