Articles

15 Dec 2023

An Open Letter to Kids About Machines and the World of Making Things

This is an open letter to middle- and high-school students about choices they’ll soon face. It is also an introduction to Career and Technical Education (CTE), the world of CNC machining, and a reminder that there are options outside of the traditional four-year college path.

Five-Axis 13 Dec 2023

Medical Shop Performs Lights-Out Production in Five-Axes

Moving to five-axis machining enabled this shop to dramatically reduce setup time and increase lights-out capacity, but success relied on the right combination of workholding and automation.

11 Dec 2023

Large Plants Plan High Rates of Capital Spending in 2024

Gardner Business Media’s Capital Spending survey projects a modest decline of 7.4% in machine tool spending next year. While job shops are taking a wait-and-see posture, large plants plan robust spending with machining centers leading the way.

Turn/Mill 8 Dec 2023

Controlling Extreme Cutting Conditions in Large-Part Machining

Newly patented technologies for controlling chatter and vibration during milling, turning and boring operations promise to drastically reduce production time and increase machining performance.

Economics 6 Dec 2023

Metalworking Activity Remained on a Path of Contraction

Steady contraction of production, new orders and backlog drove accelerated contraction in November.

Five-Axis 4 Dec 2023

Hermle Event Encourages, Educates on Five-Axis Machining

Hermle’s first Five-Axis Summit was designed to show beginners the benefits of five-axis machining and demonstrated how more advanced users can take their capabilities to the next level with automation.

1 Dec 2023

Random Thoughts on Manufacturing, Innovation, What We Appreciate, and More

Here are several mini-columns merged into one. Take these thoughts all at once or in small doses.

Cutting Tools 29 Nov 2023

High-Feed Machining Dominates Cutting Tool Event

At its New Product Rollout, Ingersoll showcased a number of options for high-feed machining, demonstrating the strategy’s growing footprint in the industry.

Grinding 27 Nov 2023

The Keys to Combining High- and Low-Volume Production

Process expertise and precise production planning enable the Kinetic Company to produce both high- and low-volume jobs requiring machining, grinding, heat treatment and other processes.

CNC & Machine Controls 24 Nov 2023

Combining Functions With User-Defined G & M Codes

CNC programmers gain flexibility when using custom macros to define G and M codes themselves.

Inspection and Measurement 22 Nov 2023

The Many Ways of Measuring Thickness

While it may seem to be a straightforward check, there are many approaches to measuring thickness that are determined by the requirements of the part.

Toolholders 20 Nov 2023

Making the Most of Mixed Toolholder Assemblies

While nearly all ER systems will have cross compatibility, they’ll have small differences across manufacturers that make their implementation at the shop level not as standard.