Machining

Kitagawa North-Tech Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., a standard chucks, advanced chucks, custom-engineered workholding and steady rests manufacturer, announced that Mike Roberts of ITEX Workholding joined the company as regional sales manager for the Southwest region of the U.S.

Blanchard grinding has typically been a manual process for many shops. The simplicity of the dials and handwheels found on Blanchard grinders still work well and get the job done. However, there's an even easier way to run a Blanchard through the addition of a CNC.

The Grinding Doc examines the forces at work when cylindrical grinding produces round workpieces one minute, then something resembling a fried egg or a flower the next.

Walter Surface Technologies has introduced two heavy-duty grinders: the Ironman and Ironman PS. Designed for strenuous, prolonged use, the Ironman and Ironman PS feature an ergonomic rat-tail design, perfect balance, 1,750 watts of power, 6-inch wheel capacity, a QUICK-R instant release function, and the Walter Stabilizer, which reduces vibration and extends the life and productivity of abrasives by up to 30 percent.

Two alternative portable pipe milling tools for performing welding end preps on pipe and tube from 0.5" I.D. to 3" O.D. with different bores and wall thicknesses are available from Esco Tool.

As discussed in the current issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine in the feature article "Specialization on tap," material-specific taps continue to evolve. Sources anticipate increasing specialization of the materials used for taps across industries.

The new release of Edgecam, from Vero Software, contains 54 items of new or enhanced functionality that improve productivity for manufacturers by using a range of cutting technologies and machining strategies. They include significant changes to the Pre-Drill Approach Roughing cycle, creating features from wireframe entities, 3D milling cycles in mill-turn Rotary mode, 28 new technology databases in the Wire EDM module and Tombstone.

Fastems LLC is launching a new generation of flexible manufacturing systems engineered to fulfill manufacturers' growing needs to handle shorter product life cycles, higher product mixes and lower volumes.

Picum MT, a startup at Leibniz University in Germany, is collaborating to redefine the manufacturing workflow, which traditionally has involved moving a workpiece from machine to machine or from station to station.

Competition in the automotive industry is driving the need for higher-quality parts and lower manufacturing costs. All aspects are affected, including turning.

With so much attention given to improving machining processes, machinists, programmers and engineers at times forget about simple, but necessary, processes like deburring.

A look back at the use and evolution of sintered powder metal and the PM process that results in a tool substrate that consists of finer, more consistent particles, and yields a stronger, longer-lasting cutting edge.