MMS Blog
ECD Grinding - A Super Solution
Add ECD to the alphabet soup of metalworking abbreviations becauseelectrochemical dressing may indeed be coming to a superabrasive grinding machine near you.
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A Shop's View Of Vertical Turning
Every metalworking application is different. The challenge for shops is matching the appropriate level of technology to the job at hand. Here's how one job shop uses its vertical turning machines to produce large, heavy and tough workpieces for gas turbine engine applications.
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This Job Shop Found Success with Swiss-Type Turning
This northern Ohio job shop is very good at making parts on Swiss-type machines. It's evolved the business from manual engine lathes to lights-out manufacturing. Success didn't come easily, but it has indeed come to this shop.
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Fine Wire Is Just Fine
As parts get smaller and smaller, using EDM wire as small as 0.001 inch in diameter to cut these workpieces becomes an attractive option—actually, the only option.
Read MoreScanning CMM Technology Made More Affordable
While scanning CMMs have been around awhile, they haven't become a mainstay of general production mainly due to cost. There's little question as to the value that scanning can provide. Conventional CMM workpiece measuring processes are limited by the number of points that can be collected and analyzed in a reasonably time-efficient manner. Thus, point-by-point inspection in essence provides a spot check confirmation of certain workpiece features, but it can easily miss a variety of nonconforming geometry in between those checkpoints.
Read MoreBanking On A Swiss-Type
To shops used to conventional turning, the CNC Swiss-type is a strange sort of lathe. But for the right jobs, the machine is worth both the price and the learning curve.
Read MoreDelcam's Transition Reflects Trends in Tool Making
Mold and die makers familiar with Delcam, the UK-based software company probably associate that company with Duct, the CAD/CAM system for complex 3D forms. Users of Duct form an elite but loyal group. The system is difficult to master, but most who have mastered it consider it a powerful tool for die and mold production.
Read MoreDigital Power Feed Increases Mill Productivity And Lot-To-Lot Repeatability
How do you improve the performance of a manual milling machine without the expense of retrofitting a CNC? One answer is with a power feed. But as the demand for faster feed rates, smoother surface finishes and tighter tolerances has grown, the need for improved power feed technology also has grown.
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High Speed Machining: Aerospace -- Boeing's One Part Harmony
Faster, lighter cuts can let one solid part replace an assembly of hundreds of components. Better manufacturing and a better airplane both result. But before Boeing could realize these benefits, a more finely tuned process was needed.
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Doing More With More
From its founding 50 years ago, this Portland, Oregon, screw machine job shop has held fast to a philosophy of diversification. The theme carries across its equipment selections, processing decisions, personnel selection and customer base. It's an interesting example of successful application of multi-processing equipment by a multi-dimensional company.
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CNC Multispindles: Are They For You
Multispindle machines are highly complex and highly productive machine tools. Justification for their use in shops is well known. Lately, however, successful integration of multispindle CNC is changing the justification equation for shops currently using CNC single spindles.
Read MoreExtending CAD/CAM Associativity To Suppliers
Many product manufacturers today are asking for suppliers' help in cutting costs and shortening the product development cycle. These companies know that someone intricately familiar with the machining process can evaluate a product design to minimize manufacturing costs in ways that a designer may not. In return, the supplier benefits from more business, greater profits and a competitive edge.
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