Industry News

One benefit of expanding manufacturing employment is that workers are paid a premium. However, there is less of a pay advantage in manufacturing than there used to be. This suggests that policies to expand manufacturing employment should be accompanied by policies that maintain or strengthen compensation standards.

February U.S. cutting tool consumption totaled $190.12 million, according to the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute and the Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the Cutting Tool Market Report collaboration, was up 3.5 percent from January’s $183.61 million and 8.7 percent when compared with the $174.98 million reported for February 2017. With a year-to-date total of $373.73 million, 2018 is up 7.4 percent when compared with 2017.

Diacid 1550 is a bio-based emulsifier with a growing reputation among metal working fluid formulators worldwide. Because of its ability to create a more stable metalworking fluid and provide corrosion inhibition, Diacid is a trusted addition to formulations used to machine super alloy metals. This means that customers can expect precision even in the high-heat and high-pressure environments of jet and rocket engine manufacturing. That’s The Ingevity Effect.

The most fundamental elements of any metalcutting process, cutting tools are by their nature consumable. They wear until they are no longer effective. A traditional approach to metalcutting tool management employs wear analysis alone, focused on manipulating tool materials, geometries and application parameters to improve part output and tool life in a selected operation. To maximize the efficiency of your facility’s entire manufacturing process – boosting part-processing productivity and impacting the bottom line – you must go further in the pursuit of optimization.

It’s no secret that many manufacturers are scrambling to attract skilled workers to fill openings. A host of training programs are available to provide job seekers with the skills needed to get hired, and one in my hometown of Chicago that caught my attention is the Jane Addams Resource Center.

CNC machines rely on certain fundamentals to achieve peak performance for maximum productivity. This not only includes the machine but importantly the infrastructure of the facility, specifically ancillary services such as power, air and coolant.

Long wait times? Extra costs? Too complicated? Bruce Kyle, president of toolmaker Knight Carbide Inc. in Chesterfield, Mich., wants to dispel myths about ordering custom carbide inserts.

A good friend and I have had a running argument lately about 3D printing. He says the fervor over additive manufacturing is, for the most part, hype, something he likes to call the boondoggle of the manufacturing century. He could be right.

There are many advantages to financing your equipment purchases instead of paying cash. Stearns Bank vice president of business development, Michelle Fuchs, has helped many businesses reap the benefits of commercial equipment financing. They’ve learned that financing, rather than cash, is the best approach for the long-term health of their business.

United Grinding Group AG held an event in its Kuřim, Czech Republic-based Walter Maschinenbau GmbH production facility to announce its new flow assembly line. Speakers included Walter CEO Jürgen Schock and flow assembly line project manager Markus Schulze, both of whom welcomed guests and introduced the new innovation prior to pressing a symbolic start button with the entire project team to launch the new line.

Manufacturers are continually looking to improve workflows. To assist them in reducing the time to assemble products and worker errors, Cemtrex, Inc. offers Workbench XR, an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) software application developed for the manufacturing industry. The Farmingdale, N.Y., company plans to release a beta version this summer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that manufacturers added 22,000 workers in March, extending the 32,000 gain in employment in February. It was the sixth consecutive month with robust hiring growth in the sector, averaging 27,167 per month over that time frame.

LMT Onsrud LP, Waukegan, Ill., hired Roger Piekarski as sales and applications specialist for North and South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Manitoba in Canada.

John and Miles O’Brien are two of a few South Bend, Ind., business founders whose product is still being manufactured in the United States. John and Miles, born in Ireland in 1868, were identical twins whose family immigrated to the U.S., settling in Connecticut in the 1870s. At the age of 35, they went into business for themselves in a one-room building at the corner of West Washington and Johnson streets in South Bend. They began manufacturing lathes, at the time the most vital machine for any industry using metal or steel parts.

Fredon Corp. of Mentor, Ohio, received the 2018 Technology Best Practices Award from the National Tooling and Machining Association. Fredon’s use of a machine utilization tracker is an example of how manufacturers are using the internet of things and cloud technologies to improve performance on the factory floor, a company news release stated.

EMAG LLC announces its plans to hold its annual Technology Days at the North American headquarters in Farmington Hills, Mich., June 6-7. On June 6, the event will run from noon til 9 p.m. On June 7, from 8 a.m. til 2:30 p.m. The event will include a variety of machine tools under power for live demonstrations, plus a series of technical and market presentations by industry experts from the company.

There’s a very old parable, thought to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, of six blind (or blind-folded) men asked to describe an elephant. They reach different conclusions depending upon which part of the elephant they touch: side – it’s like a wall; leg – it’s like a tree; trunk – it’s like a snake; tusk – it’s like a spear; ear – it’s like a fan; and tail – it’s like a rope.

U.S. manufacturers face an aging workforce, concerns regarding safety best practices, ongoing movement toward lean manufacturing and the rapid emergence of new technologies. At the same time, people are struggling to pay bills, find work that provides a living wage, and support themselves and their families.

The accurate diagnosis of a bearing failure is imperative to prevent repeated failures and their additional expenses. While performing failure analysis is commonly left to outside vendors, the actual collecting of information can make a great difference in correctly diagnosing a bearing failure.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Haas Automation Inc.’s first vertical machining center, the VF-1.