Articles & Columns

The basis of the portable CMM arm is to allow an operator to reach and touch the part to be measured with a hard probe and collect data.

The manufacturing industry has a long tradition of machine shop employees wanting to be their own boss and starting their own shops. Gary Lee took a similar path but with a twist.

Spend enough time working in a machine shop and you're bound to pay a visit to the emergency room for a cut finger. First comes the sting as the ER physician injects you with a local anesthetic, then the tug of the thread as she drags the suturing needle, a type of surgical needle, through your skin. This traumatic experience is painful enough, but without the sharp edge imparted to those needles through special machines known as needle-point grinders, those sutures would feel as if the doc were using a darning needle from grandma's sewing kit.

Machine shop managers in various regions across the country say they have struggled to fill open positions, and that the job applicants they get often do not have the requisite skills. But the experience of one shop in Massachusetts suggests that the real problem isn't a lack of willing job applicants as much as it is a lack of pertinent training programs.

You may not have heard, but ultrasonic waves can help machine precise features into hard, brittle materials.

Results from testing aluminum-oxide vitrified-bond wheels and diamond wheels in three different bond systems show the proper diamond roll dresser design, application methods and wheel specification can help manufacturing engineers achieve optimal results from continuous-dress, creep-feed (CDCF) grinding.

Machine larger and more complex parts for the energy industry. A horizontal boring mill for machining parts up to 10' long.

Shop Operations columnist Tom Lipton shares his tips for performing effective finish work in the July 2014 issue of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine.

Part complexity combined with difficult material properties make deburring a challenge for many part manufacturers.

Put on your walking shoes and head over to your local manufacturer's event and start preparing for IMTS.

Learn cutting tool equations like SFM, chip load, spindle speed, and feed rate to optimize machining efficiency and improve precision in metalworking.

Water is an effective heat conductor, and, if you get an adequate supply of coolant within the pores of the wheel, the coolant will absorb about 70 percent of the heat.

Cutting Tool Engineering Senior Editor Evan Jones Thorne interviews Len Graham of Rexam Mold Manufacturing.

Mobile robots for massive-part manufacturers.

Regain business from a former customer by winning bids on a family of shafts with multiple grooves. Versatile grooving and turning tools.

A software application to identify and monitor chatter when machining.

The importance of effectively cooling the cutting zone when grooving.

Boost productivity by reducing machine downtime. Six 5-axis milling machines with pallet systems and lights-out manufacturing capability.

Shops today are more aware of environmental conditions. Mist collectors and electrostatic air cleansers are not uncommon and many manufacturers realize there's little chance of attracting high-caliber work from customers when the shop is a pigsty.

The amount of advanced CNC equipment in Micron Product's orthopedic machining work cell has doubled in the past 5 years, while the number of programmer/machinists has remained about the same due to the use of more efficient, advanced CAM technology.