Machining

The most recent addition to Kitagawa-NorthTech Inc.'s family of solutions is a custom designed steady rest for the Haas ST-40 high performance turning centers.

Knight Carbide recently issued this animated case study involving the production of a custom part radius for a hollow mill operation. The objective was to eliminate bird nesting, reduce machine down time and increase performance.View Knight Carbide's animated case study below.

During rotary plunge dressing, a shop worker would like to know if dwelling for 2 seconds is the right amount of time. Dr. Jeffrey Badger, the host of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine's Grinding Doc Video Series, says it's not a matter of time.

Bar feeders, once known as slow and inefficient 'rattle tubes,' are now high-speed, automated units.

Significant progress in metalworking productivity most often results from the combined efforts of toolmakers, machine tool builders and software developers. Plunge, or Z-axis, milling is a good example.

As the U.S. strives to become less dependent on foreign energy sources, energy producers are increasingly employing hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to drill shale deposits and extract natural gas and some oil. That booming market requires a range of parts from shops around the country.

As demand for vehicle transmissions and other systems requiring quieter, more compact and lighter gear mechanisms increases, gear manufacturers seek to continually boost productivity while lowering costs.

States near the Marcellus Shale, a huge natural gas formation centered in Pennsylvania, are feverishly pursuing a $4 billion ethane "cracker" to be built by Royal Dutch Shell. The cracker will process ethane-rich gas from the Marcellus Shale into ethylene, and the ethylene will be used by the pharmaceutical, chemical and plastics industries.

Many large corporations are well versed in total productive maintenance, but smaller companies are probably not. To learn more about the concept, I attended a 1-day seminar about TPM at a local technical college.

At my shop and others I've been in contact with, cash flow and timely payment have become issues that require greater scrutiny. If that's the case at your shop, dealing with them effectively will be a test of your management skills.

END USER: Helac Corp., (800) 327-2589, www.helac.com. CHALLENGE: Reduce maintenance and programming time on a large vertical turning center. SOLUTION: Retrofit the VTC with a new CNC and AC digital-axis servodrives and servomotors.

END USER: Machine Tech CNC, (780) 461-0890. CHALLENGE: Accurately bore 14 diameters deep and deeper. SOLUTION: Carbide-reinforced boring bars with built-in vibration damping.