General Machining & Manufacturing Processes

ONA Electroerosion S.A., Durango, Spain, named Marius Petean as key account manager for the aerospace, energy and defense markets at ONA EDM USA Inc., Macomb, Mich.

Workholding manufacturer Kitagawa-NorthTech Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., named Ed Johannesen as its senior manager of engineering and quality.

Linear and rotary motion system manufacturer Gilman Precision, Grafton, Wis., added Chris Schmid as a business development specialist for the Midwest and international markets.

U.S. manufacturers spent $168.69 million on cutting tools in November 2016, according to the Cutting Tool Market Report by the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute and AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. This was 0.2 percent lower than October's $168.99 million, but was up 9.3 percent from November 2015's $154.28 million.

The new LP 100 gantry robot system introduced recently by Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH is ideal for handling small and light components, allowing users the option of configuring the gantry to deliver high-speed or high-load performance. This choice allows the LP 100 to be employed flexibly, which fits well with inline production concepts where workpieces travel longer distances across several production machines.

Tungaloy Corp. added threading inserts with sharp cutting edges to its TetraMini-Cut insert series, which allows undercutting and finishing of a flange wall. Complemented by the new PVD grade, SH725, TetraMini-Cut's new threading insert features sharp cutting edges, making it suitable for cutting fine pitch threads at a high cutting speed.

Tungaloy Corp. further expands its indexable-insert gundrill line, DeepTriDrill, with options down to a diameter range of 14-15.9 mm. Deep-hole drilling is a challenging operation and often creates a bottleneck in holemaking shops around the globe.

Government concerning itself with manufacturing? What would the Founding Fathers think? We know the answer: December marked 220 years since Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton submitted his "Report on the Subject Manufactures" to the House of Representatives. In it, he argued in favor of manufacturing as a contrast to the Jeffersonian vision of an agrarian society, and that action from the federal government was necessary if U.S. manufacturing was to thrive.

More than 150 U.S.-based robotics researchers contributed to the 2016 edition of the report titled "A Roadmap for US Robotics From Internet to Robotics." Released Oct. 31, the document calls for improving policy frameworks to safely integrate new technologies, such as self-driving cars and commercial drones, into everyday life. The document also advocates for increased research efforts in the field of human-robot interaction and for more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) courses for students.

With potential ramifications for 3D printing of metals, particularly of expensive metals such as titanium, The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Ames Laboratory has created a process for making "perfect" metal powder. Each particle is smooth and spherical, allowing it to flow without clumping and pack together more densely.

suitX, a California-based robotics company designing and manufacturing medical and industrial exoskeletons, recently announced the official launch of MAX, a flexible exoskeleton that can be adapted to a variety of workplace tasks. MAX comprises three exoskeleton modules: backX, shoulderX and legX.

Okuma America Corp. demonstrates the 3D manual feed function with the OSP-P300M control in a video posted to the company's YouTube channel on Jan. 10. The video presents a 3D manual operation that reportedly allows the user to follow the tool axis direction with the rotary axes. The function, which allows the user to "jog" and "pulse" feed, is said to offer an easy approach to check clearance issues between the workpiece, the saddle and other components.