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It’s a Small World

Anyone who is old enough to remember Motorola’s first commercialized cell phone (affectionately called the “brick”) realizes that miniaturization is an ongoing trend in electronics and many other manufacturing segments. The micro-machining bandwagon has left the station and many precision machined parts makers are searching for a seat.

Production Machining and its online component, PM Online, now have a resource for shops looking to learn more about micro-machining. We added a zone to our Web site that focuses on micro-machining processes and applications from the PM archives and our sister publication, Modern Machine Shop.

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Winning Bids with In-House Broaching

Rotary broaching allows hex, spline or other shapes to be quickly and efficiently machined on the ID or OD of a part. Either the holder or the part can be rotating, so the procedure is effective on lathes and screw machines or in machining centers.      

Currently the defense industry is still in a growth pattern, and rotary broaching can be a ticket for some defense contractors to win a bigger piece of the pie. The Army, Navy, Air Force and many other government agencies consume vast quantities of parts every day. They are looking for manufacturers who can machine high quality parts quickly, inexpensively and accurately. Many of these military fasteners and defense parts have ID or OD hexes, double hexes or other shapes that cannot be machined quickly (if at all) using conventional tooling. READ MORE

Linear Motors: Practical for Your Shop?

For those of you still using a rotary motor with ball or roller screws or belts and pulleys to actuate the moving components on a machine tool, is this still the most efficient method for these applications? I ask because linear motors have not only become more practical for many industry applications in the last decade, but more affordable as well. Linear motors can offer distinct advantages compared with conventional systems, such as very high and very low speeds, high acceleration, virtually no maintenance and high accuracy without backlash. Achieving linear motion with a motor that doesn’t require gears, couplings or pulleys is logical for many applications where such components can diminish performance and reduce the life of a machine.

In a rotary motor, the two primary components are the rotor and stator. Linear motors use these same components, except their relative positions are in a line versus a circle. Think of taking a rotary motor and laying it flat. READ MORE