Okuma America Corporation

Machine tool builder Okuma America (Charlotte, North Carolina) and distributor Hartwig (St. Louis, Missouri) will provide machine tool equipment to Davis Applied Technology College (DATC) for use in its Machine Tool Technology Program.

A manufacturer that aims to expand its workforce, without a high risk of layoffs later, sees pallet cells that can run through the night as being key to this goal.

While aluminum molds are commonly used to create prototypes or to serve as stopgap bridge tooling, they are starting to receive greater attention for production work. This shop’s approach to creating aluminum molds in one day to three weeks is the same for each of these situations.

Okuma America (Charlotte, North Carolina) has opened two new Technical Centers, located in Houston, Texas and Roselle, Illinois, respectively. The company and distributor Hartwig will celebrate the grand opening of Okuma’s Technical Center in Houston, Texas with a ribbon cutting ceremony and three days of machining and productivity seminars November 10 through 12.

Okuma Corporation’s board of directors has approved the promotion of Takeshi (Tad) Yamamoto to chairman and CEO of Okuma America, a position that has been vacant since Kirk Kitagawa returned to Okuma Corporation Japan (Nagoya, Japan) in 2008. Mr.

Here is one custom machine builder’s system for producing a 40-foot part that has to be passed through the turning center and out the other side. INCLUDES VIDEO.

The second annual Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) integration and interoperability symposium is quickly approaching. The event, hosted by Okuma America Corporation, is scheduled for December 3-4 at the Partners In Thinc facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. The keynote speaker is SAP’s Vivek Bapat, who is also the co-author of “In Pursuit of the Perfect Plant.

Okuma America Corporation and Partners and Thinc say a recent agreement with Sap America, Inc. will allow manufacturers to link the front office with the shop floor. The agreement merges the technology of Thinc with Sap’s Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) application to create a seamless solution for end users.

A machining cell combines lathes, a robot and a conveyor system to enable automated production of precision oil-drill couplings.

The significance of “plug-and-produce” integration for machine shops and manufacturing plants becomes clear from the perspective of an ERP software developer.

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.

A special tool performs burr removal inside the part where holes intersect.

A combination of toolholding choices lets this die shop get the most performance from its small-diameter tools.

When Briggs & Stratton decided to make the crankshaft machining lines in its Poplar Bluff plant globally competitive, it had to choose between CNC lathes and dedicated special machines for its main turning operations. The company chose the lathes.

In its toolroom, Branchline Trains takes a practical approach to machining with end mills as small as 0.005 inch in diameter.

Composites machining is dusty, messy and hard on tools. But this company accepts these difficulties, and machines the material using standard metalworking processes and equipment.

Automated gantry loaders helped this shop make the transition from job shop to product line manufacturer.

A new kind of 'automation project manager' helped this company install a roboticized machining cell, the first of several now operating in its plant.

This U.S. industrial sewing machine manufacturer is doing what it takes to stay competitive in a global marketplace.

In metalworking, a shop's move from one level of automation to the next can be a business-busting decision if badly timed. This article looks at what you should consider when taking the next step toward automating an operation.

In its desire to use new methods, the shop looked for a product that would increase tool life, improve part quality and decrease changeover time. It found the One-Touch flexible manufacturing system (FMS) from Okuma and became the first to own one.

Looking for a way to reduce process variability, speed setup, simplify your operation? Automatic measurement and machine compensation (Closed Loop Machining) may be something to consider. Here's a shop where it's making a difference.

This shop installed a bigger CMM to meet its current needs, but the software that came with it has the shop ready for what lies ahead.

This shop assembled standard machine tools and components into a process for flexible production of a series of complex hydraulic cylinder components - all machined from solid, all accurate in some dimensions to +/-0.025 mm - in quantities that can exceed 3,000 per day, using only two operators per shift to shepherd this production from bar stock to shipping container.

Two CNC lathes, with live tooling, tool monitor, and auto-load short-bar bar feeders are helping this California manufacturer compete. They've seen impressive reductions in throughput time and manufacturing costs. And, they're just getting started.

Machine tool builder Okuma America Corporation has introduced a new CNC lathe to address the growing need for a family of products suited to the needs of both first-time CNC users as well as experienced manufacturers supplying diverse industries with precision turned parts. Designated the Crown, Okuma's lathe offers a high-torque spindle motor, direct-drive headstock, servo-driven tool turret, an ergonomically-configured machine enclosure, and a compact 95. 47 by 69.

VIDEO. In a lean machining facility, grouping horizontal machining centers close together allows a small number of operators to use the machines efficiently.