Fabrication & Cutting

On March 2, mHUB, a physical-product innovation center and microfactory, celebrated its official grand opening in Chicago. The center is designed to galvanize the area's manufacturing ecosystem by generating innovative ideas, attracting world-class talent and fostering collaboration.

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.

Walter Surface Technologies announces the launch of FLEXSTEEL, a high-performing general-purpose flap disc designed for use on steel in light industrial, metal fabrication and construction applications. FLEXSTEEL is the newest addition to Walter's ENDURO-FLEX family of flap discs and furthers Walter's commitment to helping customers work better.

Seco Tools new TP3501 grade is designed to provide optimal application security. The grade is for steel turning applications that involve numerous interrupted cuts, less stable machines, short time in cut or weak setups due to part size or shape.designed

A 1 kW (average power) pulsed fiber laser from Coherent | Rofin offers a high beam quality for this power level, thus enabling high throughput, precision ablation for a variety of industrial and solar applications. Specifically, the FP 010 delivers a maximum pulse energy of 100 mJ, at pulse widths between 10 ns and 100 ns, and with repetition rates ranging from 10 kHz to 30 kHz.

Discover the precision and versatility of honing—a machining process ideal for finishing cylinders, correcting bore geometry, and enhancing gear performance. Learn how honing works, its benefits, and key applications in modern manufacturing.

EXAIR's Model 1004SS, M4 NPT back blow air nozzle delivers a small, effective airflow for blowing debris and liquids from small pipe or hose inside diameters, channel, bores, holes, internal threads and other internal part features. An array of holes provide a forceful 360 degree airflow to clear out coolant, chips and light oils from machining processes.

A joint research project known as "Scaling Ultrafast Laser Productive Precision Processing Technology", or ScULPT, was conceived to develop an efficient, powerful, ultra-short pulsed laser system with a tenfold increase in throughput on the machining of different types of glass and metals.

A full line of ZnSe (zinc selenide) focusing lenses that are optimized for use with steel cutting lasers up to 4 kW and suitable field replacements by users is available from Laser Research Optics. Laser Research Optics CO2 Laser Lenses come in plano-convex and –meniscus configurations in 1" to 2" OD sizes with thicknesses ranging from 0.250" to 0.380".

A new 120W CO2 laser from Coherent offers a 30 percent better power/volume ratio than most competitive lasers in this class, enabling the construction of more compact laser-based systems for space-constrained, industrial applications. Additionally, the Cx-10 offers a unique combination of performance and reliability features to deliver both superior processing results and lower total cost of ownership.

The Look Ahead department covers a low-temperature PVD coating, free of charge, in the February 2017 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering.

What would you do if you won a waterjet cutting machine? In John Mullett's case, he asked for a bigger one. Mullett is owner of Laureate Machine & Automation LLC, Leipsic, Ohio. He won one of two machines given away by WARDJet Inc. as part of the Tallmadge, Ohio-based waterjet builder's Build It! Challenge competition that took place during the IMTS 2016 trade show in Chicago.