General Shop Equipment & Supplies

In an article posted Feb. 9 at Forbes.com, Bill Conerly of Conerly Consulting LLC, Oswego, Ore., discussed how U.S. manufacturers need engineers to thrive because engineers invent products and optimize production methods.

Mastercam is known for NC programming, but it also delivers a suite of shop-tested design tools aimed at getting parts on and off the machine as quickly as possible. Powerful modeling tools include not only 3D surfacing and solids, but hole-filling, direct editing without a solids history, geometry repair and more.

Paris-headquartered simulation software developer SPRING Technologies announced the nomination of CEO Gilles Battier as a new member of the GIFAS AERO-PME Committee. GIFAS is an economic interest group that spearheads France's aerospace industry ecosystem.

Saw manufacturer Simonds Saw LLC named David Miles president. Miles will succeed Ray Martino, who will continue to serve as CEO of Simonds Saw and as president and CEO of Simonds International.

Machine tool builder INDEX Corp., Noblesville, Ind., named Craig Foster regional sales manager for the upper Midwest and Gino Viviani regional sales manager for the western U.S.

Drake Manufacturing Services Co. LLC, Warren, Ohio, named Bruce Dibble director of sales for North America. Drake builds machines for producing threads and gears.

Machine tool builder Cincinnati Inc., Harrison, Ohio, named Kristina Frontino regional sales engineer for northern California, Nevada, Utah and southern Idaho.

On many work parts, the outside diameter (OD) needs to be highly accurate. Tight tolerances are required for OD size, roundness, high and low frequency lobe patterns and taper. Thrufeed centerless OD grinding can achieve precise part quality at an economical processing cost.

Calibrating a multiple-axis machining center is one of those time-consuming but necessary tasks that parts makers have to accept. The task has gotten easier in past years, however, and has just gotten easier yet.

END USER: North Bucks Machining Ltd., +1908-611-669, www.northbucksmachining.co.uk. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Open Mind Technologies USA Inc., (888) 516-1232, www.openmind-tech.com. CHALLENGE: Efficiently rough-machine a mountain bike frame from a solid piece of aluminum stock. SOLUTION: A CAM software's high-performance roughing module.

Thread cutting is as close to artistic expression as one typically gets in a machine shop. Watching a machinist or toolmaker peel off perfectly formed chips with a precisely ground tool is mesmerizing.

U.S. manufacturing industry is transitioning from solvent-based cleaning to water-based cleaning products.