May/June 2004 ISSUE

COVER STORY

71st Annual Meeting Features Maui & More

With a range of speakers discussing issues facing the industry and unlimited networking opportunities, the 2004 PMPA annual meeting should be a priority for your company’s top management team. This year’s meeting is being held October 16-18 at the spectacular Westin Maui on Ka’anapali Beach, the island of Maui, Hawaii.

FEATURES

71st Annual Meeting Features Maui & More

Bar Processor Boosts Blank-Making Capabilities

This toll processor of steel bar is hustling to meet the growing demand for 'first operation' blanks.

Bolt On Deburring

Burrs are a nemesis for most metalworking shops. And cross-hole burrs are among the worst cases that shops encounter. For most applications, deburring must be done off-line as a secondary operation.

Challenges Facing The Precision Machined Products Industry

It is impossible to ignore the current perfect storm of extreme pricing escalation for raw materials versus the multi-year fixed price contracts we have for our products. (Does anybody know the surcharge du jour?)

EDM Fits Form Toolmaker To A "T"

When recession hits in the form tool industry, 'You’ve got to get busy living, or get busy dying,' as a character in the movie The Shawshank Redemption puts it. The need for flexibility and quick reaction times to meet customer demands is never greater.

Parts Cleaning

Fixed Abrasives Take Lapping Into Another Dimension

Many companies have discovered the benefits of replacing their traditional flat-lapping operations with a newer technology called flathoning—a process commonly known as clean lapping.

Founding Fathers: A Father’s Day Greeting For Our Industry

While the official title of Sunday, June 20th is “Father’s Day,” I can’t help but be appreciative of the many bosses, supervisors and executives I’ve worked for that made a difference in my career by their mentoring or example.

Machines

Military Supplier Delivers On Spec, On Time

When your only product is socket set screws and your primary customers are the demanding aerospace and military markets, quality and uptime are paramount. Your multi-spindle machines need to be reliable and easily reconfigured to produce a new part at a moment’s notice.

Online Training For Shopfloor Personnel

The real problem is, most of us don’t have the experience, resources or acumen to effectively deliver and administrate an effective training program across an enterprise. Have you visited Tooling U lately (www.toolingu.com)? Tooling U (short for Tooling University) was founded a few short years ago and since that time has grown gradually, methodically and quite effectively into several disciplines and topics of training relevant in today’s manufacturing environment.

PMPA Joins OSHA To Defeat MWF Lawsuit

On March 22, 2004, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia refused to order the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to promulgate a health standard regulating worker exposure to metalworking fluid (MWF) mists. The suit had been brought by the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the United Steelworkers unions. In a strange turn of events, the Precision Machined Products Association found itself on OSHA’s side in this legal action.

Transfer Machines