PM Blog

From the perspective of a job shop, the stability of workflow coming into a captive shop seems enviable. As we see in this story, Captive Shop Must Still Compete, that’s not always the case.

In order to meet close-tolerance specifications of workpieces that must be without machining marks, most hardened parts are transferred from the lathe to the grinding machine for final machining. Grinding, however, has high tooling costs, requires refixturing of the part and relatively long processing times. As a result, hard turning is a machining method often used instead of grinding, but it also has several disadvantages, including some applications for hard-turned surfaces being limited because the workpiece ultimately ends up with a micro-thread or scroll structure.

The Robotic Industries Association (RIA) announced Esben Østergaard, co-founder and chief technology officer of Universal Robots, as the recipient of the Engelberger Robotics Award. Mr. Østergaard spearheads the development of Universal Robots’ collaborative robot arms, which has proven to be a significant technology breakthrough for the robotics community.

In the new Automotive Machining Zone on Production Machining’s website, visitors will find articles, new products, news, case studies, videos, blog posts and more that are all related to automotive machining. Numerous advanced machining technologies are being leveraged to enable automotive parts to be manufactured more effectively, either by high-production OEMs and Tier-One suppliers, aftermarket product companies, race teams and engine builders, and so on. Examples include honing, grinding, gear manufacturing, five-axis machining, robotic and transfer line automation, reverse engineering and prototyping (which might involve traditional subtractive machining or additive manufacturing/3D printing). Find out more about automotive machining in the zone.

The three-axis vertical machining center is by far the most popular machining center platform. Versatile, productive, easy to operate and relatively inexpensive, this machine is a workhorse in shops around the world.

However, as machine shops look to expand its operational capabilities to accommodate customer demands for more complex and tighter tolerance parts, the limits of three linear axes become clear. The ability to attack a workpiece at angles and use contouring without the need to remove and re-fixture the work is driving shops to look at how to get fourth- and fifth-axis capabilities on their standard VMC.