Chris Koepfer has been involved in metalworking for 30 years. His first 14 were in the machine tool group at Cincinnati Milacron where he honed his technical writing skills in turning, machining and grinding before joining Modern Machine Shop in 1992 as an associate editor. In 2001, he helped found MMS’ sister publication Production Machining, which speaks to the precision machined parts segment of the industry. Chris is graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, as are three of his four children, and an XU basketball fan—which can be as daunting as working in metalworking, he says.
Well, I’m on the road again—sing it for me Willie. My stalwart companions and I are schlepping across Switzerland and Germany to bring you the freshest and hottest news from Europe. As you can see from the photo below, my trusty steed, a Peugeot wagon, is carrying its weight and ours.
Our trusty steed, the Peugeot wagon.
First up on our Monday May 9th itinerary was a rush to the Zurich Airport to pick up our steed then a drive out to Rorschasherberg, Switzerland for a delightful meeting with the ever-enthusiastic Dr. Frank Brinken and his head of marketing Jurg Peters. Dr. Brinken is CEO of StarragHeckert/DST. The DST part of the company, Dorries Scharmann, which was acquired in early 2011, is on Dr. Brinken’s mind. He is working hard to blend synergies between these two famous brands, and he tells us to keep an eye out at EMO—it’s going to be good.
On the first day of the trip, we visited StarragHeckert.
Next up, was a cross-Switzerland trek to Willemin-Macodel. They make a line of bar-fed VMCs for production work in medical, aerospace, watch and many other industries. We met with the founder’s son, Patrick Haegeli, and project manager Julian Bardullas. Like Dr. Brinken, Mr. Haegeli is focused on EMO. His company has several new models to debut at at the show.
We met with Patrick Haegeli of Willemin-Macodel.
Check out the pictures above, and keep an eye out for more field reports from your editor, currently at large.
That’s how Andy Weinberg from the UCSB School of Engineering described his visit to HaasTec, which took place last week at the company’s Oxnard, California headquarters and manufacturing facility. “We were blown away by the factory,” Andy told the Haas people. “It was like going to Disneyland, but better.” HaasTec was my first visit to the Oxnard campus as well, and after seeing the place I certainly agree with Andy’s assessment.
The three-day event attracted more than 2,100 visitors and included machine demos, extensive tours of the 1,000,000-square-foot facility, and 25 vendor booths representing a “who’s who” of tooling, software, workholding and measurement equipment suppliers. An added bonus included participation from Stewart-Haas Racing, which displayed two of its race cars outside the company entrance.
In the company showroom, 20 machines were under power and cutting parts. Four of these machines were brand new for 2011, and two were large-capacity turning centers that made their public debut during the event. There was also a selection of the company’s rotary products on display.
The 2011 edition of HaasTec was the first time in nearly a decade that that the company has hosted such an expansive event. From the remarks I heard from visitors and vendors, it was a smashing success. Seeing an operation as expansive and efficient as this facility makes Andy’s Disneyland analogy spot-on.
Many shops are expanding the operations performed for their customers in order to be more valuable suppliers. And, frankly, they also want to make sure nobody else gets a foot in their customers’ doors. Some metalcutting shops even find themselves in the unfamiliar territory of metal fabrication. You know: turret punch presses, lasers and the like. Well, efficient cutting and/or punching of sheet metal requires maximizing the number of parts per sheet and minimizing the skeleton. To that end, nesting software has been developed. Planit, a leading software developer and maker of Radan, has written a white paper on the subject of modern nesting. In the spirit of “you’re never too old to learn,” read the white paper here.
Of course, much of the buzz from the theater crowd is about Oscar. That’s fine for them, but those of us involved in precision machining have a theater of our own coming in April. I’m talking about the new Technical Theater that makes its debut at the Precision Machining Technology Show (PMTS) April 19-21 in Columbus, Ohio.Check out the star-studded lineupof industry topics, experts and presentations designed to help us be more successful. Sponsored by Henning Software, the goal of the theater is to add even more value to your visit to PMTS.
An automated beer pouring device amuses this thirsty traveler in the JAL lounge at the Narita airport in Tokyo.
Automation is considered to be a good thing by most people. Even those displaced by it usually find that what they are able to do now is better than what they had to do before. Let the robot load and unload blanks on the turning center. Tool setting, programming and measurement are much more interesting and less mind-numbing than machine load/unload. Today, manufacturing is about value-add. The more value one can add, the more valuable that person is to the organization, which brings me to this video link.
I came across this in the JAL lounge at the Narita airport in Tokyo as I waited to depart for the States. My colleague, Derek Korn, shot this footage of automated beer pouring. Now, I am not a zealous advocate of spirits, but I must admit that the sheer fascination of watching this device pour a perfect pilsner time after time may have encouraged me to imbibe one or two more beverages than I planned.
To me, this is automation well applied because what results from it is a consistent, high-quality end product that I, for one, would not be able to duplicate over time. That in large part is what automation is supposed to do—make the inconsistent more consistent. At the same time, it allows the human element to pursue more gainful endeavors—like drinking beer. For more examples of well-applied automation, click here, here and here.
