Use Us as a Resource

As I sat down to write my feature on Kadon Precision, it occurred to me that this shop’s growth strategy well represents what I’ve seen and heard industry-wide. By broadening its capability first in screw machining and then into CNC milling and turning, Swiss-type production and inverted vertical turning, this job shop has been able to attract additional work each step of the way.

More and more shops are looking to do more for the precious customers they have, and this sometimes involves moving the business out of its comfort zone. Kadon relishes this challenge and sees it as the future. I think many of you are in a similar mindset.

It also occurred to me that, as a reader of Production Machining, you may not be aware of some of the other publication topics that PM’s parent company, Gardner Publications, has available to help you research new markets and technologies. Our business, like yours, has had to evolve into new areas—some of which may pique your research curiosity.

Following is a list of these magazines and their Web sites, along with a brief description of the editorial focus for each. Some may be of interest, some not so much. However, as a qualified subscriber of PM, you can receive any and all of these magazines that strike your fancy.

Modern Machine Shop (www.mmsonline.com): Probably already on your desk, since 1928, this magazine has been the gold standard for general metalworking manufacturing.

Products Finishing (www.pfonline.com): This is the magazine your platers, painters and other post-process vendors subscribe to. If you’re doing product finishing in-house, you may already know this book. It is comprehensive in covering this market segment.

Process Cleaning (www.processcleaning.com): Getting parts clean and doing it green are among the many headaches faced by machine shops. PC covers the technology and trends in this moving target of a market. Look here for products, processes and pitfalls to deal with cleanliness standards.

Continuity Insights (www.continuityinsights.com): What happens when a business meets catastrophe—flood, fire, cyber attack, data loss, and so on? This magazine helps plan for the worst, so its impact can be minimized. It’s about insuring a business’s integrity, availability resilience and security.

Time Compression Technology (www.timecompression.com): Product development is on an ever foreshortened course. This publication and its Web site focus on helping companies get their products to market faster.

High-Performance Composites (www.compositesworld.com): This publication covers the design and manufacture of advanced composite materials. It uses a technical approach to complex principles governing continuous fiber for highly loaded structures.

Composites Technology (www.compositesworld.com): Manufacturers and processors of fiberglass and similar fiber-reinforced polymer products look to CT for technical products and processes relating to these materials.

Moldmaking Technology (www.moldmakingtechnology.com): This magazine offers its readers comprehensive coverage of the moldmaking industry, including design, building and managing the business of making molds.

Plastics Technology (www.ptonline.com): Pick the plastics process—injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, thermoforming or compounding—and PT offers product and process insights for each.

Automotive Design & Production (www.autofieldguide.com): From the CAD terminal to the line, this magazine looks at the auto industry with an eye on what it takes to make our cars. 