Industry News

Steven Smith has been named president of CNC Indexing & Feeding Technologies, Mason, Ohio. He will be responsible for managing CNC Indexing’s daily operations as well as building a new national distribution network in the United States.

The Gleason Corp. announced a new name and operating structure for Distech Systems effective Jan. 1, 2016. Acquired in May 2014, Distech will now do business as Gleason Automation Systems, and will operate as a division of The Gleason Works.

GF Machining Solutions has appointed a new director of sales and a new director of applications to its leadership team. Don McMillan and Tony Salvado now fill these critical roles to enhance the sales, service and support for the company’s milling, EDM and laser texturing solutions.

In October 2015, TRUMPF purchased approximately five acres of land adjacent to Interstate Highway 90 in Hoffman Estates, Ill., a northwestern suburb of Chicago. Located within one of the core zones of the sheet metal business in North America, this site will serve as the future home of the TRUMPF Technology Center and the center of excellence for Industry 4.0, according to the company.

Nearly two dozen robots competed head-to-head on a course designed to replicate rescue efforts amid disaster conditions during the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Robotics Challenge held June 5 and 6 in Pomona, Calif. At stake: $3.5 million in prize money. 

LNA has been appointed as a Fanuc Robotics Authorized Integrator to provide customers with automated laser marking solutions. Combined with LNA's experience with high-performance lasers and applications, customers benefit from lower manufacturing costs, vastly improved throughput, repeatability and resolution, according to the company.   

DE-STA-CO, Auburn Hills, Mich., is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The global automation and workholding company has provided productivity solutions to the manufacturing industry since 1915, when William H. Roberts founded the Detroit Stamping Co., providing contract stamping to the rapidly growing automotive industry. 

Deburring solutions provider Abtex Corp., Dresden, N.Y., acquired Bloomfield, N.Y.-based robotics manufacturer Nihmble Technologies to enable manufacturers to use robotics technology to integrate Abtex's deburring equipment into existing operations. Robotic systems can provide manufacturers a range of benefits when deburring, from enhancing the flow of a single operation to connecting multiple operations to deburring multiple surfaces of a part in a single step, noted Mark Fultz, Abtex owner and president.