Industry News

Effective May 2, Kyocera Corp. will acquire 100 percent ownership of the SGS Tool Co., to expand the Japanese company's current North American cutting tool business by 2.5 times by March 31, 2019, according to Kyocera President Goro Yamaguchi, who announced the deal in a company news release issued March 30. By incorporating SGS Tool, which is based in Munroe Falls, Ohio, Kyocera plans to create a business structure capable of providing total solutions and strengthen its business globally as a comprehensive cutting tool manufacturer, according to the Kyocera news release. SGS Tool will be renamed Kyocera SGS Precision Tools Inc.

In a move aimed at providing improved sales and service support as well as new and innovative products, NTC Laser will join Komatsu America Industries LLC as of April 1, sources at both companies reported in a joint news release issued today. NTC Laser and Komatsu are subsidiaries of Komatsu America LLC, headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.

Trotec Laser Inc., Canton, Mich., discusses the "Advantages of lasers versus other methods of cutting, marking and engraving" in a white paper available through the company's website. The target audience for the white paper: companies that use traditional methods of cutting, marking and engraving, such as inkjet systems, embossing, mechanical stamping, etching, printing, mechanical engraving, knife cutter or CNC routing.

Additive manufacturing (AM) will neither displace existing machining processes nor revolutionize industrial production operations—at least not for the next 5 to 7 years, according to Myron Graw, an AM authority who spoke at METAV 2016, the 19th International Exhibition for Metalworking (Metallverarbeitung) Technologies. Graw, who heads up AM operations at KEX Knowledge Exchange AG, in Aachen, Germany, wasn't just sharing his personal opinion. He was delivering the results of a five-stage AM study conducted by KEX, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, according to  a news release posted to the METAV 2016 website Feb. 23.

Welding or soldering without heat seemed like a good idea to Hanchen Huang, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston. He and his students dreamed of a better way to stick things together such as a computer's CPU to a printed circuit board, or the glass and metal filament in a lightbulb, according to a recent news@Northeastern post.

Laser technology company Coherent Inc. will acquire industrial laser maker Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. for about $942 million, according to a joint news release issued by the two companies March 16. "This transaction is aligned with our strategy of increasing our scale and pursuing accretive growth opportunities," said Coherent President and CEO John Ambroseo. "The combination of Coherent and Rofin represents a unique opportunity to strengthen Coherent’s position in materials processing. The addition of Rofin's complementary portfolio will build on Coherent’s capabilities as a world leader in laser and photonics-based technology and solutions, and create meaningful value for our stockholders."

The redesigned website is mobile-friendly, and with simplified navigation, makes it easier to find membership information, technical resources, benefits of USCTI membership and a comprehensive membership directory.

LMC Workholding, which opened for business as the Logansport Machine Company, Logansport, Ind., in 1916, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year by highlighting the company's continuing expansion. "We’ve been the name to know in workholding since 1916, and we’re expanding and growing to continue to meet the demand of our customers and the industry," said LMC Workholding President and CEO Jay Duerr in a recent company news release. "We’re proud to have made it to 100 years in business and we’re looking forward to serving our customers for many more years."       

Based in Mount Prospect, Ill., SNK America recently selected Associated Machine Tool Technologies (AmTTech) as its Texas distributor for NIIGATA horizontal machining centers, SNK Nissin horizontal boring mills and SNK double-column machining centers. AmTTech, which is based in Houston, has served the Texas market for 25 years.

Has the reshoring train left the station or not? According to the second annual U.S. Reshoring Index from global management consultants A.T. Kearney, the answer is a resounding “no.” In 2015, the index, at -115, indicates that reshoring of manufacturing activities to the U.S. has not kept up with offshoring. The index measured -30 in 2014. A positive number indicates net reshoring, while a negative value indicates net offshoring.

The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation published a report in January about megatrends that are reshaping manufacturing. Titled “Manufacturing Megatrends: The Impact of Megatrends on U.S. Manufacturers,” the report was authored by MAPI Director of Councils and Business Research Jenn Callaway, and is based on surveys conducted with manufacturing executives. 

SmartCAMcnc, Springfield, Ore., recently announced the opening of a new instruction center for training CNC programmers to use the SmartCAM Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software family. The new facility is located at the company's corporate headquarters in Springfield.

Forklifts—the workhorses of the plant floor—are more valuable than ever at ITAMCO (Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Cos.). The Plymouth, Ind.-based manufacturer of gears and other precision components connected its forklifts to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which integrates machine tools and other manufacturing equipment with networked sensors and software. 

Imagine a machining process that removes material five times faster than milling and 10 times faster than sinker EDMing, machines Inconel and hardened steel with ease, holds tolerances to ±0.0006" and utilizes the same tool to process thousands of parts with virtually no tool wear. Machine builder EMAG LLC USA, Farmington Hills, Mich., calls this process pulsed electrochemical machining (PECM). A subset of electrochemical machining, PECM is far more accurate than the decades-old ECM and has matured into a viable alternative to more-traditional machining processes over the past few years, according to the company. 

When Zach Kaplan visited the White House last June for a National Week of Making event, he had no idea it would mean giving away 50 of his company’s 3D carvers (tabletop milling machines). The CEO of Inventables Inc. (www.inventables.com), Chicago, Kaplan and 99 other conference attendees were challenged to provide ideas on how they could help President Barack Obama with his “Nation of Makers” initiative. Kaplan’s suggestion? Put an Inventables 3D carver in one school in each of the nation’s 50 states. What’s more, Kaplan wants to have a 3D carver in every school in the U.S. by the end of this decade. 

Röhm Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., a subsidiary of Röhm GmbH, recently opened a new office in Monterrey, Mexico, in an effort to expand the company's sales, service and support capabilities to meet increasing demand for high-quality clamping and gripping technology throughout Mexico and Central America, the company reported in a Feb. 22 news release.

An online San Francisco Chronicle report posted Feb. 18—"Hacker ethos comes to the factory floor"—suggests that large and small manufacturers alike "are beginning to think and operate like software companies." And, just for the record, that's a good thing, say the authors: Mark Muro, a senior fellow and the policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, and Kelly Kline, the economic development director and chief innovation officer of the city of Fremont, Calif.

NTB Interstate University of Technology Buchs, an institute that specializes in engineering informatics, recently announced a new website, gtc-tools.com, which provides information to the public on the Generic Tool Catalog (GTC) cutting tool data exchange format, according to a joint news release issued Feb. 9. The GTC data exchange format was developed through collaboration among machining hardware and software leaders Siemens PLM Software, Sandvik Coromant, Iscar and Kennametal.

Single Source Technologies (SST), a North American distributor of machinery brands based in Auburn Hills, Mich., recently announced the acquistion of Automation Solutions Inc. (ASI), effective as of Jan. 18, according to a Feb. 9 SST news release.

Solar Atmospheres, Hermitage, Penn., recently announced a collaboration with Pressure Technology Inc. (PTI) that will offer an added-value service to PTI's HIP (Hot Isostatic Press) Facility in Concord, Ohio, according to a Feb. 15 news release. The collaboration is the result of an escalation of components being printed via additive manufacturing as well as the increased production of engine blade manufacturing to support newer more efficient aircraft, according to Solar Atmospheres. Such market forces means that hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) is in more demand for the densification of many materials.