Keeping Watch on Small Parts
From watch parts to exotic medical applications, this shop takes on the world of micromachining.
A Big-Picture View of Micromachining
Matrix Tooling makes injection molds for components that have features you cannot see.
Targeted Five-Axis Machining
Focusing on a particular part size range allows this shop to use a versatile type of five-axis machine tool. Five-axis machining now makes up 40 percent of the shop’s business.
Small Engine Precision Fuels Fifth-Axis Production Workholding Concept
The challenge holding tight tolerances for its billet RC helicopter engine components drove this company to develop an innovative fifth-axis tombstone device to complete multiple parts on an HMC in one setup.
Which Five-Axis Machine for Mold Makers?
This Chicago-area mold shop compares tilting-spindle and tilting-table five-axis machines.
How Micromachining Patience Speeds Prototype Production
A molder of tiny, silicone components for the medical industry explains how a patient, conservative approach to micromachining enables it to deliver prototypes faster.
What Makes for an Effective, Production-Oriented VMC?
Extended VMC cycle times due to modest spindle performance and slow non-cutting functions can increase costs for high-volume applications. However, new VMC offerings can minimize cycle times while maximizing competitiveness for production work.
Otherworldly Precision
A contract shop produces critical parts for the Curiosity rover that will soon depart for Mars.
A Model Machine for Titanium
Researchers develop a machine tool that controls vibration to mill titanium more productively. The machine relies on guideway systems delivering stiffness that is literally infinite.
Transforming Industrial Robots into Precision Machine Tools
Robots fitted with an adaptive control system get real-time course corrections throughout the machining cycle.
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