PMPA Tech Talks—Listen, Discover and Connect

Miles Free talks about operations at Cleveland Tech Talk.
Photo courtesy of Courtney Ortner.

PMPA’s first Tech Talk was held at Lorain County Community College (LCCC) in Elyria, Ohio. Dave Seabrook, IT manager for Micron Manufacturing Co., spoke about digital security in the age of IoT. Dave Freidman from Tornos U.S. spoke about transitioning from cam to CNC. Miles Free, PMPA’s Director of Industry Research and Technology, spoke about shop operations and metallurgy for machining. Miles and Steve Kline, chief data officer for Gardner Business Intelligence, talked about Top Shops and benchmarking for success. The talks were followed by a tour of LCCC. Here is what attendees had to say:

Michelle Reichlin
President, Contour Tool

“Miles brought a down-to-earth perspective on an overwhelming topic—regulatory safety and compliance.

“Miles’ in-depth understanding of government regulation paired with what our shops are up against to comply and still run an efficient operation made the information he shared invaluable. I look forward to having Miles in our shop to help us improve upon our knowledge and implementation of safety practices that not only serve the ‘check the box’ of compliance but ultimately make our shop a safer place to work!”

Mark Schroeder
VP of Operations, Contour Tool

“The PMPA benchmarking data has helped us to validate that some of the things we have done are correct, and to identify some weaknesses so that we can take steps to improve them.

Having the opportunity to expose our engineers to some of the knowledge that Miles has acquired over decades in the industry regarding metallurgy and how it relates to machinability will pay dividends in the future.”

Dave Seabrook
IT Manager, Micron Manufacturing

“To me, an event like the PMPA Tech Talks are a triple threat. You get the impactful sessions that you can take back and immediately use, a chance to network and discuss current business trends with industry peers, and a hands-on tour of the host’s facility.

“We toured Lorain Community College’s tech and manufacturing center. They house an impressive plethora of cutting edge equipment: 3D printers, vacuum molding, large-bed wood cutting CNCs, augmented and virtual reality labs, and a machining center that held CNC mills, welding robots and several Fanuc robots. While the equipment was impressive, the faculty and students we met were amazing.”

Courtney Ortner
Chief Marketing Officer, Absolute Machine Tools

“Absolute Machine Tools has found that there is much value in sponsoring learning events like Tech Talks. Without sponsorships, the members are unable to gather together and learn valuable information to make our industry stronger not only domestically, but globally. Members leave with more than they came with, which is always a plus. Tech Member sponsorships make the PMPA invaluable, which ultimately makes the industry more profitable and stronger.”