Industry News

Funke will oversee a team of engineers to deliver complete component tooling solutions to Seco customers. He plans to further build and strengthen relationships with customers and other industry partners to deliver excellence in products and services.

BIG KAISER’s parent company, BIG DAISHOWA Seiki Co. Ltd., in March announced the completion of its new logistics and distribution center, which joins five existing factories on the lush Japanese island of Awaji. The 130,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility was built to meet the need for logistics improvements as the company's product reach expands globally, according to the company.

Electro-Matic Ventures Inc., a supplier of high-tech automation components and services headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., in March announced it had acquired RAF Fluid Power, a provider of advanced automation with a focus on pneumatic and robotic solutions. RAF, located outside Cleveland in Solon, Ohio, is the first acquisition for Electro-Matic Ventures, which has three other subsidiaries: Electro-Matic Products, Electro-Matic Integrated, and Electro-Matic Visual.

When Dake opened its doors 130 years ago in Grand Haven, Mich., the machine tool manufacturer became known for its prowess at producing steam engines. Dake manufactured more than 10,000 steam engines for the war effort. Only after the end of World War II did Dake begin manufacturing its line of arbor presses and hand-operated hydraulic presses.

Synova, a leading manufacturer of high-precision laser cutting systems, opened a new Micro-Machining Center (MMC) in Secaucus, NJ, according to an April 10 company news release. The new MMC offers laser machining services such as application trials, single and recurring cutting jobs and machine demonstrations.

At the Omax Corp. blog, writer Gretchen Salois profiles Waterjet Cutting of Indiana, which often attracts customers "because they know they can hand over drawings for an intricate job Friday afternoon, and receive them first thing Monday," she writes. The company cuts everything from skid plates for Indy 500 cars to magnets for the oil industry to elevator weights for buildings throughout the company's hometown of Indianapolis.

In the machine shop of the future, a digital thread will weave through the pre-, in- and post-machining processes. Prior to machining, those processes include design, process and operations planning, and production logistics. After machining, part verification and outbound logistics enter the picture.

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) sees cyber security awareness and prevention in manufacturing as an emerging challenge and competitiveness issues that manufacturers are facing. In response, NCMS has released a new whitepaper, written by Senior Vice President Rebecca Taylor, “Balancing Productivity and Security: The New Cybersecurity Challenge for Manufacturers.”

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in March, and the overall economy grew for the 94th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

Radius Engineering Inc.was recognized with the 2017 Excellence in Composites Manufacturing Award (small-company category) for supplying net-shape manufacturing technology and equipment contributing to improvements in design, quality and reduced manufacturing costs for numerous manufacturing companies throughout the aerospace composites industry. Company co-founder Dimitrije Milovich received a separate award, honoring his 40-plus years of leadership and innovation.

New technology brings higher precision, faster production to make small parts more efficiently than is possible with traditional micro machining technology and equipment, according to a whitepaper from GF Microlution Inc.

Monaghan Tooling Group (MTG), Dayton, Ohio, a marketing and engineering company that provides the metalworking industry with world-class engineered tooling and services-is pleased to announce that Nick Coates has joined the company as Marketing Manager.

FANUC America has marked the 35th anniversary of manufacturing its line of painting robots at the company’s Rochester Hills, Mich., headquarters. In 1982, FANUC America produced its first NC Painter, a hydraulic paint robot using key components from parent company FANUC Corp. in Japan. Now, 35 years later, FANUC America remains globally responsible for all paint robots and door openers of the FANUC robot lineup.

Yamazaki Mazak Corp. and Murata Machinery, Ltd. (Muratec) have collaborated in the development of the MAZATEC SMS, an advanced manufacturing system designed to provide efficiency by performing unmanned machining. It incorporates the internal factory material handling technology of Muratec with the advanced horizontal machining centers and multi-tasking machine tools of Mazak Corp.

In the 1987 movie "Wall Street," the archetypal corporate villain Gordon Gekko memorably argues that “greed is good”—and that the bottom line is the only good a dutiful company need pursue. Thirty years on, Ethisphere Institute has announced 124 companies spanning five continents, 19 countries and 52 industry sectors as the 2017 World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees. Of these, four are in the category of Industrial Manufacturing: 3M Co., Deere & Co., Milliken & Co. and Timken Co. Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, Pa., is the only honored company in the category of Machine Tools and Accessories.

On Robot ApS, a Danish manufacturer of grippers for collaborative robots (cobots) that was founded in 2014, is introducing its technology to the North American market and has appointed Gary Eliasson as its general manager for North America. He will be based in Charlotte, N.C. “My goal is to set up a North American distribution channel,” he said.

Kitagawa North-Tech Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., reportedly will open a new office and warehouse facility in Queretaro, Mexico, on April 7. Kitagawa North-Tech, which makes standard chucks, advanced chucks, cylinders, steady rests, custom-engineered workholding and workholding accessories, described the new facility as a demonstration of the company's "commitment to Mexican customers," according to a March 17 company news release.

Sources tell Reuters that Plex Systems Inc, a privately held U.S. maker of software used to run manufacturing plants, is exploring a potential sale that it hopes will value it at more than $1 billion, including debt. The move comes as the world's largest industrial companies, from General Electric Co. to Siemens AG, seek to snap up software assets to modernize their manufacturing processes, improve their supply chains and cut costs.

GF Machining Solutions this month appointed two new regional managers in the Western Region to support growing sales of the company’s machines, automation solutions and services, especially for the tool and moldmaking industries, according to a March 15 company news release.

In October 1977, the Cortec Corp. developed vapor phase corrosion inhibitors (VpCIs) that allow clean, dry, more environmentally friendly methods of corrosion protection for multi-metals. At a time most companies still relied on inorganic chemistries, Cortec established its first groundbreaking technological platform of organic corrosion inhibiting chemistries.