Late last month, I attended day one of DMG/Mori Seiki’s open house at its Deckel Maho production facility in Pfronten, Germany. That day there were more than 1,000 attendees who toured the production facility and saw the 70 machines on display (including six world premiers). There also was a wealth of automation solutions on hand, and attendees could see presentations on manufacturing topics that included automation as well as aerospace and automotive.

Check out this slideshow to see a handful of shots from the event like the one below.

Approximately 500 hours of hand scraping help the new Dixi 210 P from DMG/Mori Seiki achieve
a volumetric accuracy of 35 microns for the exact machining of large components to 8,000 kg.

Manufacturing has become more global, government regulations and reporting requirements have increased, and consumers are more cost- and quality-conscience than ever. These are some of the reasons why traceability throughout manufacturing processes has become so important, and why so many manufacturers have established formal traceability programs.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and barcode technologies are two tools that manufacturers can leverage to establish an effective traceability program. That’s because they provide direct visibility into the manufacturing process while streamlining data collection and communication. A free white paper from Balluff, which has 25 years experience in developing RFID equipment and systems, explains where these tools have had the greatest impact in terms of establishing effective traceability programs.

Click here to sign up to receive this paper.
 

At 0.7 micron in size, liquid smoke droplets are almost 30 times smaller than average mist droplets, and capturing them requires a very efficient and well-thought-out mist collecting system.

“Liquid smoke” is created by processes that heat and/or compresses fluids under high pressure, such as machining hard metals with straight-oil coolants. These processes produce a vapor that condenses back into a cloud consisting of liquid droplets measuring as small as 0.7 micron. These are smaller than droplets found in traditional machining mist, although both present health, safety and environmental risks if not properly captured.

In this article, Nick Welter, district manager for Donaldson Torit, provides three steps for developing an efficient, well-thought-out mist collecting system for liquid smoke.
 

Nikon Metrology’s entry-level MMCx80 ModelMaker scanner offers an 80-mm stripe width and gathers 800 measurement points per stripe.

Laser-scanning technology has advanced in recent years, and more manufacturers are considering retrofitting CMMs or articulated measuring arms with affordable, new laser scanners. Alex Lucas, business development manager/scanning products for Nikon Metrology Inc., says the latest laser scanning and software technology offer numerous advantages, such as larger measurement coverage, higher speed, offline reporting, quick retrofits, automation capability and scanning without part re-orientation.

To learn more, read this article, which fleshes out these advantages and highlights the many choices in CMM-based laser-scanning technology that are available.
 

You might find it helpful to download the entire survey, complete it and mail or fax it to us.

Our 2013 Top Shops benchmarking survey is live. (Click here to access the online survey and participate.) That said, you have the option of printing out the survey, completing it by hand and mailing or faxing it to us. Here’s the link to download a pdf of the survey if you’d like to do that.

Besides, the survey includes a couple open-ended questions and prompts for specific business, process and equipment information (some of which may require a bit of calculating to accurately determine), so you might find it helpful to print the survey first, anyway.

Close to 300 shops have completed the survey. But while there’s still time for you to participate, remember that the survey closes on February 15.