Industry News for 03/2014

Advanced ceramics producer Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corp. (KICC), Tokyo, announced the creation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Kyocera Precision Tools Inc., that consolidates its North American cutting tool operations in the indexable, microtool, and printed circuit board (PCB) cutting tool markets.

Lucifer Furnaces Inc., Warrington, Pa., shipped a high-temperature laboratory box furnace to Pottstown, Pa.-based Hammond Lead Products, which provides products to the battery, ceramics and glass industries. The Model 3027 AK12 heats to 2,500° F using silicon carbide rod-type heating elements mounted above and below the hearth, providing uniform heat in the work chamber.

On April 1, 2014, Fountain Valley, Calif.-based manufacturer Mitsubishi Materials USA will consolidate two business units — Rock Tools and Hard Materials — into a new unit known as Engineered Carbide Products in an effort to improve operational efficiency, according to a letter to stakeholders released by the company. 

EMAG LLC, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based machine tool supplier, has launched an apprentice training program to encourage continuing growth in Michigan's mechatronics manufacturing industry and ensure an advanced workforce to close the sector's skills gap. Developed in conjunction with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Oakland Community College and Henry Ford Community College, the program offers high-school graduates a career in machine mechatronics, a discipline incorporating electrical, electronic and mechanical studies, providing all graduates an advanced associate's degree.

CIMCOOL Fluid Technology, a Cincinnati-based provider of fluid technology, announced a contest in which the company will provide a year's supply of CIMCOOL fluids for one winner, up to a maximum value of $10,000. This offer is open to business entities engaged in the manufacturing industry having operations that utilize metalworking fluids.

After more than 30 years of working together, collet chuck producer BIG Daishowa Seiki Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan) and tooling provider KAISER Precision Tooling Ltd. (Rümlang, Switzerland) have solidified their longtime partnership in the European and Asian markets. The two companies have come together to create a mutually beneficial distribution network similar to the decade-old US-based BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc, Hoffman Estates, Ill. BIG Kaiser Germany ran as a pilot project to test efficacy of such a model in the European market and the company's success paved the way for a larger European partnership executed through KAISER Switzerland. 

The Reshoring Initiative was honored by Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council as one of the winners of the 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Awards (ML Awards) in the category of Industry Advocacy.

Diamond Innovations merged with Sandvik Hard Materials as of Jan. 1, 2014, to create a new business, Sandvik Hyperion, focused on applied materials. The new company, with U.S. headquarters in Fair Lawn, N.J., has a broader portfolio of materials solutions and increased scale in R&D and application development. Sandvik Hyperion supplies cemented tungsten carbide, tungsten-carbide powders, diamond materials and CBN materials used in material-removal and wear-protection applications.

Tooling manufacturer BIG Kaiser Precision Tooling Inc., Hoffman Estates, Ill., hosted a group of U.S. manufacturers on a visit to the Kaiser Precision Tooling Ltd. headquarters in Rümlang, Switzerland, in February. The third annual event paired educational presentations, tours of the assembly and machining areas and traditional Swiss hospitality. "The challenges of manufacturing are universal," Dennis Rosene, owner, Rosene Machine, Firth, Neb., said. "Visiting factories outside the U.S. can help us find new ways to solve the same challenges we face at home." 

Jenoptik Industrial Metrology has announced a 2014 event, The Better Parts Challenge., where U.S. manufacturers send their part quality challenges  to be reviewed by the Rochester Hills, Mich.-based metrology manufacturer's experts. These challenges will be reviewed  at "road shows" across the U.S., showing how Jenoptik measuring devices and software can help manufacturers make better quality parts and potentially reduce the cost of production.

Students in the University of Washington's mechanical engineering program successfully petitioned the Dean of Engineering for a new furnace at the school's Engineering Instructional Shop as a replacement for an antiquated, unreliable, smaller unit. The new furnace, a model HL7-P36 from Lucifer Furnaces Inc., Warrington, Pa., with a work chamber of 18"x24"x36", will allow students to heat treat more parts in-house.

Mitsui & Co., parent company of Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Mitsui Seiki USA Inc. is now a key strategic partner in the development of the GE9X aircraft engine for the next generation of wide-body airplanes, the latest in the GE90 engine family manufactured by GE Aviation, Cincinnati, an operating unit of General Electric Co.

Machine tool manufacturer SMTCL-Americas will hold a "March Machine Madness" open house event on March 20, 2014 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its  City of Industry, Calif. technical center at 17038 E. Gale Ave. Various experts will host seminars on robotics and automation, 5-axis machining, titanium machining, new developments in CAD software and innovations in tooling.