Columns

CAD/CAM 9 Dec 2020

Spreadsheets Enable Calculations Similar to CAM Software

Spreadsheet software can behave like a CAM system.

Automation 8 Aug 2018

For Many Machining Facilities, the Mindset Now Must Be “Radical Automation”

What if there will never, ever be enough talent in your local labor pool to meet the still-growing demand for skilled manufacturing employees? The real challenge might lie in our expectations about how much skilled labor we need. Let IMTS 2018 be the beginning of facing this challenge.

Additive Manufacturing 2 Aug 2018

Reuniting Manufacturing and Design for Effective AM

Designing the build is just as important as designing the part.

Additive Manufacturing 1 Aug 2018

Additive Manufacturing Teaches Designers New Tricks

Considering what is required to design additive parts can illuminate the value of understanding all manufacturing processes, including subtractive ones.

Additive Manufacturing 1 Aug 2018

Machinability of Additively Manufactured Support Structures

What happens when you cut away thin-walled supports on your AM part?

Measurement 25 Jul 2018

The Modular Multi-Gage Concept

Modular, multi-gage measuring devices work with a wide range of workpieces and and are ideal for short-run production in which flexibility and change-over are key.

Data-Driven Manufacturing 23 Jul 2018

10 Takeaways about the Industrial Internet of Things

What will it look like for manufacturing to embrace and make use of interconnected hardware? Here are some clues.

Composites Machining 23 Jun 2018

Even My Accurate Predictions Are Wrong

The future does not come in a straight line. Multiple factors affect one another and the final outcome. My prediction that machine shops would see more composites is playing out, but I missed an important means by which this would happen.