Software & Digital Solutions

Engineers who currently ask humans for advice about cutting tool selection will one day direct their questions to advisers derived from artificial intelligence. So says MachiningCloud Inc. (www.machiningcloud.com), a single-source provider of digitized product data gathered from manufacturers of cutting tools and workholding devices.

BIG KAISER offers a mobile app to support boring operations. Leveraging the precision of BIG KAISER tooling through remote real-time information access further improves productivity and control on the factory floor.

Kitagawa NorthTech Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., recently announced the promotion of Kevin Bennett to vice president of sales and marketing. In addition to directing the company's North American sales and marketing efforts, Bennett will be involved with the operational aspects associated with how the company brings new workholding products and services to the market.

Epicor Software VP of Portfolio Marketing - Manufacturing Terri Hiskey shared insights on how she believes ERP software will evolve in response to manufacturing trends such as the Internet of Things and increased use of robotics and automation.

Sweden-based information technologies provider Hexagon AB has announced an agreement to acquire MSC Software Corp., the Newport Beach, Calif. based provider of computer-aided engineering solutions such as simulation software. The agreed-upon purchase price is $834 million. The acquisition is subject to clearance and standard regulatory filings and is expected to be complete in April of 2017.

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence launched PC-DMIS 2017 RI measurement software. 'R1' is short for 'Release 1' as there are two major releases scheduled for PC-DMIS in 2017, with continued service pack updates to ensure maximum reliability of the platform.

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.