General Shop Equipment & Supplies

IntelLiDrives has designed and manufactured an innovative large area XY gantry where Theta angle can exceed 20 degrees. The new kinematic approach allows large relative motions of the independent X1 and X2 parallel axes.

ANCA Inc. will expand its plant in Wixom, Mich., by 50 percent, expanding its inventory and spare parts warehouse capacity, adding a dedicated customer focus and training center, and doubling its machine demonstration area. The announcement was made by Russell Riddiford, ANCA president. ANCA, a private company, did not disclose the dollar value of the investment.

There was plenty to see, eat, drink, learn and hear at the United States Cutting Tool Institute's (www.uscti.com) 2016 Fall Meeting, held Oct. 15-17 at the Omni Royal hotel in New Orleans, writes Cutting Tool Engineering Publisher Don Nelson. "As a former resident of Louisiana, I already knew the best places in the Crescent City to sightsee (Lower Garden District), eat (any po'boy stand) and imbibe (Napoleon House)."

Hermle has introduced the C 250 as a complement to its existing C 400 unit (introduced in 2012), and offers yet another affordable way for customers to enter the 5-axis category while still delivering the precision required at the most demanding level of machining.

The dynamic new generation of the ABC machine from INDEX is ideal for turning out simple to moderately complex parts in cycle times up to 15% faster than the previous generation with rapid spindle acceleration (8 g), shorter spindle ramp-up times, higher rapid traverse rates, and quick chip to chip times, according to the company. Ideal for runs from 5,000 to 50,000 parts in the 42 to 60 mm range, the machine's combination of features supports a low production cost per piece, even for complex parts.

DP Technology joined the College of Electromechanical Engineering at Beijing Union University and the Beijing Intelligent Mechanical Innovative Design Engineering Research Center to host the ESPRIT CAM & Smart Manufacturing seminar in Beijing on Sept. 22, 2016. The seminar brought into focus the most critical manufacturing topics in China today in order to better support the 10-year national plan, Made in China 2025.

For those shops looking to boost productivity as well as profitability, Mazak's Quick Turn-250MSY turning center sports several new productivity-enhancing features. These include a new direct-drive turret design, higher torque main spindle, a faster more powerful milling spindle and the MAZATROL SmoothG CNC.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., recently visited Performance Micro Tool, a manufacturer of micro tools in Janesville, Wis. The senator said he intends to give American manufacturing a boost by easing regulatory burdens and smoothing tax rules, which are among his major campaign platforms.

CNC Software Inc., producers of Mastercam CAD/CAM software, announced a 3-axis milling postprocessor that will unleash the highest productivity on Sinumerik-controlled machine tools. The new postprocessor was developed utilizing the technical expertise of Siemens CNC engineers.

END USER: Toolcraft Inc., (360) 794-5512, www.tcprecision.com. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Mil-Tec Inc., (800) 564-5832, www.miltecusa.com. CHALLENGE: Reduce cycle time when machining an aluminum part. SOLUTION: A progressive form tool applied on a horizontal machining center.

If you use a pair of machinist's vises bolted to the bed of a vertical machining center and laboriously replace jaws for each new job or build fixtures from scratch and stick them on the shelf until the order repeats, listen up: Modular workholding saves time and money.