VIDEO: Swiss Shop’s Choice of Collets Facilitates Backworking
By: Lori Beckman
This Swiss shop discovered workholding collets that satisfy the needs of its very small, delicate and complex medical parts production on the subspindle, making once impossible processes not only doable but more efficient and esthetically pleasing.
Cobot Gripper Considerations
Edited by Derek Korn
There are a variety of ways for collaborative robots to pick up and hold parts and materials. Here are four.
#techbrief
Maximizing Output: 3 Ratios to Maximize Production Revenue
By: Miles Free
Revenue is generated by machines that are running. Use these three ratios to ensure your machines are running at an optimal level.
#pmpa
Attracting Shopfloor Talent: Four Questions to Ask Yourself
By: Derek Korn
Here is food for thought to perhaps better pique the interest of young job seekers in joining your manufacturing company.
#columns #workforcedevelopment
Air-Actuated Back-Spotfacing is Now an Option
By: Lori Beckman
A coolant-actuated, back-spotfacing tool design is now available in an air-actuated version for machines that don’t offer through-tool coolant delivery or parts that can’t be machined using coolant.
#techbrief
Five-Axis Fixturing Fun
By: Derek Korn
This shop creates intricate fixtures — some of which it has given interesting names — for very complex jobs and high-volume work on five-axis machining equipment.
CAD/CAM’s Role in How Machine Shop Benefits from its First Swiss-Type
By: Lori Beckman
This manufacturer of high-end RC cars leverages the capabilities of its CAD/CAM software to get the most out of its first Swiss-type lathe even when job batch sizes are relatively low.
Gardner-PMPA Partnership Continues to Reap Dividends
By: Aneesa Muthana, President, PMPA
“Better Together” has proven as true of PMPA’s partnership with Gardner as found to be with PMPA members.
Craftsman Cribsheet No. 110: PMPA Speaking of Precision Podcasts — Safety and Regulatory
By: Miles Free
PMPA offers daily access to a full range of programs and services — including podcasts covering a wide range of safety and regulatory issues — all designed to help members meet operational challenges and focus on new business opportunities.
#pmpa
VIDEO: A Unique Innovation Keeps the Wheels Turning
By: Lori Beckman
A problem with a bicycle’s two-piece bottom bracket design spurred action from two friends that led to not only a simple solution but to a business venture with in-house machining capability that has become an international supplier to high-end bike manufacturers.
#horizontal-and-vertical-lathes
Adaptive Machining: The Last Puzzle Piece for Automated Production?
By: Derek Korn
Automatically monitoring and adjusting cutting parameters inside a machine while checking for tool wear is just as important to establishing a reliable lights-out machining process as having a robot outside the machine.
#Industry40
6 Tips to Financially Protect Your Manufacturing Business
By: Steve Severaid, President, The Greenspan Co./Adjusters International
Disaster-proof your business with these insurance tips.
#columns
Is Data Driving the Decisions You Make in Your Shop?
By: Derek Korn
Collecting and using data enables shops to make more informed decisions on the shop floor as well as help automate processes. But don’t forget about the “data” stored in the minds of your top employees.
#Industry40 #columns
Strategy and Teamwork: Better Together
By: Carli Kistler-Miller
A company can have a strategy. A company culture can promote teamwork. Put those two together and you get results.
#pmpa
Manufacturing Tech. Classroom of the Future
By: Lori Beckman
Interactive exhibits in the Smartforce Student Summit demonstrate smart, digital manufacturing technologies (Industry 4.0): additive manufacturing, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), automation and robotics, digital twin, generative design, and more.
Precision Machining Technology Review September 2022: Cutting Tools
Edited by Angela Osborne
Production Machining showcases some of the latest cutting tools, including technology from Heule Precision Tools, Horn, Ceratizit, Ingersoll Cutting Tools, Schwanog and Walter.
Gardner Business Index: Precision Machining August 2022
By: Jan Schafer
Precision Machining saw another slowing of GBI growth in August, the magnitude of deceleration smaller than July’s, which was smaller than June’s.
#columns
Beards of IMTS - Amazing Feats of Beard Engineering
Manufacturers are a multi-talented bunch, but who knew so many were adept in the facial hair industry? Check out the best of the beards at IMTS!
5 High-Volume Machining Trends at IMTS 2022
By: Derek Korn
Manufacturing businesses that machine parts in high volume are looking to new technology — hardware and software — to become more competitive.
#imts
Heule Precision Tools Celebrates 60th Anniversary
By: Lori Beckman
Booth visitors enjoy giveaways, meeting company owners from Switzerland and more.
