Industry News

If you work in the San Antonio-area manufacturing industry, you’re in the right place at the right time.

The Digital Manufacturing Design and Innovation Institute (DMDII) announced today the launch of a “Cyber Hub for Manufacturing” with $750,000 in seed funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The hub will serve as a testbed for the creation and adoption of new cybersecurity technologies to secure manufacturing shop floors across the United States and complements DMDII’s public-private partnership as one of the Manufacturing USA institutes sponsored by DOD to advance the state-of-the-art in digital manufacturing in America.

OSG USA Inc., Glendale Heights, Ill., recognized the recipients of its inaugural “Shaping Your Dreams” scholarship program, which was created to assist students in fulfilling their educational goals in the fields of machining, manufacturing and engineering.

In connection with the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration of Hurco Cos. scheduled for March 6 at the machine tool builder’s corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, I spoke with Michael Cope, the company’s product technical specialist.

As product miniaturization continues, micromachining continues to make inroads into the manufacturing industry, and CTE will once again provide a special section about micromachining in our May issue. At the other end, I’ve noticed more developments in large-part machining, and, coincidentally, our April issue will include a focus on that topic.

Baker Industries Inc. has installed a 5-axis Mecof PowerMill to begin large-scale machining operations. The 11-month construction and build project garnered a financial investment of $3.4 million and has positioned Baker Industries to take on some of the largest machining programs in the industry.

Machine tool builder Niigata Machine Techno USA Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., opened its North American headquarters.

Proto Labs Inc., Maple Plain, Minn., acquired privately held company Rapid Manufacturing Group LLC, Nashua, N.H., a custom parts supplier specializing in quick-turn sheet metal fabrication and CNC machining.

Heller Machine Tools LP, Troy, Mich., hired Stephen Pegram as vice president of sales for North America.

Why does INDEX afford itself the luxury of installing a second rotary encoder on the Z-axis in its lathes for full-surface machining? The answer is safety and accuracy—two unbeatable arguments that customers treasure.

Vibration is a fact of life in almost every machining operation. Whether you’re milling, drilling, turning, or grinding, vibration can result in chatter that can ruin a part. Fighting chatter has generally been a matter of adding more mass to the machine, but if you’re clever about things, chatter reduction can be accomplished electronically, too.

Benz Inc., Hickory, N.C., which produces CNC tooling for the metal, wood and composites industries, named Brian Krin the Southeast regional sales manager for metal tooling.

Cutting tool manufacturer Walter USA LLC, Waukesha, Wis., appointed Dan Shelton managing director of the U.S.

For those who want to enhance a CNC by adding capabilities, Chris Robson, applications engineer for Minneapolis-headquartered machine tool dealer Concept Machine Tool – (Delafield) Wisconsin, gave a presentation titled “What Else is Inside this Box? Open Architecture CNC.” His seminar took place Oct. 3 at the 15th biennial Wisconsin Manufacturing & Technology Show in the Exhibition Center at the Wisconsin State Fair Park, Milwaukee.

Although picks, or plectra, for playing musical instruments are commonly plastic injection molded or stamped, some are machined.

If you are in charge of production on a manufacturing shop floor, there is no doubt that you have likely come across productivity issues. Nothing is perfect, and this includes your employees and your equipment.

Pratt & Whitney’s new 93,000 square-foot facility adds to an already existing GTF fan blade production line in Lansing. The company's AutoAir facility has had a tenfold ramp-up in the past 20 months, and has increased its workforce from just over 200 to almost 700.

The first day of Makino Corp.’s two-day 2017 Die/Mold Technology Expo included technology seminars, economic prognosticators, and demonstrations on more than 23 state-of-the-art machines at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. The company also unveiled a new vertical machining center for true 5-axis continuous processing.

Okuma America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., a manufacturer of CNC machine tools, welcomed Kitchener, Canada-based Praemo, which is in applied industrial internet of things and artificial intelligence, to Partners in THINC.

Workers in the hardmetal industry are not at increased risk for lung cancer or any of 63 other potential causes of death, concluded the largest and most definitive study on this population to date. The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health-led study of more than 32,000 workers in five countries was performed after smaller studies indicated that tungsten carbide with a cobalt binder—the primary ingredients in hardmetal—may be linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. Hardmetal is a human-made substance second only to diamond in hardness. It's used in metal cutting tools and drill bits.