Economy

Shipments of cutting tools, according to the Cutting Tool Market Report compiled in a collaboration between AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the U.S. Cutting Tool Institute (USCTI), totaled $188.7 million in September 2024. Although 2024 year-to-date (YTD) shipments through September reached $1.86 billion and remain ahead of last year's totals by 0.7%, month-to-month orders decreased 10% from August 2024, and were down 6.3% from September 2023.

U.S. Department of Labor funding will help the ASME Foundation to train and place community college graduates with employers in manufacturing, clean energy, supply chains, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.

The  Monthly Leasing and Finance Index is a survey of 25 companies representing a cross-section of the $1 trillion equipment finance sector that shows, in near real-time, that the overall new business volume for September was $9.7 billion, down 5 percent year-over-year from new business volume in September 2022.

Electron Engineering Services is a machine tool company specializing in machine refurbishment and CNC retrofitting, including re-engineering, re-manufacture, and retrofit. Electron was retrofitting a grinding machine to turn it into an accurate grinder by installing servo systems instead of hydraulics.

In an age of online shopping and mass production, distribution centers are on the rise. Naturally, the amount of packaging is also increasing, and a practical solution is needed to close the loop of recycling so much waste. One major tool distribution company in the Midwest has found its own “circular economy” answer to this problem by using EcoShield Heat Sealable Paper to recycle used boxes into dunnage bags.