Supply Chain & Logistics

GTI Spindle Technology, Manchester, N.H., recently announced plans to open a new state-of-the-art spindle repair facility in Raleigh, N.C., this month. The new 5,000-square-foot facility will provide full-service spindle rebuild and repair services. The new facility also will provide on-site predictive maintenance services, including vibration analysis routes for customers who want to ensure maximum uptime and reliability for their shops.

Whether done manually or with a powered device, scraping guide ways is critical to machine tool performance.

A Diversified Machine Systems 5-Axis Enclosed Large Format Overhead Gantry CNC Router with continuous C-Axis rotation demonstrates its ability to cut out a composite component. Diversified Machine Systems arranged the test cut to demonstrate the machine's accuracy and efficiency for a customer who recently visited the company's headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Iscar Metals Inc. has introduced IQcloud, new software designed to streamline the front-end of cutting tool purchases by helping programmers condense the time it takes to get the cutting tool assembly into manufacturing technologies that they are using, whether that's CAD/CAM verification or tool management.

A coolant supplier having trouble getting customers to try a new product turned to Dr. Jeffrey Badger, the host of Cutting Tool Engineering's Grinding Doc Video Series, for some insight into how the supplier could convince shops to change coolant. About the Grinding Doc Video Series: Thanks to his work as an independent grinding consultant and the author of the "Ask the Grinding Doc" column in Cutting Tool Engineering magazine, Dr. Jeffrey Badger routinely receives questions about grinding from shops all over the world.

Tungsten ToolWorks offers a web-based tool that lets you create your own custom cutting tool to fit your exact needs. This video takes you through the process step-by-step so you can complete a quote on your own.

Toolmaker Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, Pa., and Osaka, Japan-based Sumitomo Electric signed a licensing agreement under which Sumitomo Electric will provide and support Kennametal's new KM4X spindle connection to its customers globally. Sumitomo Electric, a supplier of electric wire, optical fibers and cutting tools, has its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

During IMTS 2012 in September, the Morris Group Inc. announced an exclusive agreement with SU-matic, a subsidiary of Suhner Holding AG of Switzerland. The deal means Velocity Products, a division of the Morris Group, will supply the North American metalworking industry with tooling for Okuma lathes, multitasking machines and machining centers.

Part Time column for December 2009 issue.