General Shop Equipment & Supplies

AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology has a new chief financial officer, Rebecca Stahl, overseeing accounting and human resources. Prior to joining AMT, Stahl served as the chief financial officer at Lightbridge Communications Corp., a multinational wireless engineering company with a presence in more than 80 countries. Stahl recently earned the Private Company Chief Financial Officer of the Year award from the Northern Virginia Technology Council in 2015 for her work at Lightbridge.

If you have aspirations for being an engineer or programmer, but do not have a college degree, this column is for you, according to the Machinist's Corner column in the October issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Even with a good fourth quarter and my natural optimism, reports from contacts at some of our larger customers concern me, reports the Manager's Desk columnist in the October issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

CTE Editor Alan Richter visited the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute at Chicago's Goose Island in September for a peek into the future of manufacturing at an event coordinated by Blaser Swisslube Inc.

As children, we likely all learned the hard way that drastic temperature changes cause objects to change size—whether it was leaving a soda in the freezer too long to get it cold or breaking your turtle's terrarium by cleaning it with hot water after it had been resting on the cold ground (sorry, Mom and Dad!). However, in the realm of precision measurement, even minute differences in atmospheric conditions can have huge impacts—to the point that parts manufactured within spec can fail inspection and be needlessly reworked or even scrapped.

Running a successful machine shop takes more than having advanced machine tools, high-performance cutting tools and machinists that boost productivity. A manufacturer of precision metal parts might also need a strategic partner that has the network, expertise and — last but not least — capital to penetrate new markets, overcome capacity constraints and make investments to help the business grow.

Medieval soldiers did it to strengthen their armor, Civil War engineers did it to improve gun and cannon barrels, railroad men did it to locomotive axles before they rolled into the untamed West and Henry Ford did it to enhance parts bound for his new invention, the assembly line. More recently, aircraft manufacturers began doing it to virtually every square inch of their metal wares before sending them skyward. What shared action connects these warriors, inventors and manufacturers? The cold working of metal workpieces.

Build-A-Mold credits Makino automated machining technologies with helping the custom mold shop to increase quality and profitability.

The OMAX® Corp., Kent, Wash., recently welcomed Stephen Bruner to its senior management team as vice president of marketing. Bruner will oversee the company's marketing, technical training and inside sales teams and work closely with staff on program planning, brand development and lead generation and nurturing.

Midwest Industrial Tool Grinding Inc., Hutchinson, Minn., recently received the Image Award in the Minnesota Business Magazine2015 Manufacturing Awards. A two-time recipient, MITGI was recognized for work done to enhance the industry's image and the appeal of careers in manufacturing, according to a company news release.

Let's say you want to machine your initials on your favorite Hummel figurine or cut the likeness of the school mascot on your daughter's Little League helmet. How are you going to grip them? A conventional way to grip fragile, difficult-to-hold workpieces is to encapsulate them in some sort of potting compound, a time-consuming and wasteful process.