Design & Engineering

Additive and subtractive manufacturing may be conceptual opposites, but a new partnership aims to show that the two can make a good team. Two of the partners are New York organizations: the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Elmira-based Hardinge Inc. RIT researchers are incorporating additive-manufacturing capabilities into Hardinge's Bridgeport GX 250 5-axis vertical machining center. The goal is to create a hybrid manufacturing system capable of producing more accurate parts at a lower cost than conventional manufacturing methods.

Norsk Titanium AS, Oslo, Norway, announced the first shipment of Airbus test parts manufactured by the company's patented Rapid Plasma Deposition (RPD) process has been delivered to Premium AEROTEC's plant in Varel, Germany, where it has already undergone finish machining, according to a joint company news release issued Jan. 20.

CNC Software Inc., which provides software applications for CAD/CAM manufacturing markets, recently posted a video to its Mastercam Blog that stresses the importance of manufacturing. In the brief report, Scott Brotherton, a CNC Software applications engineer, "describes what everyone should know about manufacturing and why it is so important to everyday life," according to the company post.

CHALLENGE: Reduce setup and cycle times while meeting customers' demands for high-quality parts. SOLUTION: Two horizontal machining centers. END USER: Reinhold Industries Ltd., (780) 434-8552, www.rilflo.com. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Methods Machine Tools Inc., (877) MMT-4CNC, www.methodsmachine.com.

Are visitors to a bearing manufacturing facility in Hoechstadt, Germany, getting an early glimpse of what Industry 4.0 looks like? That's the hope of Schaeffler Group, which owns the facility. The plant houses a machine tool meant to show how digitalization works—not in a laboratory, but in an actual manufacturing environment.

The view from Jungfraujoch inspires awe. So does the railway that transports visitors to the site—a ridge located 11,332' above sea level in the Swiss Alps. I was exposed to another example of commitment while in Switzerland, during a visit to the Mikron Group. Company vice president Markus Schnyder recounted his attempts in the early 1990s to develop a drill for a customer that used Mikron rotary transfer machines to drill holes in stainless steel watch bracelets.

A PROFIMAT MC 607 5-axis CNC grinding machine manufactured by Blohm Jung GmbH in Germany has been supplied in close cooperation with UK agent, J.R.A. Bennett Ltd, at The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) with Boeing. It follows a rigorous tender process that involved evaluating hundreds of parameters and included grinding trials at the machine builder's factory in Hamburg.

Companies that make cylindrical cutting tools from PCD and other materials face two key challenges: meeting the surging demand for PCD tools while retaining the ability to produce HSS, carbide, ceramic and cermet tools, observes the Machine Technology column in the October issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

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.

3D printing, once only in the realm of science fiction, is gaining popularity. In this military video, Staff Sergeant Scott Johnson talks about how Air Force Research Laboratory scientists at Wright-Patterson AFB are using additive manufacturing to provide the military with better equipment.

GF Machining Solutions unveils the Transformer automation cell at IMTS 2014.

On Sept. 10, the Guinness World Record for the "World's Largest Coin Mosaic" was broken during the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. In an effort to raise awareness of the role the manufacturing industry plays in the U.S. economy and the opportunities it presents for the next generation of workers, the mosaic incorporated more than $65,000 worth of coins to represent the amount of money manufacturing contributes to the U.S. economy each second.