September 2010 News

Company Endows Chair in Production Engineering at University

Machine tool manufacturer MAG Industrial Automation Systems is to endow a chair in production engineering at Tongji University’s Chinese-German College for Postgraduate Studies (CDHK), in Shanghai. The endowment is being made as part of the German-Chinese Year of Science and Education. The official foundation charter was signed by MAG Chairman Professor Dr. Jürgen Fleischer during a visit by Germany´s Federal Minister of Education and Research Dr. Annette Schavan. The wbk Institute of Production Science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology will provide support for the chair in its capacity as a cooperating college. Federal Minister Schavan stressed the importance of cooperation between universities and industry in both countries. “Enterprises like MAG demonstrate that the Chinese market offers major growth opportunities for German machine tool manufacturers, as well as various possibilities for cooperation from which both sides can benefit.” The newly endowed chair in production engineering will strengthen the exchange of scientific know-how between China and Germany and promote the joint education of highly-qualified experts, providing an important basis for successful economic cooperation between China and Germany.

Autodesk Certifies 32- and 64-Bit Software

Gibbs and Associates’ GibbsCAM 2010, in both 32- and 64-bit versions, has been certified for Autodesk Inventor 2011 Digital Prototyping software under the Autodesk Inventor Certified Application Program. Certification is granted only after a product has been thoroughly tested by Autodesk to ensure it meets Autodesk’s guidelines and testing criteria, including proof that the product is based on the Autodesk Inventor API (application programming interface). Certification demonstrates that the product is of high quality and up to date and that it provides the highest level of interoperability with Autodesk Inventor software.

Workholding Company Celebrates 50th Anniversary

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the Kurt AngLock vise and Kurt Industrial Products. It all began with one vise model—the D60.
For its 50th anniversary, the company is displaying a special logo labeled the Kurt “360° Product Advantage.” The logo represents the hundreds of Kurt workholding product options.

New GM Appointed

Andy Woodward is the new general manager of North American operations for Wenzel/Xspect Solutions, subsidiary of Wenzel Group GmbH. Mr. Woodward comes to Wenzel/Xspect Solutions from the U.K. where for the past 8 years he had been managing director for Wenzel’s U.K. operations. For 15 years prior to that time, Mr. Woodward worked for Hexagon Metrology Inc. in various engineering and general management positions at Hexagon’s DEA and Brown & Sharpe operations in the U.K.

Canadian/North American Team Expands

Aaron Kennette has joined the Technical Support group at Delcam based in Windsor, Ontario, and John Sare is joining the Toronto Sales group covering Central and Northern Ontario. Mr. Kennette has spent the past 12 years running a variety of three-, five- and six-axis machine tools to machine highly complex molds for the plastic industry. John Sare is joining the Sales group covering central and northern Ontario. He has spent 29 years in the manufacturing industry—the last 10 years have been managing sales channels in Europe for GibbsCAM and subsequently Delcam. Mr. Sare brings a wealth of knowledge of global manufac-turing to the team.

New Star SU Agent for U.S. and Canada

A cooperation agreement has been reached between Galdabini and Star SU for sale and after-sales service of manual and automatic straightening machines. This agreement is the result of Galdabini’s wish to provide the North American market with a more efficient and local support and assistance system in an effort to strengthen the long term partnership with its customers. Galdabini is a manufacturer of straightening machines with factories in Switzerland and Italy. All sales, sales engineering, sales and marketing administration, direct sales force human resources, sales, information technology, and sales distribution for North America are merged into a single enterprise managed by an executive committee made up of the senior management of the companies.

Mazak Names New Customer Finance Manager
 

Mazak Canada has announced the appointment of Charles Attard to the position of customer finance manager. He is responsible for aiding customers in arranging financ-ing for new machine investments. Throughout the course of a 30-year career, Mr. Attard has held a variety of positions within the financial industry. Most recently, he was responsible for operation of another major machine tool builder’s financing program for Canada.

New National Service Manager

Sodick Inc. has announced the appointment of Ramiro Perucho as national service manager. He has worked in the machine tool industry for more than 12 years and has a vast amount of knowledge in EDM machining. Mr. Perucho started at Sodick as a service engi-neer, and worked in this position for 2 years. After that, he was the assistant service manager for another 2 years. He then gained his own territory and became the Midwest service manager for 8 years. Recently, he was promoted to national service manager.