Articles
Automation In A Production Shop
Production turning automation is the beneficiary of increasingly powerful design and application tools. This makes it much easier to create automation that fits the application.
Read MoreMember Profile: Smith & Richardson
Smith & Richardson Inc. is a provider of chaplets for the metal casting industry and a manufacturer of precision machined parts. Founded in 1921, the ISO-9002-certified company got into the machined parts business in 1986 when it purchased one of its suppliers, a small screw machine company.
Read MoreTwo Plans Are Better Than One
In recent years, with the introduction of Qualified High-Deductible Health Plans (QHDHPs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), business owners have more tax-saving options in health insurance. While you may need to offer employees a traditional health plan with lower deductibles as an employee retention strategy, you may also benefit from the tax-free accumulation of funds in a health savings account. So, how can you get the best of both worlds?
Read MoreYou Now Have Plans For October 17-21: PMPA's 75th Anniversary
The Precision Machined Products Association will celebrate its 75th Anniversary Annual Meeting at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa in Waikoloa (The Big Island), Hawaii. At this special event, from October 17 through 21, we will take time to remember the past and celebrate the future of PMPA and the precision machined products industry.
Read MorePersonal Protective Equipment And The Precision Machining Industry
If the OSHA inspector arrived today, would your system provide documented evidence of training, enforcement and retraining?
Read MoreWill You Be Competitive?
Knowing who your customers are is an important and complex issue that deserves more than a single bullet-point in a column, because how you approach this one issue can determine your company’s competitiveness, growth and profitability—well into the future. To navigate the long-range waters to a healthy future, consider these issues:
Read MoreFast Prototype To Production
When a shop designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of high-accuracy, high-volume components, it must depend on high-speed machining capabilities incorporated in its machines’ CAD/CAM software. Oscor Inc.
Read MoreReestablishing A Name In Bar Feeders
To keep its well known line at the forefront of the minds of those in the market for a bar feeder, this company completely redesigned its product. Features such as a see-through cover and Direct Connect programming through the machine tool's CNC demonstrate the results of this focused effort.
Read More“Value Added” — The Key To Profitability
So what is “value added” and how do we know what is adding value versus adding costs?
Read MoreShop Sticks With Stick Tooling
Who says we can’t be competitive on simple parts? The secret for making it happen at one Connecticut shop is the combination of modern CNC Swiss-type machines and good old-fashioned “stick” tooling.
Read MoreVertical Turning Upside Down
Using the main spindle for double-duty machining and workpiece load/unload makes sense. It’s a simple idea that has grown in sophistication from turning to multitasking. This article looks at the state of the art using inverted vertical turning for precision volume production.
Read MoreWork Flow Boosts With CMM Upgrade
This shop knew that it needed to upgrade its CMM capabilities. It was going to take a couple of DCC CMM machines with varying work envelopes and a common comprehensive software package that the technicians as well as machine operators could easily be trained on. The company initially made some inquires with CMM manufacturers, and Xspect Solutions, the North American representatives for Wenzel CMMs, was the first company to respond.
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