Industry News for 07/2018

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found a better way to identify atomic structures, an essential step in improving materials selection in the aviation, construction and automotive industries.

By its very nature, high-nickel, iron or cobalt alloy steels, including Monel, Inconel, Incoloy, Invar, Rene and Hasteloy, are some of the most difficult materials to machine. Because these superalloys are designed to deliver high strength at extremely high temperatures in components often found in “hot” sections of engines and turbines, the stresses and heat generated during machining are considerable.

Your everyday permanent markers, glue sticks and packing tape may offer a surprisingly low-tech solution to a long-standing nuisance in the manufacturing industry: Making soft and ductile, or so-called "gummy" metals, easier to cut.

Are you guilty of believing the aluminum extrusion myth? Many design engineers looking for cost savings often overlook extruded aluminum manufacturing for stamped or machined parts, believing it to be an expensive and/or challenging process. This can be a costly mistake. Extruded aluminum allows manufacturers to produce complex profiles with as few parts as one and can save companies real money on production and overall product life cycle costs.

Asheville, North Carolina, isn't just tourism and beer. Well, sometimes it's beer. But on the other side of the Great Recession, the city's economy has become increasingly tied to the manufacturing industry.

Blockchain could help manufacturers solve the problem of copycat parts, said Shane Wall, HP's chief technology officer. While the technology is in the nascent stages for industrial uses, HP is doing trials and prototyping to test it, he told Forbes during a conversation at the tech giant's Palo Alto, California, campus.

Camcraft Inc. in Hanover Park, Illinois, manufactures high-precision components and assemblies. Utilizing the latest machining technology and automation, the company makes complex hydraulic engine management and fuel system components for on- and off-highway applications. It specializes in producing difficult, precision-machined components—parts that require heat treatment, grinding, bore sizing, hard turning and superfinishing to achieve micron tolerances and provide superior performance for customers’ applications.

Measuring and gaging are two distinct forms of dimensional inspection. Measuring is a direct-reading process, in which the instrument incorporates a continuous scale of units, against which the part is compared directly. Examples of measuring instruments include steel rules, Vernier calipers and micrometers.

The metalworking fluids market is diverse and includes giant multinational players to medium-scale companies as well. The MWF industry has some chief global players, including Total, Lubrizol Corp., The Dow Chemical Co., Apar Industries Ltd., ExxonMobil, Castrol Ltd., Henkel, PPG Industries, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Sinopec.

In today’s competitive environment, everyone is on the lookout for ways make their business operations more profitable. Sometimes, simply cutting costs can seem like an attractive way to reach this goal. However, simply reducing the cost of equipment or a process is not a guarantee of success. A better goal is to become more efficient on the job so that operations are more productive, ultimately improving the bottom line.

Its latest investment in the MX7 Linear is grinding high-quality tools 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tarık Öztürk, production manager at tool manufacturer Turcar, said: “Turkey is experiencing phenomenal growth and it is important to keep a close eye on trends so that you can take advantage of the opportunities. Aerospace, automotive defence and engineering industries are booming and I am happy that we have managed to grow with these markets.”

Recently expanding to three other states after more than six decades located solely in central Iowa, Cline Tool is taking its hybrid distributor-supplier role to more customers than ever before on the strength of its technical expertise that rivals larger companies in the market.

If anything will revive U.S. manufacturing, it’s certainly not an ever-changing package of hastily proposed and canceled tariffs. But as President Donald Trump pursues that nonstrategy, it’s worth asking the longer-term questions of whether U.S. manufacturing even needs to be revived at all, and if so, what can accomplish the task.

An interview with Nikon's Corporate Vice President Tadashi Nakayama provides insight into the strategy of the firm's Industrial Metrology Business Unit, of which he is deputy general manager. In particular, he explained the company’s strategic focus on Quality 4.0, where digital, automated and connected inspection enables complete process control from design through manufacture.

Some strange light and soft metals used in aerospace applications have proven to be difficult to precision abrasive grind because they are stringy, gummy, load wheel surfaces easily, get hot quickly and have slow material-removal rates. These include stainless steel alloys and nickel-base materials.

People tend to do exercises that increase and extend the health of their heart. Why not do the same for the heart of your machine tool, the spindle? Too many times we see a machine that has a premature failure. Some of the diseases that your spindle may succumb to are coolant contamination, overheating, or unclean/diminished lubrication oil.

U.S. machine shops are potentially underutilizing the machinability of brass by as much as 85 percent in their part processing operations, reports a recent study from the Copper Development Association Inc. The research shows that machine shops can and should be machining the material at significantly faster feeds and speeds – often five to 20 times faster – than they do to increase productivity and profitability.

The international MAPAL Group, a manufacturer of precision tools for the machining of practically all materials, achieved significant growth during the 2017 business year. Consolidated group sales rose from EUR 575 million in 2016 to EUR 610 million in 2017.

Zahn GmbH relies on ARNO-Werkzeuge for the reliable production of high-precision parts, ranging from tool systems and the development of customised tools through to the optimisation of its enterprise resource planning system (ERP).

Research studies show that an ergonomically designed work place doesn’t only increase motivation and improve concentration but also reduces the drop in performance. This is why ergonomics play a decisive role when planning new industrial work places.