We at Cutting Tool Engineering celebrated the New Year by unveiling a major overhaul to the design and functionality of our website, ctemag.com.
Sporting a bright new design with larger text and images, ctemag.com is not only easier on the eyes, it’s also easier on the fingers thanks to new navigation and search functionality. In short, finding the information visitors want will take fewer clicks than ever.
Nearly a year in the making, the overhaul integrates related subject matter throughout the website so visitors can conduct exhaustive content searches without exhausting themselves. By emphasizing search by topical category rather than content type—such as feature articles, product news, industry headlines or video reports—ctemag.com builds on the strength of the old website, namely the ShortCUTS Search.
The old ShortCUTS option only displayed related subject matter from two content types: feature articles and product news. We’ve bolstered the ShortCUTS Search so it now generates a single search-results page, displaying related subject matter from five content types: industry headlines, product news, feature articles, video reports and our Buyers Guide. We also moved ShortCUTS to the main navigation area of the website.
With less than 1 percent of visitors using the keyword search on the old website, we dropped the keyword search to make room for a new ShortCUTS Search navigation tab. Hovering over the tab with your cursor opens a drop-down menu with a choice of 18 categories: abrasives, automation, cleaning equipment/supplies, coatings, coolant, cutting tools, fixtures and workholding, grinding, machines and accessories, machining operations, management and training, materials, measurement and inspection, micromanufacturing, quality control, safety, software and toolholding.
The ShortCUTS Search results for each category offers a cursory view of the most recent posts to the site’s industry headlines, product news, feature articles and video reports. In addition, you’ll find a list of companies included in our Buyers Guide that offer products and services related to the category that was searched.
And that’s just one way we’ve integrated our online Buyers Guide throughout the website. Any content on the site related to a company in our Buyers Guide now can be accessed through that company’s Buyers Guide listing. When you use the guide’s products/services menu to search for manufacturers, distributors and machine shops, each company name included on the results page links to a Buyers Guide company detail page showing the other categories in which that company is listed. Plus, if the company is associated with any industry headlines, product news, feature articles or video reports, its Buyers Guide page will include links to that content.
To see how these and other new features work, view a video report about the new functionality.
Related Glossary Terms
- coolant
coolant
Fluid that reduces temperature buildup at the tool/workpiece interface during machining. Normally takes the form of a liquid such as soluble or chemical mixtures (semisynthetic, synthetic) but can be pressurized air or other gas. Because of water’s ability to absorb great quantities of heat, it is widely used as a coolant and vehicle for various cutting compounds, with the water-to-compound ratio varying with the machining task. See cutting fluid; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.
- grinding
grinding
Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool and cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.
- quality assurance ( quality control)
quality assurance ( quality control)
Terms denoting a formal program for monitoring product quality. The denotations are the same, but QC typically connotes a more traditional postmachining inspection system, while QA implies a more comprehensive approach, with emphasis on “total quality,” broad quality principles, statistical process control and other statistical methods.
Author
Dennis, who served as electronic media editor at Cutting Tool Engineering from January 2007 through May 2018, is now the owner and publisher of the magazine and CTE Publications Inc. Dennis holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University, and has more than 40 years of media experience.
