Search

Manufacturer TD Williamson Inc (TDW) supplies pipes for refineries, waterworks and gas distributors, among others. TDW used to manufacture the larger pipes using a manual engine lathe rigged as a horizontal press. However, the resulting products were of substandard quality. A low-cost horizontal machining center, CELL-CON H-15, made by Cellular Concepts was integrated with a workpiece handling system that suits TDW's needs. The new machine system minimized substandard quality pipes and improved manufacturing efficiency., A low-cost horizontal machining center, and a little workhandling ingenuity, solved this shop's problem with machining the perimeter of large round parts. Large parts often present a problem. Particularly when [...]

Hard turning may sound like something best left to the specialists. But with a decent lathe and sound methods, many more shops con use this efficient process to bypass that [...]

This valve manufacturer gains much of their efficiencies from the creative use of fixturing. They get the best of dedicated fixtures, but much more flexibility in the bargain. Dedicated fixtures [...]

Most people think just-in-time production is impractical in the unpredictable environment of a job shop. But this sheet metal fabricator shows how the smaller shop can do it too. Is [...]

Buyers of punch press tooling usually know how much they pay, but how many really know the total cost? In truth, very few because initial cost is but a small [...]

For all the attention given to Japanese manufacturing over the last ten years, it is remarkable how little is still understood in the U.S. about their methods. For one thing, [...]

For most of 45 years as a pattern maker, the tools Dale Ziegler used to finish molds were files, scrappers and emery cloth. His tools are very different these days. [...]

Everything is moving faster these days. While companies attempt to manufacture just in time, they and the job shops that serve them must struggle with shorter leadtimes and smaller lot [...]

If you could build a metalworking plant from scratch, having to pay no homage to accepted practice or conventional wisdom, what would you do? That was the prospect for Raychem [...]

Making An Automatic Newer Than New What can you do with an old multispindle screw machine? Well, you can do nothing; just keep running it until it doesn't make money [...]

How do you fill the gap between automatic screw machines and CNC lathes? This gearmotor manufacturer has found an answer in a new breed of machine that's a little bit [...]

Skills training is a fine and necessary thing. Everyone in the shop should become as proficient as possible in understanding their tools and their trade. But how are you supposed [...]

The hardest part of continuing education is often figuring out exactly what it is that people need to learn. Basic skills of the trade are certainly indispensable, but what else [...]

If you think it's high time the company started getting some better skills in the shop, but believe an apprentice program is beyond your resources, the times are probably better [...]

In Search Of The Perfect Curve This designer's need to capture and cut some gentle curves ended up in an exhaustive inquiry into the state of CAD, CAM and CNC [...]

Getting It Under Control Computer-assisted shop control smooths out this job shop's internal workings, gains the respect of their customers, and brings additional dividends to the bottom line. Surface Engineering [...]

There's been considerable debate over the years on what is the best way to go about tapping machined parts. Many shop managers reason that they have far too much money [...]

'What's to know about a vise?' you may ask. It's an expedient way to hold all sorts of stuff for vertical machining, just so long as you have two squared [...]

Modular fixturing is certainly not a new idea. People have been building fixtures out of reusable mix-and-match components for more than forty years now. For the right applications, the modular [...]

A new process allows cavities to be machined with laser. Though now a niche technology, 'Laser-caving' could have a major impact on die and mold makers somewhere down the road. [...]

A small investment in a tool control system paid major dividends in reduced inventory and improved productivity. Just about everybody has trouble with tools. The foreman spends half his time [...]

The question 'What's new?' popped up constantly at IMTS '90, held in Chicago's McCormick Place complex. The best answer seemed to be 'nothing and everything.' No totally new concepts came [...]

It's hard to think of a down side to machining multiple parts in a single setup. It can substantially increase the amount of work you get out of a machining [...]

Small Machining Centers Come Home If you thought American builders were all but gone from the small machining center market, look again. Fielding some old names, and some new, the [...]

Surfaces. Wireframes. Splines. Beziers. And ... ah ... NURBS. It's all pretty confusing. Yet these, for the momentary lack of a better word, things are indeed a vital part of [...]

Boring is hardly anyone's favorite operation. Tolerance and surface finish requirements are often stringent and difficult to hold. Tooling is expensive, yet of limited use since one tool generally is [...]

Rotary Transfer Gets Flexible You know about rotary transfer machines, right? Tool one up to run a zillion pieces or so, and then in five years when the part is [...]

The Business Of Laser This article is about laser, in fact, a five-axis laser. But we're not going to talk much about the process itself - things like light amplification, [...]

An Integrated Approach To Quality A new coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is the most visible part of this stamping shop's quality program. But the real key is how they've integrated [...]

Traditionally, suppliers of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems spoke of factory integration as the intimate linking of information processing functions, a formulation which usually boiled down to getting part designers [...]

A relatively modest investment in on-machine probing capability enables shops to set up faster and quickly verify the accuracy of their work. It's not just a matter of quality. Granted, [...]

While India's IT industry typically gets the lion's share of credit for the country's emergence on the world economic stage, manufacturing is playing an increasingly significant role. So far that [...]

Building skills in a company's workforce is necessary, but it is not enough to turn people into the potent organizational assets they can be. They also need a sense of [...]

The International Machine Tool Show 1998 (IMTS) highlighted the importance of balancing different parts of a machine center to attain improved performance. Such a strategy would effectively raise productivity without incurring increased costs. To achieve this, most machine systems displayed at the trade-show featured computer integrated controls. The networked systems provide constantly updated data. Some systems may even be linked to the Internet and controlled via a telephone line., IMTS 98 was not so much about leaping ahead but rather about achieving a balance between system components to enhance overall performance. This is not to say that there were [...]

Hogge Precision Parts Co in Hartsville, SC, initially used a computer-based shop control system to handle its materials management. However, the company soon discovered the potentials of the system in enhancing its customer information service. By interlinking the different departments of the company through computers and by connecting the system with the Internet, it was able to offer its customers direct access to specific data on the manufacturing processes., When Danny Hogge installed his first computer-based shop control system several years ago, he hardly imagined he'd soon be giving customers direct access to it via the Internet. As it [...]

Much of machine tool development is based on an incremental approach to design. In such cases, each 'new' design is more a refinement of the previous generation of proven technology [...]

Walk into Mori Seiki's Digital Technology Laboratory (DTL) in Sacramento, California, and you might think you've instead wandered into a West Coast extension of the United Nations. The facility is [...]

Tracing In A Digital Age A conventional tracer mill is a great way to duplicate an existing model. But combine it with modern digitizing and CAD/CAM technology and you have [...]

PM Tool Steels Keep The Edge Now common in cutting tools, particle metallurgy steels can offer substantial total cost savings in forming and punching tool applications. If you use high-speed [...]

World Machine Tool Review: Spain Rapid modernization programs are paying off for Spain's machine tool builders. With industry-wide efforts aimed at boosting computer-based technology, and a wary eye on international [...]

CNC's In The Fast Lane Powerful 32-bit computer numerical controls (CNCs) are driving machine tools to higher levels of productivity. But faster controls may pay even higher dividends in accuracy [...]

An Off-The-Shelf Approach To CIM The company has just scrapped its minicomputer-based CAD/CAM stations for a faster system which has been tied into the existing DNC network. They are in [...]

Machining Composites--New Rules And Tools Wider use of advanced composites is coming. These tough, lightweight materials offer distinctly new opportunities, and new problems, for metalworking professionals. It seems that wide-scale [...]

A New Force In Stamping Process Control Force measurement is a valuable tool for monitoring the metal forming process. Besides providing overload protection, the technique can improve quality, preserve tooling, [...]

A New Measure Of Opportunity You'd expect an affordable coordinate measuring machine to improve a small shop's quality. But it also boosted shop-floor efficiency and gave the business access to [...]

Managing The Shop With SPC Part of the reason for implementing statistical process control was 'encouragement' from a major customer. But this shop found that SPC became an invaluable tool [...]