September 2007 Issue
September 2007
Features
Featured articles from the latest issue of Modern Machine Shop
Machine Tools Used As Dedicated Equipment…For A Little While
Two keys to this shop’s success are versatility and speed. It uses flexible machining centers, rather than dedicated equipment, and constantly reconfigures them into new cells for new jobs. The speed at which it can do this, in addition to in-house tombstone manufacturing capability, provides the nimbleness to quickly respond to its customers’ needs.
Read MoreWhen Four Spindles Make Sense
For the right applications, four-spindle CNC chuckers offer practically zero delay for part loading. That’s because two spindles can be loaded while the other two are making chips.
Read MoreWhere Is Your Wiggle Room?
"Lights out" doesn’t require an intense commitment. This job shop achieves flexible unattended machining when it needs it using palletized HMCs.
Read MoreHow CNC Led To Cells
Bringing CNC into a previously manual process set this shop on a lean path that has led to continuous flow production.
Read MoreDouble-Sided Productivity
Having a bar feeder on one side and a parts carrousel on the other side ensures that a turn-mill machine will achieve maximum productivity, whether the workpieces are mostly milled or mostly turned. In general, smaller parts are machined from bar stock, even if only milling operations are involved. Larger parts are loaded an unloaded by a transfer device fed by the carrousel.
Read MoreBecoming More Than The Mom & Pop Race Shop
Carney Custom Machining started with a VMC and customer base largely comprised of drag racers. Now the shop is vying to win work from other sources, and CNC turning is a big part of that strategy.
Read MoreA Machine Tool Show In Moscow
The market for metalworking equipment in Russia is enticing but complex.
Read MoreMicro "Turning" Using Wire EDM
A high speed rotary spindle allows a wire EDM unit to turn round parts with diameters as small as 0.002 inches to a finish of 0.2 Ra while maintaining accurate concentricity.
Read MoreIndian Manufacturing: A View From The Shop Floor
A recent visit to Indian metalworking shops reveals a nation poised to elevate its position in global manufacturing.
Read MoreMore Turrets, More Tools, Less Cycle Time
On this model, the builder is arranging spindles and tool turrets to reduce cycle time, although flexibility stands to gain as well. The result, the company says, is a turn-mill that can offer cycle times comparable to those acheived on a multi-spindle automatic.
Read MoreRAMTIC System Still Ticking
When it first appeared in the early 1990s, RAMTIC (Renishaw’s Automated Milling, Turning and Inspection Center) pioneered the use of portable carrousels for palletized workpieces and the use of artifacts, or master components, by which a machine tool could check its own dimensional calibration. This innovative approach to process control is still highly effective as applied in the company’s most advanced machine shop, which opened in 2006. Carrousels and artifacts are very much a part of this new shop’s remarkable success.
Read MoreCultivating Metalworking Technology's Next Users
An educator from a successful vocational high school describes what manufacturers can do to help institutions like his provide capable talent to industry.
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