Columns
How to Certify Production at Scale With PPAP
If you demonstrate how well your machining process fits inside the tolerances, customers can stop inspecting every part and trust the process as volume increases.
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How to Take Compound Measurements With a Digital Caliper
A digital caliper’s zero function enables the user to take compound measurements, producing a result that would otherwise require arithmetic or a second tool.
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The Paper Bag and the Digital Twin
In 1936, the first Bridgeport was sketched on a paper bag in a parked truck. Three companies recently featured by Modern Machine Shop show how much of that same judgment has moved into software and automated systems. A fourth shows where it hasn't.
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Applying Master Deviation to High-Precision Gaging
Using master deviation in precision measurements requires a bit of extra diligence on the shop floor, but the payoff in data accuracy and process control is always worth the effort.
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What Closing the Information Gap Actually Looks Like
Manufacturing Connected promised to close the information gap. Now that it’s live, here’s what will determine whether it delivers on that promise.
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How Manufacturing Leaders Can Close the Information Gap
Shop owners and GMs do not need more information. They need earlier signals, clearer context and a better way to connect market movement to decisions about quoting, material, capacity and capital spending.
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How to Implement Zero-Point Workholding
The value of zero-point workholding systems is that your machine stops being tied to your setups. Once you see it that way, the day-to-day uses are easy to find.
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How to Prevent Waste With Ideal Metrology Placement
Choosing between inline, near-line and offline metrology requires a process-first approach. Ask whether the measurement is controlling the process or simply evaluating its outcome.
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Before You Automate, Learn to Stop
Better software, robots and AI raise the payoff for machine shops that have stable processes. But do they raise the cost for everyone else?
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When Size Dimensions Aren't Enough
A lot of what makes modern machining difficult isn’t whether a dimension falls within tolerance; it’s whether the shape actually works once the part is in service. That’s where contour measuring instruments comes into play.
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3 Principles to Achieve Test Cuts Worth Trusting
A test cut — justified by specific risk, designed on a clean canvas and used to confirm rather than analyze — can expose if uncommon machining traits fit your needs.
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When Buffers Do the Work and When Your Process Should
From inventory and cycle-time margins to inspection and data flow, how improved process control is changing what buffers have to carry and what happens when they’re removed too soon.
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