When material dimensions don't conform to necessary workpiece dimensions, there are many ways to cut the right cut.

Twist, indexable, replaceable-tip and spade drills can performed most machine work in today’s shops.

Cellular manufacturing steadily permeates the metalworking world

CNC machines loaded with indexable tools are the foundation of modern machining.

Abrasive waterjet machining can be a terrific complement to more traditional machining processes.

Mastering this machining operation requires a lot of research and consultations.

Technology has not removed the need to master calculations.

Paired with machine tools in a manufacturing cell, a coordinate measuring machine can collect, process and transmit data.

Milling operations that benefit from chip thinning have become common, now it's turning's time.

Cutting tool manufacturers have been responding to the market and providing creative, effective solutions for boring holes.

Implementing design for manufacturability is not a one-time event.

Effective use of rotary devices helps shops move forward.

The effective use of prototypes can lead the way to continuous improvement.

Christopher Tate shares the key elements of selecting a toolholder that will help drive efficiency and improve your shop's bottom line.

To ensure success of productivity-enhancing technology, shops and other manufacturers must understand and take into account the four main areas of the acquisition process: problem definition, conceptualization, implementation and realization.

With so much attention given to improving machining processes, machinists, programmers and engineers at times forget about simple, but necessary, processes like deburring.

Many companies fail to recognize the benefit of having well-designed, effective training programs, despite a proven track record for improving the skills and morale of employees and increasing the flexibility and bottom line of a company.

Many nonmanufacturing people would be surprised by the amount of resources expended on parts cleaning, but it is a critical aspect of part quality. Failure to maintain a rigorous cleaning program can cause significant issues in complex assemblies.

When turning parts, shop improvised to meet customers’ needs.

If your shop makes parts that demand multiple setups, parts that have challenging geometry or parts with difficult GD&T requirements, 5-axis machining could provide significant benefits. Do not let the potential cost of the investment prevent you from conducting a thorough cost analysis of your current machining methods.

At Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Inc., holemaking success is about timing—finding the best sequence in which to perform manufacturing operations.

Spindle bolts are made from difficult-to-machine, high-strength superalloys. They have very tight dimensional tolerances, which makes thread cutting a challenge. As a result of facing several thread-cutting problems during process development, we have learned important lessons at Mitsubishi.

Sawing is one of the most common manufacturing processes in a machine shop. It is versatile, simple and reliable. Nonetheless, many young engineers and machinists are quite familiar with lasers and abrasive waterjets but have no knowledge of sawing.

Industrial waste, its impact on the environment and regulation by governments have become significant areas of interest for medium and large manufacturing companies. One company’s proactive approach to environmental sustainability also reveals ways to reduce waste.

Drilling, reaming and boring are the basic holemaking operations of machining. In simple terms, drilling creates a hole in a workpiece where there was no existing hole. Reaming and boring accurately enlarge holes that already exist.

Honing, grinding and lapping are the primary finishing processes used in most shops, and honing may be the most capable and underutilized of the three operations.

Thread cutting is as close to artistic expression as one typically gets in a machine shop. Watching a machinist or toolmaker peel off perfectly formed chips with a precisely ground tool is mesmerizing.

Often dictated by the production environment, part quantities and part function, the selection of a parts marking method presents a variety of choices—each of which comes with pros and cons.

The single most significant benefit offered by indexable tools is the ability to renew the cutting edge without having to remove the cutting tool from production.

A close look at the evolving technology of tool presetting.

Components used in the manufacture of combustion hardware for a Mitsubishi gas turbine begin life as sheet or plate stock. Because our components come from large sheets, we start every manufacturing process by cutting the desired shape or profile.

Until I started working for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, lifting parts was never a consideration in daily production. Previously, the parts I dealt with were small, usually never larger than a dinner plate. Lifting equipment, such as forklifts and pallet jacks, were often employed, but only to move raw materials to a machine tool or to load and unload trucks—never as part of the production process. 

Setup reduction is a common goal of every machine shop. Setup does not add value because it does not provide any measureable productivity. In short, when you are not running a machine, you are not making chips, and, therefore, you are not making money. Setup involves numerous non-value-added activities, including tool measurement, fixture alignment and setting coordinate systems, or offsets. As the term suggests, value-adding activities make a workpiece more valuable by changing its shape or physical properties. Many years in and out of machine shops and manufacturing plants have given me ample opportunities to see and establish some unique and familiar methods for reducing setup times and generating savings. 

Careful consideration when implementing inspection processes yields efficiencies. Manufacturers continually search for ways to increase profits and reduce costs. Trying to find cost savings where chips are made makes sense and is usually where the most-significant improvements are found. However, efficiency gains can also be made in nonvalue-adding areas, like inspection.

Technological advances in cutting tools, machine tools and toolholders have allowed machinists and manufacturing engineers to increase holemaking efficiency by eliminating the number of tools required to produce accurate holes. High-performance drills are the best example of these technological advances. In the past, it was common for a machinist to spot-drill, drill and then ream to achieve accurate hole geometry. Now, the same hole can be made in a single operation using a high-performance drill. 

The drive to reduce setup times and operator intervention has led to the proliferation of multitask machines. Multitask machines range in price and complexity from lathes capable of driving rotating tools to large machining centers that can effectively perform the turning and milling operations needed to complete complex parts in one setup.

The importance of mastering fundamental turning skills. Turning and other lathe operations are the most common machining applications. A master tool and die maker once told me a lathe is the only piece of shop equipment that can remanufacture itself. Whether or not the statement is factual is not important. Having the lathe described in that manner indicates how important and universal turning is to manufacturing.

Cutting Tool Engineering's Shop Technology column in October addresses how lean manufacturing principles have changed the way engineers program machine tools and select tooling.

Many options are available for removing stock and shaping workpieces. Broaching is one of the most productive, underutilized -- and least understood.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) is setting up a new facility in Texas to support the service operation of our business. The new shop is fully operational, but decisions are still being made on items such as tooling and CAM systems.

After spending many years in manufacturing facilities, I have discovered that the number of ways to perform a task is as varied as the people working there. Facility and machine tool maintenance is no different. Each organization has a unique approach.

When not required by the customer, inspection is a likely target for shops seeking to eliminate inefficiencies within the manufacturing process, suggests the Shop Technology column in the June 2015 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Train your workers to sharpen their skills and keep them on the job, suggests this month's Shop Technology column in Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Quick-change tooling can boost profits.

Tiny medical parts, mass-produced automotive components and multiple-ton power generation parts share a common activity: inspection. Generally, inspection is seen as a nonvalue-added activity and most companies encourage the reduction of inspection time. However, because verifying that parts are made correctly is critical to maintaining profitability, inspection will never go away.

After acquiring my first iPhone, I searched the Internet for apps to use in the shop. I found 70 hits for “machinist” or “machining” and 45 for “cutting tool.” Conversely, there were 11,169 hits for movie apps and 37,616 for music apps.

Introduced in 1959, coordinate measuring machines have become increasingly common over the last 2 decades. The complexity and cost once meant CMMs were only suitable for large manufacturers. Advances in CMM technology and manufacturing techniques have reduced the cost of ownership, and the machines are now found at all types and sizes of shops.

The Shop Technology column ponders the value that turnkey solutions may bring to the table.

The Shop Technology column looks at the significant advances in deep-hole drilling in the October 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Do your homework when adding labor-saving devices to your shop, urges the Shop Technology column in the September 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.