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The Returns On Automation
Machine tool automation, particularly grinding machine automation, offers various returns on investment. Different shops notice different advantages, and sometimes shops overlook important benefits when they are deciding whether to automate.
Read MoreGo To The Source
The concept of “shop rate” is interesting, because you make the most money off of your shop rate when you beat it. A job shop machining a particular part may try a new tool, machine or procedure that lets the shop make the part more efficiently.
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Get Better Before You Get Bigger
Rather than making a major new machine tool purchase just yet, this shop is finding additional capacity on the equipment it already has. What once was a vertical machining center will become a flexible automated production center for unattended machining.
Read MoreThe Parts We Play
Making parts is as much of a people business as any other business is. This may seem counterintuitive.
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High Speed Machining ... Without The Speed
Axial chip thinning is often associated with high speed machining, but this shop uses the same effect to increase metal removal rate with a standard-size end mill run on a moderate-speed machine.
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The Case For Hydrostatic Ways
Moving on oil can let a grinding machine deliver more power along a smoother pass.
Read MoreThe Great Unknown
Where do you turn for guidance? Not just for the big decisions, but also for the medium-size ones. Recently, I discovered a shop that chose not to buy a new machine tool in the face of commercial pressures that would have been enough to lead other shops to buy the new machine.
Read MoreThe Observer Effect
Problems often are not all that difficult to solve. The most fundamental requirement is just to know what the problem is.
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Lean Manufacturing For The Job Shop
Lean practices are not just for predictable production. Here are the common-sense ways this low-volume job shop has implemented a leaner process.
Read MoreYou Are Not Selling Just A Mold
High-end manufacturers know the frustration of watching customers base buying decisions on price. Pursuing low price has sent companies searching the globe for suppliers, and some have been disappointed in the result.
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Creep-feed Grinding Is A Milling Process
Because creep-feed grinding is essentially a milling process, why not use a VMC? A grinding machine supplier describes how a VMC platform can make creep-feed grinding more effective.
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Macro Economics
Instead of NC programs that are dedicated to particular parts and machines, this plant now uses macro programs that react to geometric variations across broad part families. The plant wrote these macros itself, and the return on this investment has been dramatically greater productivity.
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