Industry News

ANCA Inc., which makes CNC tool and cutter grinders and manufacturing software, invites the industry to attend the opening of its plant expansion May 23 and 24 in Wixom, Mich.

CNC Software Inc., Tolland, Conn., developer of Mastercam CAD/CAM software, is partnering with NASA's program High Schools United With NASA to Create Hardware, or HUNCH.

I once worked in the cubicle next to Mike, the shop’s estimating guy. He sat there all day using an electronic pen to trace the outlines of parts on paper drawings. He painstakingly determined the length of each journal, the depth of each hole and the number of cubic inches contained in each milled pocket before feeding that information into the company’s estimating software. That’s all Mike did.

Manufacturers are continually looking to improve workflows. To assist them in reducing the time to assemble products and worker errors, Cemtrex, Inc. offers Workbench XR, an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) software application developed for the manufacturing industry. The Farmingdale, N.Y., company plans to release a beta version this summer.

DataCAD Software & Services GmbH, Bad Kreuznach, Germany, a supplier of technical software solutions throughout Europe, has joined BobCAD-CAM Inc., Clearwater, Fla., as a value-added reseller.

Global Shop Solutions Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, is celebrating 20 years of technological innovations for enterprise resource planning software under the leadership of Chris Okamuro, vice president and chief technology officer.

Seco Tools AB, Fagersta, Sweden, and MachiningCloud Inc., Camarillo, Calif., are partnering to provide Seco Tools product data in the cloud.

2018 marks the 35th anniversary of CNC Software Inc., Tolland, Conn., the developer of Mastercam CAD/CAM software.

CGTech, Irvine, Calif., the developer of Vericut software, is celebrating three decades of innovation and consistent growth.

In response to continued growth throughout the U.S., Vero Software Ltd., Cheltenham, England, hired Applications Engineer Chris LaFleur to deliver technical support to users of the Edgecam and Surfcam brands.

A free app for the repair of industrial equipment aims to quickly connect service requesters with service providers. Up! by Up! LLC, Columbus, Ohio, is a new app designed to match manufacturers with companies that perform repair and preventive maintenance services for equipment. “We look at ourselves as the crusaders against downtime,” said CEO A. Vinod.

Twenty years ago, tired of the Minnesota winters, I interviewed for a job with a largish aerospace shop in Austin, Texas. The owner was looking for a general manager, and George, the recruiter who set up the interview, warned me that there might be some tough questions. He was right. I did pretty well until almost the end of the interview. “If you get the job, what’s the first thing you’ll do to increase productivity in my shop?” the owner asked. It was an unfair question. After all, I’d never seen his shop, so how would I know what needed fixing? In hindsight, I should have told him as much. But I assumed that his shop was much like most shops back then: plagued with hourslong setups, wasted motion and downtime.

Myriad ways to boost productivity, enhance shop-floor flexibility and preserve data security are all on the market today for machine shops of many sizes. With the machine tool industry in flux currently, as it seeks to find its way into the digital world, the entire process chain necessitates the integration of suppliers who can respond to the needs of the industry. The situation has very little “history” and so large end-customers and machine shops of all sizes are seeking assistance from their suppliers, while the machine tool builders are likewise seeking to partner with hardware, software, communications and controls suppliers to bring the most needed machine types to market.

In step with the ongoing growth of its Edgecam and Surfcam solutions, Vero Software Ltd., Cheltenham, England, hired Applications Engineer Darin Weatherbee to expand its support network.

Manufacturers are ripe targets for hackers. According to a report from IBM Security, the manufacturing industry moved into the position of second most attacked industry in 2015, behind health care.

Computer Aided Technology LLC, Buffalo Grove, Ill., a provider of engineering and manufacturing solutions, partnered with Roland DGA Corp., Irvine, Calif., to bring to market the DGShape line of office-friendly, benchtop CNC milling machines, including the MDX-50, MDX-540 and MDX-40A.

Vero Software Ltd., Cheltenham, England, hired Wisconsin-based Applications Engineer Michael Welk to provide technical support for its Edgecam and Surfcam CAM solutions.

I’m one of those annoying people who stays current on technology. I store my stuff in the cloud, patch my software religiously and have my fifth smartphone in as many years. Despite my geeky tendencies, however, I’m apprehensive about the effect that Industry 4.0 and the industrial internet of things will have on … well, the industry. Call it smart manufacturing if you like, but many shop owners and managers—especially those who grew up with black-and-white TVs and rotary phones—might secretly call it scary manufacturing instead.

Open Mind Technologies AG has announced that its hyperMILL CAM software has provided 5-axis programming to successfully replicate a basketball hoop. The basketball hoop was machined on a GROB G350 5-axis machining center using conical ball barrel cutters from OSG.

I attended ‘Integr8,’ an Industrial Internet of Things conference hosted by Automation Alley at Detroit’s Renaissance Center last month. At numerous breakout sessions, a common question from participants was, “How do I get started with getting my shop floor connected?” This was an event full of experts enthused by the possibilities that IIoT hold for manufacturers, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear many of them reply, in effect: “With moderation.”