Software & Digital Solutions

Onshape updated its functionality again, introducing a new capability to edit parts within the context of assemblies. Onshape says its speeds up the design process by being full-cloud, but the company is also continuing to redefine how CAD is done.

Shop Operations columnist James A. Harvey underscores the importance of his initial CNC training, which involved changing tools on a new mill. Just the act of changing a tool let him interact with the machine and controller in a way that gave him confidence.

Good optimization software must take into account all the known challenges to optimal machining, which include heat, vibration, deflection, chip buildup, material hardness and a machine tool's horsepower, torque, rigidity, spindle speed, maximum feed rate and accuracy. What's more, end users must also select the appropriate cutting tools and machining parameters.

Allied Machine & Engineering announces the launch of the Wohlhaupter Tool-Architect software. Tool-Architect is a configurator for modular system tools that allows customers to virtually build customized tools online using Wohlhaupter parts, now part of Allied's solutions for holemaking and finishing challenges.

A Boston Consulting Group survey finds that US companies consider digital technologies a priority, but that many manufacturers feel no urgency and have no strategy to implement them. For example, nearly 90% of manufacturing leaders regard adopting new digital industrial technologies as a way to improve productivity, but only about one in four see opportunities to use these advances to build new revenue streams.

Penn State reports that it will team with researchers and analysts from Case Western Reserve University, the GE Global Research Center and Microsoft on a $1.5 million collaborative research project to develop a cloud-based wireless sensing and prognostic system for monitoring manufacturing machinery. The initiative will make it possible for such a system to detect early signs of wear, aging and fault conditions in the machines.

The Look Ahead department in the December 2016 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering features a platform for Industry 4.0 connectivity.

Presented here is the second part of a two-part series of columns about the importance of becoming familiar with CNC programming code. The following describes the steps involved in manually writing a program.

In the first part of this two-part series, I looked at what actually happens in the cutting zone and how that knowledge allows end users to select the best possible cutting tool and CAD/CAM strategy for a particular material to optimize material removal. This second part covers why it is important to adopt this approach not only for all CNC machining processes, but as a significant production cost-saving measure companywide and industrywide.n

Attendees at the IMTS 2016 trade show may have noticed a number of magnetic "hybrid" signs affixed to several brands of machine tools. The man largely responsible for the signs being displayed is Jason Jones, inventor of the AMBIT laser cladding head and co-founder of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies Inc., Plano, Texas.

A look at "how manufacturers make the most of machine data" in CIO magazine goes over the challenges as well as the benefits of using ERP. A major source for the article is Magnus Wiktorsson, professor of production systems at Mälardalen University in Sweden. Wiktorsson outlines four key challenges for companies looking to digitize their manufacturing processes, which are worth reading.

To spur significant innovation and growth in advanced manufacturing, as well as save over $100 billion annually, U.S. industry must rectify currently unmet needs for measurement science and "proof-of-concept" demonstrations of emerging technologies. This is the overall conclusion reached by economic studies funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of four advanced manufacturing areas used to create everything from automobile composites to zero-noise headsets.