Sandvik Coromant recently hosted a Girls Take Over Tech open house to inspire and educate young women and girls about career opportunities in manufacturing.

Held earlier in April at Sandvik Coromant’s Center Mebane tech facility in North Carolina, the event was part of Alamance Community College’s Women in Industrial Science, Design, Engineering and Manufacturing (WISDEM) club. More than 65 students had the opportunity to interact with Sandvik Coromant experts, witness live machining and tooling demonstrations and take an educational tour of the company’s advanced manufacturing facility.

In addition to demonstrations on the shop floor, students heard from several accomplished women within Sandvik Coromant who discussed their insights and experiences. These sessions aimed to inspire and motivate the young women by providing role models and demonstrating the diverse career paths available in the manufacturing sector. Several women from Sandvik Coromant were present at the event to speak with students, including:

• Veronica Messersmith, Americas president
• Angie Long, HR manager
• Ginger Groce, production unit quality manager
• Carrie Makambi, HRBP – Americas

“It was incredibly rewarding to meet with these bright young students and share my passion for manufacturing at this open house event,” says Veronica Messersmith, Sandvik Coromant president for the Americas. “Seeing their enthusiasm and curiosity about careers in our industry filled me with hope for the future. Interacting with these motivated young women and witnessing their engagement with our team and live demonstrations was truly inspiring. Events like these play a vital role in nurturing the next generation of talented professionals who will drive innovation and progress in manufacturing.”

SMW Autoblok Group has appointed Larry Robbins as the company’s new president and CEO of its U.S. corporation.

Robbins started at the company in May 2007, and was promoted to eastern regional sales manager less than a year later. As of 2019, Robbins has occupied the position of president of Autoblok’s commercial division, where he is responsible for all strategic sales and marketing initiatives as well as overseeing the company’s North America sales team. He also oversees various projects internationally. Robbins is said to have over 35 years of experience in machine tool manufacturing.

Robbins’ first became hooked into the manufacturing industry after working in his father’s machine tool distributorship when he was young. Later, he accepted a sales position with a modular workholding company. When that business was sold, he started his own manufacturer’s rep business (for SMW Autoblok, among others), where he also created customized tooling for a wide variety of machine tool applications.

By 2007, Robbins began working at SMW Autoblok as a full-time employee and began to demonstrate his broad capabilities and understanding of the machine tool industry. With Robbins’ leadership, SMW Autoblok says it will continue to evolve the machine tool/metalworking industry, supporting all the latest developments in automation and the increased incorporation of Industry 4.0.

The Tyrolit Group is expanding its production site in Stans, Austria with an investment in a new production line that adds 1,700 square meters to the facility.

The high-tech, new production facility ensures less material wear and efficient processes when machining, pressing or loading and unloading the production units. Additionally, the company expects the new production systems to make a significant contribution to securing regional jobs.

According to the company, hard-coated brake discs, such as those found in electric cars, will soon become the standard due to a new EU regulation. Matthias Kuprian, Tyrolit board member for metal industries, explains, “The aim of the EU regulation is to reduce the fine dust pollution caused by brake abrasion. The hard-coated brake discs required for this will be ground using high-tech grinding tools specially developed by Tyrolit, which will be manufactured at Plant 5 in Stans in future.” He adds, “The expansion of Plant 5 will create space for a new, highly innovative, fully automated production line. This is our response to current developments and standards such as the Euro 7 standard, which makes new production technologies necessary and possible in order to safeguard our global competitiveness and our location in Tyrol.”

Zoller Inc.’s 2024 Open House and Technology Days has been scheduled for June 12 and 13, 2024, at the company’s North American headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The event will highlight customers who have leveraged Zoller technology to optimize their manufacturing processes and boost profits.

On both days, Zoller’s team of specialists will discuss trends, challenges and opportunities facing today’s manufacturers. A key focus, reflected in the event’s theme of “Integrate. Success.,” will be on the importance of connecting every step of the manufacturing process, from CAM to final part, along the journey to digitization.

Topics on the first day include best practices for implementing Industry 4.0 solutions, why tool management is vital for digital manufacturing and how to engage the future workforce through mentoring, apprenticeships and corporate partnerships.

The second day will dive into process improvements in inspection with topics such as parametric programming, a new OPC UA grinding interface, measurement result service, centralizing grinding wheel preparation and management, maintaining balance in grinding operations and Zoller’s Caz virtual measuring machine.

Demos of Zoller technology ranging from the company's line of presetters to advanced automation solutions like the RoboBox cell and CoraLogistic system will be presented throughout the event.

Guest speakers include:

• Tom Bassett II, owner of ProCam Services LLC in Zeeland, Michigan. Bassett will share how incorporating the Zoller Smile 420 tool presetter into the machine shop’s workflow generated an additional $1 million in sales over two years.
• Daniel Skwierczynski, manufacturing engineer at ERA Industries, will speak on why partnering with Zoller improved production efficiency for the contract manufacturer in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Experts with AMS/Janus Engineering Americas, GKN Aerospace and Powell Tool Supply Inc. will also hold breakout sessions on their collaborations with Zoller.

“At Zoller, everything revolves around the customer,” says Zoller Inc. President Alexander Zoller. “From our product development and sales process to our service model, we prioritize customer experience at every level. Events like our Open House and Technology Days celebrate the success companies achieve with Zoller and showcase how attainable those results are for shops of every size.”

(Left to right) Cornel Loghin, president, CNC Pros; Klaus Miller, vice president of sales, Absolute Machine Tools; Ray Beauregard Jr., CEO, CNC Pros.

Absolute Machine Tools has announced a new partnership with CNC Pros in Arizona and New Mexico. CNC Pros offers a broad range of CNC machine tools that are complimented by its sales team, automation department, service and applications engineers and comprehensive preventive maintenance programs. The founders of the company came together after years of working for various machine tools distributors to provide the latest advanced manufacturing solutions.

In 2023, CNC Pros opened CNC Pros Colorado, a modern technology center that combined the expertise of Hoffa Machine Company and AME Inc. Ray Beauregard Jr., owner and president of CNC Pros, says, “Our goal is for customers to understand that CNC Pros will continue to grow with them by providing high-quality CNC machine tools combined with excellent care and support. By partnering with Absolute Machine Tools, we can now provide a larger range of CNC machine tools, such as Johnford bridge mills and boring mills, You Ji vertical turning centers and lathes, APEC five-axis gantry-type machining centers, Accutex wire EDM machines, Precihole deep-hole drilling and finishing machines and production turning equipment such as Nexturn Swiss lathes and LICO multi-slide screw machines. This diverse lineup of CNC product offerings will greatly increase our ability to match our customers’ applications with the right machine, helping them to grow their productivity and businesses at the same time.”

Steve Ortner, president and CEO of Absolute Machine Tools, adds, “This new partnership allows Absolute Machine Tools and CNC Pros to better provide geographical advantages to existing and new customers in the West and Southwest. Absolute has 35 years of experience alone, so partnering with others who have been in the industry for a very long-time can do nothing else but benefit manufacturers.”

Zeiss Industrial Quality Solutions introduces its Zeiss Quality Innovation Days event, which will take place online from April 15-19, 2024. The event brings together quality and metrology experts from all over the world to take part in industry-specific sessions to gain insights into changing topics.

Lyndex-Nikken has announced a number of new appointments, including Russ Reinhart as the company’s new U.S. national sales manager; John Kusinko as the new regional sales representative in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Eastern Pennsylvania; and Luis Mejia as the new regional sales representative in Mexico.

Reinhart is said to have over three decades of experience in the metalworking industry and brings a wealth of expertise and leadership to his new role of U.S. national sales manager. Reinhart’s background in manufacturing encompasses various roles in addition to sales, including welding, machining, metal forming, engineering, project management, product management and distributor management. Early in his career, Reinhart served with distinction in the United States Marine Corps for five years of active duty, where he traveled the world and served in the 1991 Gulf War. Reinhart holds a Master of Science degree in industrial technology, with a focus on manufacturing technology, from Eastern Illinois University.

John Kusinko, regional sales representative in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Eastern Pennsylvania, has over 20 years of experience in the machine tool industry. Throughout his tenure, Kusinko has gained market knowledge in aerospace, medical, tool and die packaging, defense and job shops. Kusinko is committed to problem-solving, with a focus on addressing application-specific needs and optimizing machine and tooling solutions.

Luis Mejia, regional sales representative in Mexico, has 13 years of experience in the machine tool industry, delivering solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of customers across diverse sectors. Mejia’s experience is said to span toolholders, tool clamping devices, measuring and inspection machines, tool management software, smart cabinets and Industry 4.0 applications.

ABB has opened its re-fitted U.S. robotics headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, which will support ABB Robotics’ global leadership in developing and manufacturing robotic solutions. This is ABB’s third global robotics factory expansion in three years across China, Europe and the Americas, and is part of its efforts to further strengthen its local-for-local footprint.

With a 30% increase in facility space, the new Auburn Hills facility will enhance ABB’s ability to serve its growing customer base. Through the new Customer Experience Center, ABB will showcase its hardware and software solutions, including the latest digital and AI-powered automation technologies, as well as develop and manufacture next-generation robots.

The expanded facility will support ABB Robotics’ specialist centers, including its packaging and logistics hub in Atlanta, Georgia; its life sciences and healthcare hub at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas; and AI research lab in San Jose, California. Complete with a new training center, the facility will educate over 3,000 workers and students each year, equipping them with the skills to thrive in a new era of AI-powered automation.

“Robotics and AI are essential tools for companies in addressing critical labor shortages, localized supply chains and the need to operate more sustainably,” says Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation business area. “The advances in AI-driven software and hardware make our robots more accessible to a wider range of businesses, enabling them to increase resilience and become more competitive. America is now the world’s second largest robotics market, and our production facility will help ABB support existing customers as well as new growth sectors across the U.S. and the Americas region.”

Kennametal Inc. has joined ModuleWorks’ Strategic Partner Program, a collective commitment to driving intelligent and integrated digital manufacturing solutions. Kennametal joins a variety of industry leaders in this program, such as Mitsubishi Electric, AutoDesk, PTC and DMG Mori, among others.

Joining the Strategic Partner Program supports Kennametal’s strategic growth initiatives, especially improving service to small and medium-sized general engineering shops and building on the company’s capabilities for online tool selection, simulation and tooling packages.

Kennametal’s focus on the CAM market also addresses customer challenges, including the evolving workforce, creating a greater need for technical support helping customers machine with greater precision and efficiency while effectively reducing costs.

“This partnership combines our robust application knowledge and materials science expertise with ModuleWorks’ industry-leading software to deliver solutions that are technologically advanced and user friendly, further supporting the evolving needs of our customers,” says Sanjay Chowbey, president of metalcutting.

Yavuz Murtezaoglu, founder and managing director of ModuleWorks, adds the Strategic Partner Program “gives solution providers the software development resources they need to empower their digitalization strategies and collectively advance automation in the manufacturing industry. As a cutting tool manufacturer, Kennametal extends the variety of partners in the program, thereby further driving the digitalization initiative in the industry.”

Walter Surface Technologies has announced the acquisition of PushCorp Inc., a manufacturer of robotic end-of-arm tools for material removal applications.

With the addition of PushCorp to Walter’s portfolio, Walter aims to help customers to be more productive with robotics and automation for their material removal processes.

“We are very excited to welcome PushCorp to the Walter family. PushCorp brings to Walter its USA-made robotic equipment and force control devices that will allow us to continue to expand our solutions to help customers as they integrate automation into their manufacturing processes,” says Marc-André Aubé, CEO of Walter. “This transaction is an unequalled opportunity to position Walter as a leader in robotic and automated material removal solutions in North America as we continue to evaluate other growth strategies, namely through accretive acquisitions.”

Mike McMillen, CEO of PushCorp, says, “We saw in this opportunity the perfect alignment of both customers, products and values. We are proud to see PushCorp adding its experience and robotic solutions to Walter’s renowned and robust offering. We are confident this is a strong pathway to growth and success for our shared customers.”

Following this transaction, PushCorp will continue to operate under its own respective brands. The transaction is effective immediately, and activities for both customers and suppliers remain unchanged.