General Machining & Manufacturing Processes

How robots help to qualify for the workplace of the future.

To combat the loss of more seasoned operators to retirement, job shops are turning to more modern, automated surface grinders.

With the WPP10G, WPP20G and WPP30G grades, Walter presents the new Tiger·tec® Gold indexable inserts, specially designed for turning operations. The multi-layered, highly textured MT-TiCN Tiger·tec® Gold coating increases tool life by an average of 50%.

The automotive industry is a driving force when it comes to innovation and development of micro-systems, with demand for high volume production, unlike the more niche applications in the aerospace sector. Two technologies, photo-chemical etching and micromanufacturing are migrating to this technologies.

Through calculating its carbon handprint and footprint, Fastems has taken its first steps towards understanding how automation enables more sustainable product development and how to reduce the company's environmental impact.

Today's manufacturing customers expect fast turnaround times, competitive pricing, and on-time delivery of quality parts with every job. Achieving these outcomes requires a variety of capabilities called the "Great 8 of Manufacturing."

Cost optimized for large quantities, the lightweight P-604 amplified piezo fixture actuator provides a large travel of 300µm in a small footprint of 13x20mm, engineered for a long maintenance-free life. Zero-play flexure guides deliver frictionless and ultra-straight motion. At the heart of the motion-amplifying flexure design is a multilayer piezo ceramic element, of the same proprietary construction as the ones used on the Mars rover for their extreme reliability and lifetime beyond 100 billion cycles.

Eriez Ultra High-Frequency Eddy Current Separators offer an economic solution to improve Zorba recovery without the requirement for expensive sensor-based or optical sorting equipment. Each unit ships with an Eriez Brute Force Vibratory Feeder to ensure even presentation of material across the width of the machine to help maximize recovery.

Offering an all-round package for modern production in the Industry 4.0 era, GROB provides 12 modules ranging from planning to engineering to maintenance. Each GROB-NET4Industry module is designed to increase productivity. Users can select from among these modules and combine the most relevant for the best system to ensure transparency and connectivity.

DCM Tech's Punch and Die Grinder is a turnkey package with auto-feed control, self-dressing CBN abrasives, through-spindle coolant and universal fixturing that accepts Amada, Trumpf, Salvagnini, Finnpower, Weideman, Whitney, and other style tooling. Sharpen large station dies and rooftop/shear angle tooling up to 10 degrees with the standard fixturing package. Typical grind time is less than 5 minutes.

Part of the RENK group, Horstman is a manufacturer and global supplier of suspension systems for heavily armored and tracked vehicles. It also produces safety-critical engineering components allied to its core products for the sub-sea and aerospace industries. Because of the critical nature of its products, the company has invested in new CMM technology.

Linamar Powertrain GmbH produces connecting rods with extreme efficiency, and consistently fulfills the OEM's quality requirements. With its quick retooling feature, the Saturn double-surface grinding machine from Junker is not only flexible but also an economical and reliable solution for the precision production of diverse connecting rods.