PM Blog
You 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 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 MoreEfficiency Hits Home Like A Ton Of Briquettes
As a manufacturer of aluminum extrusions offering a range of fabrication and machining processes for aluminum-based products, the company is now turning its aluminum chips and scrap into briquettes, thanks to a new chip handling system that includes the FastPac Briquetter compacting unit from Mayfran International.
Read MoreInsights Into Vision Systems
Can you assemble an inexpensive vision system for use on precision machine products? Yes, but with limitations.
Read MoreBar Feeders And Workpiece Surface Finish
Quality surface finish of a part is not only dependent on the turning machine itself, but also on the barstock loading and support system. The bar feed system becomes critical to the surface finish outcome by enabling the turning machine to create the desired finish and/or by protecting the existing finish.
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.
Read MoreMaterial Impacts On The Precision Machining Industry - Feb. 2008
Despite locally soft demand, ongoing price increases here in North America are the result of increased consumption of copper, steel, stainless steel and aluminum per capita globally. Price increases in cold finished steel bars have been announced for April, and higher surcharges are forecast for stainless steel in March. Click here to read the complete Materials Impact Report (PDF format): Materials Impacts On The Precision Machining Industry - Feb 2008
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