General Machining & Manufacturing Processes

This 5-minute video report on Eagle Manufacturing, a student-run business at Brown County High School in Nashville, Indiana, is presented as a video supplement to the following Lead Angle column published in the October 2023 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

ZOLLER Inc. welcomed manufacturing professionals from a range of industry verticals to its North American headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Automation Days on Aug. 9 and 10, 2023. Customers and industry leaders highlighted the unique solutions ZOLLER offers to automate cutting tool management and establish more resilient, reliable processes in the face of a labor shortage that is expected to leave 2.1 million jobs unfilled by 2030.

The N5200 SSD features a 4-lane PCIe and an NVMe 1.4 interface and offers sequential data rates of up to 7,000 MB/s read and 4,200 MB/s write. Random reads and writes reach up to 1.35 million IOPS and 450,000 IOPS, respectively. In terms of flash memory longevity, N5200 delivers endurance values of at least 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) measured against standardized workloads (JEDEC Enterprise Workload) over a 5-year period.

Many trade and technical schools in the United States include certification from the National Institute of Metalworking Skills in their training programs to uphold students to current manufacturing industry standards. To help support the initiative, Renishaw developed a gauging system package to improve the inspection of NIMS parts.

Stainless steel, cast iron and aluminium handwheels each have their unique safety features. Stainless steel is naturally resistant to bacterial growth, making it the ideal choice for hygiene-sensitive areas. Cast-iron handwheels, when coasted with zinc or chrome, offer protection against corrosion. Aluminium handwheels, on the other hand, are known for their lightweight nature and resistance to rust, which can be especially beneficial in environments where weight and longevity are factors.

The new KASTOsort tower will appeal to, for instance, metalworking companies who already use a high-performance saw such as the KASTOvariospeed oder KASTOtec with or without KASTOsort robots. For an efficient process, the parts must be sorted by order after sawing and handling and placed in appropriate boxes. One of the solutions used to date has been a container carousel with eight pallet spaces on which the robot can independently place and fill the respective boxes. This is a simple and cost-effective solution for buffering manageable quantities of material.

Ceratizit SA acquired all shares of Xceliron Corp., a Chatsworth, California-based round tool manufacturer that provides solid-carbide tools for the aerospace and automotive industries in the U.S.

Neal Raker, EXAIR Corp.'s application engineer and international sales manager, has earned a certified compressed air system specialist certification.

The new generation of MR-J5 servo products includes two new servo types, HK-RT/ST, and the addition of high-speed HK-KT/ST servo motors with 3000rpm rated speed. In addition, new features for improved programming have been added including Simple Motion Mode for the RD78G Motion Module, Advanced Synchronous Control, and positioning mode or "point table" for MR-J5G servo amplifiers. Networking and communication have drastically improved with master "follower" operation to transmit commands to master and following axis in a synchronized servo system, auto-detection of IP address on the CC-Link IE TSN network, and support of Line Star and Ring topologies with CC-Link IE TSN.

The HxGN Production Machining suite will integrate common workflows to help teams reduce error and eliminate redundant tasks at every stage, from job quotation and design review through production, quality assurance, and product delivery. By offering a suite of connected products from the Hexagon ecosystem, manufacturers benefit from simplified procurement, implementation, and support. The suite's flexibility makes it suitable for shops of any size, all types of CNC machinery, and any discrete part and material from one-off prototype to high-volume production runs.

The suite supports shops in fully utilizing advanced machine tools, using trusted Hexagon VISI and WORKNC software to help programmers optimise machining cycles and specialised cutting strategies specific to mould production. Prior to machining, CNC programs can be simulated and verified using NCSIMUL, the suite's G-code simulation software, which incorporates the entire machining environment to generate an effective digital twin of the machinery, part, and processes.

Lyndex-Nikken, a Mundelein, Illinois-based manufacturer and provider of high-performance machine tool accessories, expanded its sales team with the addition of two regional sales representatives.