Machining

Wohlhaupter Corp. has upgraded its popular 019 boring head and made it "digital ready." The VarioBore head can be ordered with or without a docking port and associated internal electronics to accommodate the new Universal Digital Readout Module.

The Digital Module from Wohlhaupter Corp. can be used with the company's recently updated 019 boring head (VarioBore), which can be ordered with a docking port and associated internal electronics.

Saint-Gobain Abrasives has introduced Norton QUANTUM3 (NQ3) depressed-center grinding wheels. Featuring a proprietary grain along with a tough bond system that contains a unique combination of fillers and bonding agents that reportedly allow for much better mix quality in manufacturing, NQ3 provides substantially faster grinding for more metal removal and longer wheel life, with less operator fatigue, to significantly increase grinding output.

Hypertherm Inc. designs and manufactures plasma, laser and waterjet cutting systems, as well as CNC motion and height controls, CAM nesting software and consumables. The Hanover, N.H.-based company opened a 165,000-sq.-ft. facility—Hypertherm's newest—in Lebanon, N.H., in 2012.

Teach your robot well: A new control system can reduce the time to set up and program industrial robots from an hour or more to just minutes, according to the Finnish research organization that developed it.

... in these golden years," crooned the late David Bowie in one of his smash hits.The term "golden years" is also used in Albert B. Albrecht's book "The American Machine Tool Industry: Its History, Growth, Restructuring & Recovery," which he revised in 2015 for the third edition.

In today's hypercompetitive, globalized economy, businesses are pressured to do more, do it faster, do it right the first time and do it all with fewer resources.

Presented this month are more programming tips to help prevent machine tool crashes.

Do you know why your last part run had a high defect rate, why parts from an outside supplier were nonconforming, and what you are going to do with those parts? If your company has a material review board, it can probably answer those questions.

Whether your shop is busy or struggling to survive a downturn, employees are your best asset. We've had to downsize over the past few months, but a good group remains. Many are handling new tasks, but a reengineering of employees' tasks can be beneficial, driving everyone to work smarter, not harder.

When CNC wire EDMs came on the market in the mid-'70s, feeding wire from a spool through a machine's elaborate series of rollers and guides was a tedious manual exercise. Luckily, electrical discharge machining was an exceedingly slow process back then, so replacing wire had to be done less frequently than on today's machines, which erode conductive metal 10 to 20 times faster than earlier models.

FANUC America Corp. has released the new FANUC CNC simulator, bringing the popular CNC to the classroom and providing students with exposure to FANUC CNCs without the need for a full mill or lathe. The FANUC CNC simulator is based on the FANUC series 0i - Model F platform and can be operated in either milling or turning configurations.