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If the benefits of cutting molds to zero stock are felt most strongly by the molder, then Eclipse Mold can testify to this fact. The company has a mold shop [...]

When Prestige Precision Products (PPP), a shop in Rochester, New York, began ramping up for a recent high-production job, it made a substantial investment in new equipment dedicated to the [...]

The formula for this job shop's success is simple: Be better than the competition at making complex precision parts on complex, high-tech machine tools. The shop is Evans Machining Service [...]

Three + 2 machining is a technique whereby a three-axis milling program is executed with the cutting tool locked in a tilted position using the five-axis machine's two rotational axes, [...]

The Briggs & Stratton plant in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, is putting the final touches on a multimillion-dollar upgrade to its crankshaft machining area. These crankshafts are a critical component in [...]

Following a sustained period of growth, 600 Group subsidiary Gamet Bearings has invested in a new grinding cell to increase capacity, improve bearing accuracy, reduce costs and improve both process [...]

Machining complex, contoured pockets efficiently and to tight tolerances is common in metalworking these days. It's a challenge that Sam Krutt, the production manager at Branchline Trains, faces frequently. He [...]

'In 2005, we needed to make 20 million holes. This year and next, we'll need to make 40 million holes' That, reportedly, is how one engineer at a major jet [...]

Sometimes it takes a bolt of lightning for a company to implement a new technology. That's literally what happened at Miller Welding and Machine in Brookville, Pennsylvania. When lightning struck [...]

Corey Greenwald 'gets it.' He understands that hard milling is becoming an essential capability for shops producing plastic injection molds. He understands how to perform hard milling operations effectively, routinely [...]

In the effort to make machining more productive, the industry has been addressing all of the factors that seem to limit material removal rates. Machine tool builders and cutting tool [...]

It's all about throughput--how quickly a workpiece moves through a process, and how quickly a part moves through the factory from start to finish. Factory throughput, of course. is ultimately [...]

There are two ways to think about the value of multi-process machine tools. On one hand, they can save money by reducing the cost of workpieces currently produced in several [...]

No. 2 pencils, belt loops and peanut butter have something in common: They can all be produced more economically in the United States thanks to the work of Carbide Products, [...]

'A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.' This ancient Chinese proverb is good to keep in mind when thinking about how a factory begins to move [...]

Tough competition from low-wage countries; the outsourcing trend; high taxes; costly compliance with regulations; the indifference of elected officials; a shortage of skilled workers; difficulty attracting young people to the [...]

Competitiveness has an 'inside' and 'outside' aspect. On the inside, Hanel Corporation has the look of a lean but flexible parts manufacturer. It seeks out waste and drives it down [...]

What do CNC programmers do? Chiefly, they make sure that the part program will be executed by the machine tool successfully to make a good part. They apply their knowledge [...]

Earlier this year, Iscar, the cutting tool manufacturer (U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Texas), brought together its North American dealers and many customers for a seminar called 'Iscar Upgrade.' At this [...]

At their best, industry standards promote progress and deliver benefits. Good standards are welcomed. They make a positive difference to all interested parties. A new set of standards for lathe [...]

To go from milling machine to mold press to perfect molded part with the first shot is the dream of many mold shops. 'There's no reason a mold shop can't [...]

Few segments of the metalworking industry are as dynamic as mold making, so scanning the horizon for emerging technologies and innovative concepts is a necessary part of staying ahead for [...]

'Shut up and make the part.' These are words that Aaron Krieger uses to describe the attitude of many customers when he started Krieger Machine Company 24 years ago in [...]

How does the JIMTOF experience compare to that of the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), North America's premier machine tool and manufacturing technology show, which took place just 2 months [...]

Beautiful or ugly? It's how you look at it, of course. Some would say that the objects on the cart shown in Figure 1 are hardly things of beauty. The [...]

Attendance was good, activity was brisk and optimism was high. These were welcome changes from the previous show. Numbers from the AMT-The Association for Manufacturing Technology tell part of the [...]

Pictures can lead us to understanding. Consider the dramatic images Michelangelo created on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The climactic events of man's creation, fall and redemption are depicted [...]

'Can you machine natural coral?' That's one of the more unusual questions asked recently of Tanya DiSalvo, operations manager of Criterion Tool & Die, a 22-person precision job shop in [...]

A lathe chuck should hold your part, not hold you back. J. C. Holleran, a manufacturing engineer at The Hilliard Corporation in Elmira, New York, was confronted with a situation [...]

Oil wells use lots of pumps. At almost every step in drilling or operating an oil well, pumps are needed to get various materials in and out of the ground. [...]

Crushing chest pains. Shortness of breath. Dizziness. Nausea. We all know the classic warning signs of a heart attack. Most of us also know that obesity, high cholesterol and inactivity [...]

Factories full of multi-spindle gantry mills used to be one of the main characteristics of the aerospace industry. These machines were busy cutting three, four or five aluminum parts at [...]

Almost everyone who visits TNT EDM, a job shop in Plymouth, Michigan, remarks about its unusual decor. With natural wood trim around the doorways, polished granite flooring in hallways, concealed [...]

What is 5S? It's a list of words, all starting with S, that describes a method of organizing a workplace. Not everyone agrees on the same five words, however, so [...]

Strong participation by attendees and exhibitors at the recent EMO in Milan gave cautious optimism that 2004 is going to be better for manufacturing. Interest and innovation ran high, indicating [...]

What do you call them? Some of the names are tombstones, pedestal-type fixtures, tooling towers, tooling columns and fixture blocks. All are uptight fabrications with two to six or more [...]

The right tactics win a battle. The right strategy wins a war. For many shops, speed is a matter of both tactics and strategy. High speed machining is a prime [...]

A plain wooden pallet, its slats weather-beaten and gray, glides silently forward, empty. As it moves across the rollered conveyor, it passes underneath a steel track about 3 feet off [...]

In 1997, D & G Machine Products was at a crossroads. For some time, the company had been producing a critical part for one of its best customers. Now this [...]

'People's lives are at stake in everything we do,' says Don Garrity, founder and CEO of Garrity Tool Co. in Indianapolis, Indiana. This 20-person job shop specializes in close tolerance [...]

Using electrical discharge machining (EDM) to make molds is nothing new. In fact, sinking cavities in mold blocks is one of the earliest applications of EDM. This is one of [...]

There are many good reasons to go to a major trade show such as last September's IMTS in Chicago. Shows are a great place to look for the next machine [...]

What happens when the programmer clicks the button to start generating tool paths in CAM software? Truth is, it's hard for the programmer to tell what the lines of code [...]

In the last several years, despite an uncertain and fluctuating economy, the firearms industry has remained a robust sector of U.S. manufacturing. The pace of production has encouraged the development [...]

Thread milling is an increasingly popular option for companies machining today's parts for oil, gas and petrochemical applications.Cutting tool manufacturers such as Emuge Corp. (West Boylston, Mass.) are responding with [...]

One of the highlights of BI-MU, Italy's recent biennial machine tool show, was the number of innovative machine tools (and related technology) focusing on high speed machining. The show, held [...]

Who knows the best way to drill a 0.5-inch hole in a 2-inch thick plate of D2 tool steel? Who knows the most efficient pocketing routine for milling a cavity [...]

This production cell embodies several unusual but very effective concepts for keeping process variables under control with little operator intervention. The world of gear making is used to high standards, [...]

To meet technological demands of today and tomorrow, designers and manufacturers of advanced optical components need test equipment that offers higher measurement speed, accuracy, and resolution than available from conventional [...]

CAM software companies are offering software programs that allow their users to read STEP-NC files info their existing CAM software to generate the tool path and output for specific CNC [...]