General Shop Equipment & Supplies

The new NUMgrind package is specifically designed to simplify the creation of G code programs for CNC machine tools through the use of a highly intuitive graphical human machine interface (HMI), conversational-style 'fill in the blanks' type dialogs or a combination of the two. NUMgrind simplifies machine tool programming for an extensive range of tasks, including external and internal cylindrical grinding, surface grinding, wheel shaping and dressing.

Gallup found in its 2017 "State of the American Workplace" report that 25% of manufacturing workers are engaged at work—eight percentage points lower than the national average of 33% employee engagement, the lowest in this metric. Why, and what can be done about it? Gallup consultants offer five suggestions.

Omax Corp. developed the MicroMax JetMachining Center with help from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research grant. The investment has paid off.

END USER: Niagara Gear Division of Gear Motions Inc., (716) 874-3131, www.gearmotions.com/locations/niagara-gear-division. CHALLENGE: Reduce lead times and enhance flexibility and control to meet customer delivery requirements. SOLUTION: A work cell with a vertical machining center, two turning centers, a saw and a parts-marking machine that the company set up after initially purchasing the VMC and then acquiring the rest of the equipment from a machine shop that closed.

Nowhere will you find more gold — i.e., profits — than by streamlining redundant or antiquated plant operations, according to Phillip Canipe, whose job it is to eliminate waste and redundancy at manufacturing plants.

At Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Inc., holemaking success is about timing—finding the best sequence in which to perform manufacturing operations.

Visioneering Inc. employees stay ready to adapt to change as the Auburn Hills, Mich., aerospace supplier opens a new facility and adopts a new way to apply coolant.

How do you treat your a customer who received an order and has a problem with it? Maybe you shipped the wrong part or made a part according to an old revision. How do you handle the situation and appease the customer?

Many machinists fondly remember their early training or apprenticeships when they made 1-2-3 blocks from scratch under the watchful eye of a master toolmaker. These young machinists carefully machined the blocks oversize, heat-treated them and then ground them to size. They quickly learned that precisely holding size and geometric features to close limits is more challenging than it seems at first glance.

Keith Jennings, who writes the Manager's Desk column for Cutting Tool Engineering, never experienced being sad and mad at the same time until recently, according to his September column. The cause? A trusted employee who wasn't so trustworthy.

Many — if not most — shops encourage employees to purchase their own measurement tools. Some even help by "financing" these purchases, allowing machinists to pay them off in small increments. And what machinist doesn't want his or her "own stuff" with which to do the job? But does allowing machinists to use their own measuring tools actually make sense?

To profitably machine high-quality parts, many manufacturers follow a similar path, beginning with tool selection and application and then solving any problems that arise in a reactive way. However, research suggests that manufacturers should examine the entire machining process before cutting begins, focusing on eliminating rejected parts and unforeseen downtime.