Articles & Columns

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.

Puzzled by the appearance of a choppy, spiral-shaped set of chatter marks showing up on a workpiece, a shop sought a diagnosis from Jeffrey Badger, Ph.D., who writes the Ask the Grinding Doc column in Cutting Tool Engineering.

Like it or not, Industry 4.0 is here. The networked nature of our cars, appliances and, yes, machine tools will only increase. Choosing to ignore that fact won’t keep you from producing parts, but it could mean that at least some of those parts end up being produced at a more efficient, technologically savvy machine shop.

Over the past 30 years, laser machining has evolved into a formidable industrial practice. Gone are the large, expensive, finicky machines. Now fiber lasers, with their compact size, high reliability and affordable cost, have taken hold.

Grinding ceramics is unlike most other grinding operations. These superhard, brittle materials need a slow and steady hand.

Advanced machine tool controls infused with artificial intelligence (AI) can learn about your machining processes. With this knowledge, a CNC can automatically take action that boosts machining speed and accuracy, as well as slash unplanned downtime for maintenance.

With fewer employees handling more duties, workplace stress can take a toll on productivity. Keith Jennings finds a simple solution.

Picum MT, a startup at Leibniz University in Germany, is collaborating to redefine the manufacturing workflow, which traditionally has involved moving a workpiece from machine to machine or from station to station.

Competition in the automotive industry is driving the need for higher-quality parts and lower manufacturing costs. All aspects are affected, including turning.

A look back at the use and evolution of sintered powder metal and the PM process that results in a tool substrate that consists of finer, more consistent particles, and yields a stronger, longer-lasting cutting edge.

Though machining medical microparts presents many challenges, shops that tackle the task are meeting these challenges thanks to a combination of ingenuity and technology, along with a dose of effective machining practices.

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

CTE Machinist's Corner Columnist Michael Deren bemoans industrial suppliers who don’t care about their customers, or know how to treat their customers. This is not the ‘60s and ‘70s, when OEMs had a take-it-or-leave-it mentality.

For many in the machining community, tapping is the preferred method of threadmaking on a CNC machining center. Yet others contend that thread milling is better. Kip Hanson breaks down the long-running argument.

Carefully plan machine setup to virtually eliminate problems that could lead to such tasks as replacing the setup with a new one, reprogramming toolpaths, or even transferring the job to another machine.

By integrating laser-based cutting and, in some cases, welding heads onto their already-capable equipment, Swiss-style lathe builders are taking these machines into bold new territory. 

By packaging both turning and milling functions in a single machining center, machine tool builders believe they’ve hit on a winning combination that can boost part quality while also slashing cycle times, space and costs.

Repeat work is great, but shops have to guard against the comfortable complacency that such work can generate at the expense of diversifying its customer base. Said diversification is essential to a shop's growth.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, Chemnitz, Germany, wanted to study the impact of climate change on machines without having to ship them to far-flung locales. Therefore, the institute developed a climate chamber at its newly inaugurated test lab in which it could expose machines to various climates around the world.

Coatings for metalcutting tools have made tremendous advances since their introduction more than 40 years ago. As coatings have improved, our understanding of their behavior in a variety of cutting operations has increased, and this has led to further developments to enhance performance. A technology that has made big strides in the past few years is post-coating treatment.