Articles & Columns

Let's say you want to machine your initials on your favorite Hummel figurine or cut the likeness of the school mascot on your daughter's Little League helmet. How are you going to grip them? A conventional way to grip fragile, difficult-to-hold workpieces is to encapsulate them in some sort of potting compound, a time-consuming and wasteful process.

Milling metals hardened to 52 HRC and harder with solid-carbide cutters doesn't require a heavy-duty, high-performance machine tool when a machinist employs trochoidal milling and applies cutting tools with an appropriate substrate, coating and geometries. (With Video.)

What possesses a new job shop to buy a $1 million, twin-spindle machining center when even the smallest purchases are subject to debate? At Jersey Elite Manufacturing (JEM), Rockaway, N.J., the answer is experience and detailed analysis, because sometimes a seemingly extravagant investment is the smartest move.

While the U.S. greenback has markedly appreciated in the last year, the Boston Consulting Group's Global Manufacturing Cost-Competitiveness Index shows that the U.S. remains one of the lowest-cost locations for manufacturing in the developed world. Productivity increases are largely responsible, and a key factor in this success is a relentless push to data-driven manufacturing.

Take a Gemba walk. If you're not familiar with what a Gemba walk is, let me fill you in.

Laser-assisted machining helps manufacturers cut hard materials.

Efficiently deburr machined hydraulic manifolds. A machine that deburrs via thermal energy.

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.

Tool management systems prevent mistakes and boost the bottom line.

Increase wire EDM capacity and cutting speed. Replace two old, technologically obsolete wire EDMs with two new ones.

An interview with Michael Nahum, Micro Encoder Inc.

Manager's Desk column covers the ups and downs experienced in the shop this year lead to hard decisions, including staff reductions.

Solid-state LED lighting in machine tools allows for increased visibility, reduced downtime and lower power consumption.

A machinist who is cylindrical-grinding threads into hardened steel using multiple-rib, vitrified-bond, aluminum-oxide wheels is experiencing breakdown of the thread root, and turned to the Grinding Doc for help.

World-class manufacturers expand their production space for anticipated demand rather than attempting to catch up with current needs. This effort to always be ahead of the times was on display at Horn Technology Days, which took place June 17-19 and was hosted by Hartmetall-Werkzeugfabrik Paul Horn GmbH at its headquarters in Tübingen, Germany.

This month Cutting Tool Engineering covers preventive maintenance system for a rotary table.

This month Cutting Tool Engineering covers a chip-pulling system developed for more efficient turning.

While machine tool CNCs continue to evolve, one development expands that process beyond what a control typically represents. Mazak's Smooth Technology is a complete process-performance technology platform that spans the part production landscape from programming and setup to metal-removal operations to automation to data collection, monitoring and transfer.

A comparison of three threadmaking options.

Reduce workload on Swiss-style and mill/turn machines. A machine tool that bridges the gap between Swiss-style and multitask machines.