Articles

Transfer Machines 11 Oct 2005

Rotary Transfer Machine’s Flexibility Spurs Shop’s Growth

Initially purchased for a high-volume job, this rotary transfer machine proves an efficient tool for short- to medium-run family-of-parts jobs as well.

15 Sep 2005

Technical Member Profile: Somma Tool

Somma Tool Company, Inc. offers a full line of tooling for screw machines, lathes and CNC machines. With 30 employees at its 28,000-square-foot facility in Waterbury, Connecticut, the company specializes in manufacturing cutting tools, holders and precision machining accessories.

15 Sep 2005

Career In The Precision Machining Industry: What's In It For You

Ready employment. There are real jobs available in the precision machining industry. I read the classified advertising sections in the Sunday newspapers every week.

Basics 15 Sep 2005

Online Training--A Lesson In Reality

As machines become more complex, training becomes an even greater issue. Regardless of what machine features attract a customer, if the operator does not learn how to take advantage of these features, the machine can quickly become a white elephant.

Basics 15 Sep 2005

Quality's Role In Achieving The Goal

Eliyahu M. Goldratt's books, "The Goal" and "The Race" provide a clear approach on how to improve a manufacturing process.

15 Sep 2005

Rotary Sawing Takes A Turn In Cutoff Operations

Although Rotary Saw Cutting (RSC) has been used in cutoff operations since the 1940s, the process is still relatively unknown. However, Watkins Manufacturing Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio) is looking to enlighten more shops by showing them the benefits of their RSC systems known as SAW-lution Systems.

Bar Feeders 14 Sep 2005

Workholding Advantages Of Barstock

Barstock is versatile raw material. It’s easily held, easily fed and has significant capacity for many parts per bar. Usually we think of barstock and bar feeders in relation to turning machines. What about applying the advantages of automatically fed barstock to a vertical machining center?

CAD/CAM 14 Sep 2005

Shop Jumps Into CNC Machining

Although this shop was already established and highly successful, it recently decided to make the "jump" into CNC machines, acquiring three new machines.

Single & Multi-Spindles 14 Sep 2005

Changing Products With Higher Quality And Productivity

Advanced Secondaries Inc. has an unusual position in the marketplace. By making specials from standard screw machine parts or cold-headed parts for the past 30 years, this company has found its comfortable niche.

18 Aug 2005

Web Site Leads Shop To Nearby Customers

Nebraska Machine Products (Omaha, Nebraska), established in 1966, has grown to be one of the largest screw machine shops in the state. Yet, it’s still very much a family business. Like any other job shop, the company has faced dwindling orders from a declining customer base and increased competition for the domestic work that remains. Therefore, it is preoccupied with finding new customers and has discovered that the solution is often to use nontraditional approaches to locate more markets.

18 Aug 2005

Things I Learned At Steel Success Strategies XX

I recently attended the Steel Success Strategies conference in New York City. My purpose was to find out what is going on in the world markets for our steel raw materials. The following comments were of such broad interest and applicability, I thought I’d pass them along for your review.