General Shop Equipment & Supplies

The 5-axis GENOS M460V-5AX VMC from Okuma America Corp. features solidly built double-column construction, a high-speed spindle and intelligent technologies.

Although millions of manufacturing jobs may need to be filled in the years to come as baby boomers continue to retire, many manufacturers already struggle with unfilled positions. One efficient way to combat the problem is by improving company websites, said Claudia Pennington, co-founder and CEO of DIY Marketing, Marietta, Pa.

Every day, it happens. Someone from Houston calls, or maybe San Francisco, peddling precision-machined parts from China. Then there are the emails from people with fake names—like Lily, Annie and Susan—overflowing my inbox with offers of low part costs and excellent service. Please, China, I don't want to buy machined parts from you. No metal stampings. No plastic injection molds or 3D-printed prototypes. And at the risk of offending those who do, you shouldn't either.

The A590 is a 23,000-lb. cylinder head porting and block machining center for big billet and diesel work. Whether you need to port long V12 or diesel cylinder heads, have a large production volume of heads to port, or have a specialty application requiring extreme angles, the CENTROID A590 is suitable.

E-Z Burr Tool Co. will continue to operate as an independent entity out of the deburring tool manufacturer's Livonia, Mich., facility, with little or no change in procedures or processes, reports purchaser Cogsdill Tool Products Inc., Camden, S.C. The sale closed Jan. 3.

Politics weighs more heavily on foreign companies in China than it has in nearly three decades, writes Joe McDonald, an Associated Press business writer. "The latest flashpoint was Beijing's fury last week at hotel keeper Marriott and other companies that labeled self-ruled Taiwan a country on websites or customer materials. But companies face pressure on many sides from President Xi Jinping's more nationalistic stance and twin campaigns to tighten the ruling Communist Party's political control and have it play a direct role in business."

Implementing a safety management system is no small task. Because safety is highly cross-functional, you will need buy-in and support from the full business, as well as dedicated time and resources to develop a plan.

The week after CemeCon Inc. held a ribbon-cutting Jan. 17 to officially open its new 15,000-sq.-ft. headquarters and CVD diamond coating facility, I spoke with Gary Lake, company president, to discuss the expansion and developments in cutting tool coating technology. The opening marks the fourth expansion of production capabilities since the company, which is a subsidiary of Wuerselen, Germany-based CemeCon AG, was founded in 1998 and the third increase in capacity for the CVD diamond process since 2014.

Jergens Inc. is pleased to announce the expansion of its offering by adding custom design and build workholding to its existing Fixture-Pro, Multi Axis and other workholding products. The addition of custom design and manufacturing capabilities will enhance Jergens' time to market and allow customers to enhance their manufacturing productivity with efficient quick-change products.

TDM Systems, a subsidiary of Sandvik Machining Solutions, has announced the introduction of TDM Shopfloor Manager in TDM 2017 Global Line. The Shopfloor Manager software module records the entirety of a tool's circulation, from planning for tool assembly, presetting and tool use at the machine, to disassembling.

The Rhode Island Manufacturers Association has chosen Henry D. Sharpe Jr. to receive the inaugural Samuel Slater Lifetime Achievement Award, writes Kate Bramson in The Providence Journal. He was a longtime president of Brown & Sharpe and the third generation of the Sharpe family to run the machine tool powerhouse.

Grayson College has unveiled its $1.4 million Advanced Manufacturing Lab for the school's Career and Technology Center, writes Rhea Bermel in the Herald Democrat. The lab will provide space for large industrial machinery, classrooms and storage and will be used largely to educate students participating in the Advanced Manufacturing Program.